Seems everyone here talks about feeling dizzy 24/7 and after all this time I’m still not sure what “dizzy” means. I can’t remember if I’ve asked this before or if anyone else has so excuse me if I’m being repetitive but I would like to know what do you mean when you say you are dizzy?
All my life I thought dizzy and vertigo were the same, so it is hard for me to think of dizzy as anything else. It wasn’t until I was lying in the ER with the world spinning around me as I told the doctor I am dizzy and he said “dizzy or vertigo?” that I learned there was a difference.
More than anything I feel motion sick most all of the time. Is this considered dizzy? I don’t feel as if I am walking on marshmallows as some of you describe and things are generally standing still as I look at them. Does this mean I’m not dizzy? All I have to do is turn my head fast to the side and Iget a wave of motion sickness over me, or watch someone’s monitor as they scroll and I get a wave of motion sickness or have a light flicker and I get a wave of motion sickness. I honestly don’t know if this is considered “dizzy” or something else. Is there even a name for this?
By definition, dizzy includes vertigo, and vertigo is a false sensation of spinning.
Personnally, I define vertigo as any false sense of motion because I get all sorts of false motion without spinning.
Dizzy is a hard one, I’ve been working on that one for 9 1/2 years now. Because I get all sorts of false sensations of motion, I need to seperate the two, which leaves me with a whole bunch of sensations to throw into the definition. What I call dizzy is a sensation of disequalibrium, a lack of balance, a lightheaded/floating type feeling.
With what I call vertigo, I can still function, I just have to be more carefull about how I do things because I can’t tell how I am moving or the things around me are moving. With dizziness, I have to plant myself a seat or take a long nap, because I can’t stand very well and fall A LOT because I can’t tell where the ground is.
The daily dizziness is mild to moderate depending on the day, bad day, cant bend head forward without nearly falling over. I always describe the vertigo as the severe vertigo attacks as there is no mistaking them. They are so bad it is like stepping off from a fast spinning roundabout. I cannot walk in a straight line, cannot move my head fraction of an inch. I have to lay propped up on the bed for 6 to 24 hours until it subsides.
Christine
Brian and Christine, Thanks for your responses. My vertigo is more like yours Christine, can’t even move my eyes. Must stay absolutely still and usually end up in the ER (by ambulance) because it is so upsetting to me. On the other hand, I have had a couple of episodes of vertigo like you describe, Brian, Things were moving around but I was able to walk, though barely. It’s the “dizziness” definition that has me very confused.
Yesterday was a very bad day for me and I ended up taking valium which I haven’t done for 7 weeks (except for the one time I had to take it as a preventive before getting my haircut so I wouldn’t get sick as he moved my chair and made it go up and down). Yesterday it constantly felt as if I was on the verge of vertigo (as well as usual motion sick feeling but much worse than usual). Maybe that is what dizziness is.
I’ve been up since 2:30 with insomnia and fear what that will do to my day today. Too many not good things going on in my life right now.
I know others have 24/7 dizziness - what does it feel like to you?