A month of Dizziness, Lightheadedness, and Anxiety

Hey everyone, I have been suffering with this random rockiness and dizziness since May and have done every test in the book, I finally was referred to an ENT and took a VNG test which confirmed I am suffering from Vestibular Neuritis. I highly recommend joining us over at this FB group Vestibular Hope, It was made by a couple people who were suffering from VN and have since recovered. There are tons of people who have similar symptoms listed in this threat. . Joining this group has seriously helped me not feel alone in battling this and has given me great recommendations for what to do.   - 

 

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I’m lost and frustrated. In August, i had my first panic attack, where on a dizziness scale of 1-10 (10 being i can’t drive) i was at a 10. The panic attack was from going back to work and having to see my ex boyfriend of 4 years. My doctor gave me 0.5mg of Xanax 3x a day for two weeks and was confident i would be back to my normal self. The Xanax instantly cleared up the dizziness. 3+ months later, i am dizzy on a daily basis at about an 8 from the second i wake up to the second i go to bed. The only thing that takes it away is the Xanax. The Xanax takes my dizziness from an 8 to a 1. I’m also on latuda/seroquel (just switched to see if the dizziness would go away). It’s  so bad my psychiatrist has recommended i take a leave of absence from my job, whereas I’m suffering every day unless i take the Xanax. The thing is, currently I’m not stressed about anything that major and my anxiety isn’t crazy high either. My stress and anxiety is nothing that I shouldn’t be able to handle. I’ve seen a general doctor and neurologist and both say They can’t do anything and it’s probably my medicine. I want to trust my psychiatrist, but after 3+ months of being miserable, i don’t know what to do. I’ve had to stop playing sports, working out, going out socially, my dizziness has taken over my daily life. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated, i am worried that there is no easy answer to curing this...

It is hard to know if the anxiety causes the dizziness or the other way around and either way, they cause each other. You may want to investigate if you have a vestibular issue, inner ear problem. It can happen after a long car drive, cruise or plane trip, or after a cold, a virus can damage your inner ear even if you never felt a thing in your ear, or a silent migraine...in those cases, vestibular exercises can help the brain compensate. For anxiety, I recommend going to a psychologist who will do cognitive behavioral therapy and/or mindfulness. You can also download apps for meditation and mindfulness which helps a lot. It helps by getting rid of stress hormones released which then cause all the symptoms.

Hey there, everyone. Seems like I’m just like everyone here and wanted to share my story and get your thoughts. 

About 3 months ago my wife and I moved across the country back to my hometown after I had been gone for around 5 years. A week after we got here I got the news of my fathers passing, whom I didn’t have the greatest relationship with. My brother and I immediately went in to override planning a funeral, getting possession of his items that the bank had seized because his house had been foreclosed. In the midst of all of this my wife and I are adjusting to new jobs, new schools, new location, you name it.

After the funeral and some of the things with my dad had calmed down, I started to genuinely feel better. I knew I was sad and upset but physically and mentally I was ready to continue my life, as an exciting chapter has started.

About two months later i began experiencing some chest pressure that drove me crazy, it wasn’t painful and I could still work out, just it’s presence worried me. This drove me to the ER on two occasions. Both times they did EKGs, blood work, and x rays. I even had an echocardiogram done that came back normal. After all of this I began feeling better for a few weeks and life slowly went back to “normal”.

Then I got this slow onset of shakiness and chills most days and nights, even worse at night. I eventually lost my appetite entirely, which is still gone. I went to the doctor and they told me I was experiencing traumatic life event disorder, or something to that degree. They prescribed me Celexa and Adavan. I took the Celexa midday and adavan at night. After about three days I turned into a zombie and had less of an appetite than before. I went back in and saw another doctor who told me to stop taking the celexa as I have limited symptoms of depression. She also upped the dose of my adavan to 1mg. 

Since, I’ve had good hours and bad hours, most of the good hours come from reading forums like this one and the bad hours come from reading about what my symptoms could be - you know Dr. Google who will scare the hope right out of you. 

Anyways, I just wanted to share my story and see if anyone has any input. What freaks me out is that I was doing okay for so long. 

I’m 23 y/o prior military married with no kids. 

I have similar, I recmmend seeing a psychologist for CBT and Mindfulness alng with a medication. Im on xanax xr .5 once a day. Meditating and mindfulness helps a lot. ALso acupuncture.

hello. i suffer through the same symptoms as you, but for 4 months now.. i know that its just anxiety and i have checked my health and its everything ok. but even tho i finally know that im healthy it doesn’t get any better. i dont know what to do anymore. im really tired of this. im 19 y.o and i cant even focus on reading. i cant go out and i feel like all of this has dragged me into depression. im gonna get some psychological help in 3 days and i really hope i can get finally some help rather than “”you are ok, dont act like this! get over it!”” like its easy.  its hard af cause im fighting my own self. my own brain. its kinda like he hates me ._. meh anyway i hope that we all gonna get through this as quickly as possible and get ever stronger. 

I’ve been pretty much in and out of this kinda experience since I was 12. Started out light headed and panic attacks flung in and out. I was hospitalized and did ever test known to man which was pretty scarring and traumatic especially for a child. 

Eventually I grew out of it and lived life healthy and “normal” up until a month ago when I had my first panic attack again a month ago, on and off for about a month now. During this past month I’ve been doing a crazy amount of research both online and on myself to try to understand the causes and reasons since no doctor able to say give me any advice other than the typical “you should see a psychiatrist” which just didn’t suffice. 

First of all, I’ve come to conclude that the dizziness (from research online) was due to the excessive leftover adrenaline in the body from your previous panic attack. This will subside eventually and it would probably end faster with light exercise. 

Second, you need to relax and be able to treat yourself with relaxing experiences such as getting a few massages and rationalize this present fear of anxiety and panic attacks. 

Third, get busy with something to take your mind off of it. I can’t stress enough how much forcing myself to be at work has helped me. 

Fourth, you need to (and I can’t stress this enough) avoid stimulants; coffee, tea, and stressors. Trust me, drinking coffee at this point will trigger your dizziness and therefore anxiety/panic attack from kicking in again. Just hold off for about a month or so and test it out again later on once you’re basically back to your normal self. 

Fifth, surround yourself with people who understand your situation who support and love you. This will make you feel safe and protected. 

Finally, just always reassure yourself that it’ll pass even if it takes longer than expected... I went through this hell as a kid of only 12 with issues lasting for 4 months then trust me so can you. The more you try to live your life normally again the more everything will go back to normal. No one has ever died from a bit of anxiety and panic, so don’t be so hard on yourself. Always try to reassure yourself and don’t make it a bigger deal than it is (even if it feels like the worst s**t ever lol). Comfort and love yourself and allow your brain to restabalize itself because essentially during a panic attack your brain is going through an imaginary war and it’ll take some time afterwards for all your brain chemicals to sort itself out and come back to normal. Allow your body to heal itself that way. 

Hope my post helped anyone who’s going through this experience. 

Speedy recovery and you’ll be just fine ??????

Hey friends

Few days back i have counter my first panic attack ..i have goin through a very stressful phase in life coz of mother's health and business related stuff ..

One night i was on phone and all of sudden i started to feel so nervous likes all went empty inside me and i can only feel and hear my heart goin crazy ..i was trying to calm myself but my mind was not accepting and forcing me to believe that am having a heart attack ..

Every since my life is been sucks .. i have went to dr and done ecg and all they say is nothing wrong with my heart but only stress causing this ..

Am not able to eat peacefully cause that cause me somch burps and i feel air flow in my chest ..i am feeling very tierd and dizzy ..all tim3 i feel like i might faint but non so far ..am telling myself all time that am having anxiety and doin all heart related test to convince myself that nothing wrong with my heart ...

I live in a fear .. am having a anxiety meds but that cause me dizzy whole day and i cant focus ..

Yes i get fear of death that am gona get a heart attack soon even after dr saying all well ...

Now this anxiety causing other issues like acid reflux and my hands go swet and cold legs ...i feel lite pain on chest which goes away after burpbut still that giving me thought something wrong with my heart .. this is first time

First of all, I know this post is over a year old, but thank you for making it and thanks to everyone who has replied. I'm experiencing the same issues.  I got a panic attack almost 2 weeks ago and have been dizzy every day since. It's scared the s**t out of me.  My thoughts have ranged from "I'm anemic" to "OMG, what if I have Cancer" to "what if I never feel normal again". I even scheduled an appointment with my doctor to make sure i was ok but I still haven't received the results from my blood test yet. The worst part is that no matter how much I tell my self that it's just anxiety my brain manages to take over and I'm always thinking that something is wrong with my health.  At this point I don't even know if the dizzyness is brought on by the anxiety or if the anxiety is brought on my the dizzyness because i get anxiety about feeling dizzy. Sometimes I feel like I might even faint but as with the OPs post I can play video games and walk with no problems in my coordination. After doing a lot of reading I tried some things that seem to be helping. I downloaded an app for meditation and breathing which seems to be helping as well as some beginners yoga. I highly recommend it. I just wanted to say that you're all not alone and reading your comments makes me feel like I'm not alone as well so once again, thank you for sharing your experiences. The least we can do is provide each other with some comfort. I look forward to not being dizzy again and wish you all good luck. 

Just left the ER last night because of dizziness, lightheadedness and heavyness. Like im wearing clothing that's been dipped in water. You know the feeling when you step out of the pool. They said it was anxiety.

I find it hard to believe. I really want to go back and ask them to check my heart. Ive been looking up symptoms of heart disease. My mind has me so worried because the feeling just wont go away.