Chronic Dizziness/Off balance feeling

Menapause*

Yes Lisa the thought has crossed my mind . I have always had anxiety and its been controlled well with medication since I was in my 20's then out of nowhere about a year ago my anxiety came back with a vengeance and shortly after is when this feeling began .....its awful!

No one warned me or told me a thing. It was post menapause..post that i was able to relate this. Thats what i get for seeing male doctors. Go on the menapause forums and peri menapause forum you'll be amazed at what you read.you are the perfect age for this right now. I will happily tell you it is going to get better. But you have to ride it out and a good idea to see your gyn and discuss it. it is extremely common. I know it common in anxiety too but its different in peri and you still have it in menapause but nothing like when it was in peri. Those hormones all changing make a mess until they start balancing out and they do. 

Did you have it all the time ? I do display a lot of peri symptoms but the doctor looked at me like I was crazy when I mentioned the off balance feeling and dismissed it . so frustrating !

A lot. Sometimes too much. During that time cholersterol went up and blood pressure was yo-yoing nothing was making sense to me.  They kept running tests. Spent two weeks at some cardio office for tions of tests due to sudden spike in cholesterol. And i told him in the stress test i could easily keep walking on the treadmill if I wasnt so damn dizzy. He just looked at me like idk why im sorry. Its the whole male gene they really are clueless. You know who put it all together. A woman psychiatrist. She said shed be the one who needs help to treat me for a condition that seemed to her to be hormonal and i was like wow i never even thought of that. Went back had hormones checked and wallah she was right only i was in menapause according to the bloodwork. Do you know how much bloodwork all these people did and no one mentioned this to me at all. Still get it at times but peri is the worst of it thats when its all going haywire inside of you. Peri also comes with chills, sweats, strange stuff..everyines different. I was aware the sweats were part of it my mother had that but no one mentioned any other symptoms to me. It will calm down alot in the future it really will.nature balances it all out later. Now that you are aware of this strong possibility yiull somehow read it everywhere and talk to other woman going thru it. Sure enough my sister started getting dizzy we are nine teen minths apart..and i was kind enough to let her know immediately why. She knows to ride it thru. Funny my mother never mentioned it either. Everyones different. But myself and my sister and one of my friends all of us had the same experience. 

Peri also heightens anxiety, but its nithing you are doing its hormonal. You need to go read these peri menapause forums i think it will all click together for you. There are options you can hormone replacements if you choose too, i didnt . I didnt want to prolong it and honestly i dont miss it haha.

Thank you for the support ! Always feels good to talk to people who don't look at you like your insane lol

Its awful and its all the time !!!! I notice when I really get freaked out about it its even worse

Same here. The minute I get scared or simply concerned about it, the dizziness intensifies. It's one of the worst symptoms in my opinion.

I totally agree. I had convinced myself I was dying of something .

I start thinking that I'm going to pass out, knock my head on something, be unconscious, and nobody will find me. Of course that has never actually happend since I was diagnosed over 20 years ago. In the moment of dizziness, I'm not remembering how those things didn't happen in all those years though.

Same here. I get scared to drive and I hate being in open spaces like the market or Walmart . I feel like it intensifies the feeling

Same thing going on here. I hardly ever drive anymore, and never go shopping alone. Years back I would have to leave the shopping cart, and get out of the store. Now I can stay and shop as long as someone is with me. Before I was diagnosed, there was one incident that was really bad. I was with my mom, sister and daughter, and we were going into a party store. I got a few feet into the store, and extreme dizziness struck. I had my sister take my daughter to look at party favors, and I ended up outside, sitting on the cement while leaning against the building. The was the absolute worst experience, and thankfully I didn't do it again. That's what started me on the path of just leaving a store.

Its horrible 24/7. I am also much more comfortable in stores if someone is with me . Its funny because I don't feel it when I drive but I'm always afraid of that "what if" something happens . Can I ask how long you have had this symptom for and is it all the time or only when you have a panic attack ?

The dizziness hit me even before I was diagnosed, and it was chalked up to little things, like maybe I didn't eat much in a couple days. When panic set in, I didn't know what it was, only knew that it made the dizziness worse. I was diagnosed at age 23, and I'm now 45, so that beast has been with me for 22 years. I do believe that I had a couple unnecessary surgeries due to anxiety related dizziness. I've had sinus problems for a long time, so dizziness fit right in with the symptoms, and I ended up having a deviated septum fix. I could breathe better, but was still getting dizzy and shaky.

I primarily get the extreme dizziness during a panic attack. If I'm only having anxiety symptoms, there's slight dizziness or a little more than slight. I usually feel a little something each day, but that's probably because I'm not on an antidepressant. When I got on Zoloft, and it was fully in my system, there was rarely any dizziness. I've been off of the med for 5 years, never told my doctor, and just went cold turkey. That was horrible. Now when I look back on those years, I can see how I was changing slowly, and not for the best. All the little things were adding up, and creating a wall around me. As an example, I had a comfort zone distance that I would drive, but that comfort zone kept getting smaller. Lots of little things stop happening slowly, so I didn't catch on. I only went off of Zoloft because I thought I could handle it myself, plus the family would give me a little flack because they either didn't need meds or were on them and able to get off. I also heard "Pull yourself up by the bootstraps" way too many times. However, the biggest reason why I wanted to come off is so I'd feel something again, because I was never happy nor sad, just there. Once off, it was so great to truly laugh hard again. Perhaps it's dose related, because my shrink said higher doses flatline your emotions. I think that's probably needed sometimes until a person is feeling a bit stronger, and can handle emotions again.

I'm considering going back on Zoloft because the last couple years have been bad, anxiety and depression are coming back hard, I did that look back and saw how I was closing myself off slowly, and since I'm 45, peri menopause should be kicking in soon, if they haven't already. I had a hysterectomy, but ovaries were left intact. From what I've read, peri menopause can start at a typical age, or up to 5 years earlier than normal. I can just imagine what a mess it will be to have anxiety, depression, and whacked out hormone symptoms all at the same time. Watch out world, the freak is off her leash! lol If I do go back on Zoloft it will be for life, because I'm tired of the rollercoaster ride. Both going on and getting off the drug is horrible, so I need to decide to completely stay off or forever stay on. I'd like to enjoy the second half of my life, but that can't be done by constantly going on and off medication.