Constant dizziness, disorientation after wearing contacts

I guess im scared because of the nortripyline...it made me feel so tired and weak and it freaked me out. I think youre right and i should try different things...yes its such a nightmare that i wish to end and im only 25. you already know how this feels like. he thinks my brain is hypersensitive to stimuli so it can be the reason. ill try the topomax for a couple weeks and see how it works and im currently at the opthamologisf office so ill let you know how that goes. ive been so stressed with everything on top of trying to have a normal life. its depressing.

i dont notice any triggers to be honest, the symtoms arrise out of no where. i can be reading a book and then bam, i feel lightheaded and weird and foggy.

i never really feel head pain or a headache? just pulling or tight sensation around my forehead sometimes near my eyes.

im in the opthamology office and out of no where got foggy 😦

see right there you say it happens when you are reading. trigger. it used to happen to me at work when i was reading. my brain was so messed up. so confused at times. you keep mentioning the pulling in your eye. that is my migraine. i get this pain, pulling, sometimes drooping or it feels like drooping in my left eye. thats the difference between migraine and headache. i think you are so hyper focused on your eyes, but what i am reading is you are getting a migraine after you begin reading. are you taking tylenol when this occurs? the norotryptiline saved me. it can make me tired. but i am not confused and dizzy anymore. now my dr and i are working on lowering the number of migraines. how long did you give the norotriptiline to kick in? they say it takes weeks for the dosage to have an impact. i know the foggy feeling. its terrifying. i dont have it anymore because of the meds. ive never taken anti depressants before. but this one saved me. i think since you have fogginess, it could help that when it occurs to write down exactly what you are feeling and what you were doing when it came on. try the other med. you have nothing to lose, but give it some time to work too. the eye pain, pulling ect really is mine. its my left eye. and i sometimes feel it drooping, but i look in the mirror and its not. also, have you been referred to a vestibular PT? this for me was so helpful before i got my proper diagnosis. ask your doctor. also, have you ever taken magnesium? i am not one to take these types of things, however magnesium really does help with migraines. remember what i said, research is now showing that vestibular migraines is the second leading cause of this nightmare, next to BPPV.

let me ask you, you say the noro made you very tired and weak? were those the only side effects? because the med does make you tired. but i also remember being tired and weak while i was sick. our brains when ill like this are working overtime. remember that. but your body does get used to the med after a few weeks ect.

well the reason im pretty focused on the eyes is because my eyes feel like its causing the sensation and everything was too timely with the contacts thing, but good thing both the optometrist and opthamologist said my eyes were healthy. the input i get from my environment is wonky through my eyes though. movement throws me off, mainly fast movement. when i was getting tested for VN, they made me do a VNG test and when an object starts moving faster my eyes cannot keep up. it becomes a blur. im not sensitive to just regular motion, im sensitive to tracking motion that moves slightly quicker. makes my eyes stress out and slight presssure can build up. so i really wanna know why that is. i think the visual issues cause my brain fog. but like you said the visual issues may be migraine. i guess i wont know for sure till i try out the medication.

for notripyline, i physically couldnt move my body. i felt like i had 50 pounds on me, zero energy. didnt feel ok till after 2pm even though i took it at 7pm. my doctor immediately took me off of it. and told me to maybe try topomax. still havent tried to topomax because im just reading into it first. but youre right i have nothing to lose.

Also i want to add in the beginning days when this all started i used to be very sensitive in grocery stores and that has passed after exposure. it used to feel like i was in a 3D alice in wonderland because objects felt slightly distorted, couldnt focus.

And let me actually correct what i meant by eye pulling, sorry. its more of a head pressure on my forehead. my eyes never felt pulling but more strained probably because of the visual input and trying to focus.

i actually finally got signed of for VRT, i start in two weeks. i was hoping to start earlier though but i guess ill have to wait. but ive been doing optokinetics on youtube? im taking magneisum citrate now about 400mg.

do you have any remaining symtoms left and what were your initial symtpms? i think once my eyes chill out and head pressure ill feel 95% better but at the moment im like at 75%

like you said grocery stores are a huge red flag for a vestibular issue. i would be semi ok, then go in to grab a couple of things, i would get dizzy, confused, anxious. brain fog. i had to stop. my vestibular PT and doctor both said, its the head movement up and down the aisle like in a zig zag or circle. i started out of nowhere with vertigo, bad, waking seeing the floor on the wall. hospitilized, dx with BPPV- severe vomiting. told i would be better by 3 weeks. i wasnt. by 2- i was back in hospital worse, MRI Catscans, blood work. told i had vestibular nueritis. told i would get better few weeks to a month. 3 months later. nope. a s****y nuero just told me i woukd be disabled forever. i knew i was misdiagnosed. i did my own research, reading stories i realized when i would get brain fog, i had a headache or migraine whatever. anyway, everytime i moved my eyes slightly, i was dizzy. i couldnt turn, bend down, talk properly, walk, had trouble bathing. couldnt tip my head slightly to wash hair. when i had the caloric testing it confirmed there was no damage to my nerve, bad diagnosis. which confirmed to my doctor that i had VM- when i started the noro, it started clearing my head almost immediately. it felt like i had brain damage and every doctor asked me if i hit my head. the one doctor who knew what was going on, the otolaryngologist, he asked me if i had each symptom, like do you have trouble in grocery stores-YES! but as my head cleared, i did realize that i was looking for tylenol and motrin alot. my mind was so messed up i didnt know. i started on 10 mg, i am now on 60mg. been on it since august. very slow increase. but every time, a symptom goes away. i have done the youtube exercises, because i have had visual vertigo. watching things move make me sick. but i am pretty much back to full life. i have traveled recently, i am working. i have my brain. and now i know when i feel that pain in my eye behind my eye to take some tylenol because a migraine is coming. now that i can recognize the symptoms i can try to stop it. but i have been told i am lucky that the first med they tried worked so well. some people need several different tries. i was so sick, i thought i was dying. i would constantly trip over my feet. i could drive my own car but could not be a passenger. i still have trouble in large crowds. noise ive noticed really bothers me. i sometimes feel my eye droop. sometimes it actually does and sometimes its just feeling it, like its just behind my eye. what if the topomax works?

I never had vertigo which is so confusing. Everyone i talk to in this VM/VN group has had vertigo so it makes me so confused. Maybe i have a mild form of it.? What do you think? Grocery stores dont trigger me at all now. I think my brain got so used to it. And head movements dont bother me either, but head pressure can be random. I also dont feel pain or anything. Just annoying on and off brain fog, consistent spaceyness, head pressure. Makes me feel sooo unorganized. During times of head pressure i feel dizzy and disoriented. Symptoms arent debilitating but quality of life isnt that good right now. Been feeling pretty depressed because of it all.

im so happy your medication worked for you! im going to try the topomax tonight...i worry for side effects but ill see how it goes

i am very lucky. but at the time i would have tried anything. i was put on steroids. i was put on antiviral meds, also antibiotics. so i am going to be direct here. i know certain people dont like taking medication. i dont either. but, had i not tried these meds, which none of them helped, i wouldnt have been researching other things. these failed meds helped me rule out the bad diagnosis'. you can worry about side effects, but it sounds like you are in a bad way health wise like i was. for me- medication was the only answer. and it has worked. you are struggling to do every day normal tasks. you are struggling to go to the store. to me- medication is the right answer. if you have VM- which a doctor told you, you did, you need it. i thank God everyday i never gave up. your brain is overthinking, in a fog, and trying to attach this to an eye problem. but what you need to understand is what you have described to me, is a migraine. give the medication a try, your doctor thinks you need it. give it time to settle your brain, its over sensitive. rest as much as possible. you mentioned that you are doing the visual vertigo on youtube. you might not be ready for this. i had been thru vestibular PT, and over 6 months of medication before my doctor told me it was time to do this. you may be causing more symptoms right now, because you havent been stabalized. i think i told you, i have read research that vestibular migraines is the second leading cause of this nightmare. you can have silent migraines too. meaning, its happening yet you dont feel the pain. in every research article i have read, it speaks of medication being needed to help the patient back to a normal life. you can get your life back. i did. keep a journal of the meds and any side effects. keep a journal of what you can and cant do while on it. if you start now, you may notice a difference before school starts.

Okay thank you for all of your thorough answers. It helped a lot with understanding whats going on. Yesterday my head pressure was so bad but I had to push through as I was house hunting in LA yesterday. I even lost my appetite and couldn't eat. These symptoms are really wrecking my life. Now I feel fatigue today. I'll give the topomax a shot. I also saw a couple other people tried Verampil and it helped them a ton. I just want this heavy head/pressure/foggy feeling to go away sooo bad. I'll try out the journal and I'll write out my symptoms and the effect of the medication.

Is it okay if I keep in contact with you on here? I need someone to talk to sometimes especially when things get difficult like yesterday. was extremely tough.

of course. hit the message button and send me a private message. this is a very scary disorder disease whatever you call it. your entire life changes in one day, without warning. and you are fighting for answers and help. i am better now, but someone on this site helped me. i dont remember in my brain fog whose story or advice it was... but it helped me save myself. and get the right diagnosis. just hit the blue message button by my name. keep fighting keep searching. dont be afraid of the meds. when you get the right one, you will know

So crazy to find this thread because I'm having the EXACT same issues but it's literally only when I wear my contacts ugh. It's so frustrating! I feel so weird, disoriented, pressure in my head and it doesn't go away unless I stop wearing contacts. So glad to see you're feeling better!

Hi jcuriel, if you're getting these symptoms I'd stop wearing your lenses for now if you can get away with it as you could unwittingly trigger some long term symptoms. How long have you been wearing contacts, and have you recently had your lens prescription changed by any chance?

hey! i wouldnt wear contacts for a little while. i can wear them now because im pretty much 95% healed. i know that feeling too well. it will go away, but allow your body to heal and maybe get checked by a nuero to see if symtpms are related to migraine like mine

thank you!

hello I have been wearing contacts since I was 13 and I'm now 38 . I had to stop wearing my contacts because I was having issues with them so I went to glasses for a while and now every time I put my contacts on I get that crazy feeling so it could be just the difference from switching to glasses to contacts since I was predominantly only ever wearing contacts before . I do get my eyes checked up every year and typically it goes up a little bit, this year went up .25

Yeah i totally know what you mean. contacts would make me really dizzy. sometimes my glasses did too, but it isnt bad anymore thank god. yeah definitly double check to make sure it isnt migraine. amitrypline really really helped me