Vertigo Menieres

Please don't give up. Your family will be devastated.

I've only had labyrinthitis for 5 months and my life has gone from work, socialising, walking etc to nothing!! On top of the vertigo I have chronic Anxiety which causes nausea and terrible knots in my tummy.

I spend 90% of my day alone but look forward to my partner coming home from work. I feel like giving up but I have a daughter who is 22yrs old and I couldn't leave her.

I've had no luck with doctors. They fob me off with tablets and say it will get better but there's no real improvement. I live in hope that I can get to a point where I can go out and be normal again even if it's only 50% . I will not give up on this. Stay strong and maybe one day you will realise you are still here for a reason. My thoughts are with you.

Helen.

Don't give up, I had some down times when all of this started.  And yes it can suck.  But life is made up or trials and difficulties, this is our challenge and it could always be worst.  There are much worst issues than balance dizziness and hearing loss.  I have found that if I stop focusing only on the negatives and focus on positives and remember that I am still alive and the drop attacks suck but they could be worst.  If you give into depression it will only get worse.  If you have faith in Christ then I recommend that you focus on that and the fear and anxiety will lessen in other areas. You need to have hope that life will get better, that isn't saying that MD will get better but you will find ways to enjoy life and thus lowering the priority of MD.  I find that I rarely ever think about it.  Would I like to be more stable sure, would I like hear better out of my ear sure.  Is life more important than both of those yes.  Make sure you are staying active, otherwise you will just focus on the problems.  I find that if I am outside I rarely ever notice my symptoms, try that see if it helps.  Life is hard, but it is worth fighting for.  I care if you die and I don't even know you.  If you need someone to talk to you can always talk to me.  I can do this all day ;-).

Jonese and Helen, the best thing you both could do for yourselves is to see a psychiatrist or psychologist who can help you cope with anxiety and stress.  Psychologically MD can easily destroy our self confidence by creating debilitating anticipatory anxiety.  All MD patients suffer this emotional handicap.  It's vitally important to seek help before you become habituated to the anxiety.  There are meds that can do miracles for controlling your anticipatory anxiety.  Please make use of them.

Also, today there are things that each of us can do to reduce and even eliminate vertigo.  If you have read other threads on this forum you know by now that vertigo (in vast majority of cases) can be controlled by non surgical and surgical protocols.  The normal steps are:

1.  anxiety and stress management via professional help and meds

2.  elimination of salt, caffeine, alcohol

3.  diuretics to pull fluid from inner ear.

4.  allergy and non allergic rhinitis management (50% of MD patients have allergies as reason for their MD)

5.  take betahistine....usually a minimum of 16mg 3x/day....some folks need higher dose

6.  Steroid injections

7.  gentamycin injections.  This should be last protocol after all the others.  There are side effects to this surgical procedure.

Good luck

It’s natural to be wary and worry about the next attack. I’m often in situations where I think what would I do if I had an attack here. 

Having said that I have spells in between attacks when I have an idyllic life with family and friends. These periods keep me sane. There are also many people who are worse off and would swap my illness for theirs. 

Live for the good moments. 

So sorry to hear about your problem. I was having to severe vertigo attacks 1-2 time per month, which completely debilitated me. I would throw up for about 1 hour and then pass out for 3-4 hours. I tried many things and some worked but all they did was make the attacks less frequent. My trigger was stress and anxiety and my doctor prescribed Valium to take when I was under a lot of stress, this worked some but also made me tired and I hate taking manufactured drugs. I recently got some medical marijuana and this has been a life saver. When ever I feel stressed or the beginnings of Vertigo, I take one hit (puff) and it prevents an attack. I have not had an attack in 3 months!!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed this continues. Hope this insight helps you in some way. Good luck!

Hi Jonese,

That's a long time fighting. I've had mine for 4 years no ive never stopped looking for answer suggestions somewhere there is a relief maybe nit cure but relief. Have you tested your blood? High ldl cholesterol can play a part also. Hope things approve.

Please don't give up.  Please discuss this anxiety with your doctor and get some medication for it.  That helps a lot. Just believe that you are capable of dealing with vertigo no matter when or where it happens and IT WILL PASS. Most people with Meniere's can and do live very productive lives and, although it seems overwhelming sometimes, it is not.  And it is not fatal as so many other serious diseases are.  When I was having my worst series of episodes, I decided to quit reading online about other peoples Menieres issues, because it seemed that most were even worse than mine.  It helped not to dwell on it or read about it.  Good luck to you.