constant lightheadedness, dizziness, strange sensations in head
Hi, I'm a 20 year old college student, and my troubles started a little over two weeks ago. I woke up with hives (I have had them before, never have been able to trace them to an allergen), and that day had an episode of heat exhaustion. I was in the desert for about an hour, it wasn't terribly hot, but all of a sudden I got severe tunnel vision, extreme lightheadedness, sank to the ground and nearly passed out. Needless to say I felt weak for the next two days, but seemed to be getting better. Then, three days later, I started experiencing sudden episodes of very strange sensations in my head-- I can't really describe them, but they seemed to be headrushes, or attacks of extreme lightheadedness, "brain fog", and vaguely connected to my vision and hearing (like my ears had cotton stuck in them). These would only happen in "flashes" but ever since then, pretty much 24 hours/day, I am extremely fatigued, lightheaded and dizzy. At night I'm so exhausted I can barely keep my eyes open, but I'm terrified to close them because when I do I start feeling those strange sensations again, headrushes, a feeling of unreality, and muscle jerks. I've been thoroughly tested for heart problems, which have all come back negative, have considered dehydration because of the heat exhaustion but have been extremely well hydrated for over a week and the symptoms haven't gone away. The hives dissapeared about a week after this started (I don't know if that was related but thought I'd mention it in case someone has some insight). Could this be some weird viral infection, or neurological disorder? I plan on going to the neurologist but wasn't able to get an appointment until about a month from now. Could this be something as simple as anxiety? I've had a pretty consistant amount of stress for the last couple years, and this just seems so sudden and physical that it's hard to believe it could be something purely psychological. I've read some posts and other people describe similar problems, but mine don't seem connected to any sickness, trauma, and came extremely suddenly. Thank you so much, starting to feel desperate.
Re: constant lightheadedness, dizziness, strange sensations in head
Hi lilara
I am sorry to hear your not feeling so well.
What you are describing sounds a lot like vertigo..
Vertigo comes in two forms, it could be a spinning sensation or a motion sensation. Subjective meaning you feel the motion or objective meaning your surroundings are spinning or moving. You can feel any sensation in the range of a swaying to the side, falling backwards, tilting, constant motion, a dropping sensation or sinking to the ground feeling, a sensation as if you are on an elevator, being on a boat sea sick sensation, as well as a violent spinning as if you were on a spinning carnival ride!!
You may also feel like your head is heavy, woozy and you may also experience fatigue as well as headaches.. That being said.. There are several illness that can cause vertigo, which means vertigo is not a illness in it's self, it's a secondary symptom to an illness. First common illness is inner ear disorders, Migraine's can cause vertigo, anemia, central nervous system disorders, thyroid problems, blood pressure problems as well as neurological and cardio disorders and allergies among a few others. Vertigo can appear suddenly, you mentioned you started to feel this way out of the blue.. So you see there are many things that need to be ruled out.
often times there is no true explanations for why one is suffering from vertigo, and may be a secondary symptom to anxiety or better known as Physiological vertigo..
I am not sure if what your feeling is as described above.. If so it's safe to say you are experiencing vertigo.
I am a vertigo suffer as well and know the true impact this can cause on your life, please keep in mind that vertigo can be the cause of anxiety as well as panic disorder. I hope you find this information helpful and any thoughts or questions please feel free to ask! Boxerlover
Last edited by boxerlover227; 09-24-2006 at 06:47 PM.
Re: constant lightheadedness, dizziness, strange sensations in head 
