Hello all, I am new to these boards and it is very comforting to know that I am not the only one out there with these dreadful symptoms.

My story began about 3 months ago. I am 29 years old, male and weigh 155 lbs. I was in a very strenous RN program that was accelerated and highly competitive. I would go to school 8 hours a day and study for about 10 hours a night including the weekends. I never had time to unwind. One night after sitting in the same place for 12 hours straight I stood up and almost collapsed. My heart began to race and I thought I was having a heart attack. No matter what I did, I could not get myself to settle down. Luckily my girlfriend was there and she drove me to the ER. The doctor took a couple looks at me, took my BP, and told me I had basically a panic attack and I have anxiety. I have always been a very cautious person but I never had a panic attack or this level of anxiety in my life. The panic attacks stayed with me for a few weeks and my GP wanted to put me on Paxil. But I am the type of person that wants to do everything holistically. So I decided to take up yoga, relaxation techniques, and even accupuncture. All these things helped with relaxation and I am no longer having panic attacks.

But the one thing that has been lingering are my headaches and ear pressure. My ears always seem full and when the pressure subsides I am often left with tinnitus. My eyes have felt a lot of pressure and has also been bloodshot for this duration. I have had the ear pressure come and go for the last 3 years but nothing has lasted for more than 2 months. I went to my GP constantly and he reassured me nothing was wrong. I finally went to my ENT who prescribed Nasonex and a low tech ear equalizer called Otovent. I tried these things religiously with no avail. My ENT did a CT sinus on me and it showed up clear. She seems to think that I have a lingering sinus infection that is affecting my inner ear. But prior to my ailments I never had a cold, flu, or any type of sneezing or allergic symptoms and I still don't. I am beggining to think that I could have a tumor and my life could be ending. It is really terrible since I never do anything harmful to my body. I work out 5-6 times a week, eat very good, and I do not smoke or drink at all. So I really cannot figure it out. Here are my symptoms and maybe some of you can help me determine if I am a TMJ candidate.

- Symptoms start about an hour or so after waking
- I start out with ear pressure and a feeling of fullness in my head.
- I get dizzy from time to time
- Headaches ensue at least once a day but they aren't typically painful.
- I get back, neck and shoulder pain.
- My eyes hurt and are bloodshot..mostly my right eye (also my right ear gets more pressure than my left as well)
- When I talk or open my mouth I hear a popping sound in my ear. And the more I try to blow out my ears the more pressure just builds up.

Because of all this I am starting to get depressed and it is starting to unravel all the good things about my life. I have always been a happy person but this is slowly breaking me down. I haven't had any type of traumatic injury to my head or jaws that could have caused this. But the one thing that I think could have contributed is my teeth problems. I got my braces off when I was about 21 (8 years ago). Since then I wore my mouth guard (I have a mouthguard not retainers) sporatically. Then about 3 years ago I stopped wearing my mouth guard for approximately 12 months. Then I started wearing it again but my whole teeth configuration already shifted. Because of this my mouthguard is painful to use and it tries to bring back my old bite. My teeth also grind on top of one another as evidence by the little fractures on some of them.

So reasonably I can say that most of the cause of my headaches and pressure could be attributed to stress/tension in my neck/shoulders. But I think that my bite can be playing a part in this as well.

Sorry for such a long post but I feel that I needed to accurately describe my order of events so that some of you experienced guys and gals can help me out. Any info or support would be gladly appreciated. Thanks in advance

I posted this as well on the TMJ forums as well looking for answers.

Thanks for your input Laurie, I will definitely look into going to a chiropractor. Do you have stress or anxiety in your life? I only ask that because when I am stressed or worried my symptoms get much worse. Thanks again for the response.

Hi Myk,

I can relate to how you feel re the symptoms unravelling your life. This happened to me in the 3rd year of a phd. Woke up one day and everything had turned to %$&# overnight - began with a huge panic attack, so bad that I too ended up at the ER. In my case it was clear that I'd been hit with VN or labyrinthitis. The neck pain etc is all par for the course.

From what you are describing, it is possible that you've had a light case of labs or VN but it sounds even more likely that you have migraine or a migraine variant causing your symptoms. Many people wrongly assume that it is sinus trouble when in fact it's migraine. If I had a dollar for every time I had heard the sinus story only for the person to find out it was migraine I'd be loaded. The pressure you were putting on yourself and the long hours studying at the PC may well have triggered a migraine scenario. Note that headache is NOT always a part of the migraine story. Many have it without having headaches.

You could try aiming at the migraine scenario with herbs and diet etc to see what comes of it but if that fails you may have to consider a migraine preventative for a while which may clean this up.

Re feeling depressed. The only thing I can tell you here (after 3 years of this garbage), is to not resist all that is happening. I made the huge mistake of panicking (extremely hard not to). The fact is you are in it, it's not permanent, and you just have to accept that you are this way at the moment. You're the same person otherwise. If you can keep your head screwed on straight in all of this and try not to freak about it all, you'll avoid the depression. The fact that you've already gotten on top of the anxiety is a great result and is a real feather in your cap.

Hang in there. I'd chase up the migraine hypothesis.

Best....Scott :cool:

hello again yes i have stress in my life which can make it worse but did u know that ear and sinus trouble can cause anxiety my dr put me on prozac to help with the anxiety and so far has helped greatly also try saline nose spray the ones with the salt water in it also helps alot