I know everyone says it is a huge part of recovery and also not thinking about the illness. I am a hugely pessimistic person to begin with and I can not for the life of me think positive I am trying sooo hard. And I cant get my illness off my mind been playing video games and everything to divert my attention. And on top of my crappy blip got hit with anxiety today and had to take a valium which I hadn't taken for more than a week so feeling depressed about that as well. I keep thinking if someone comes on that had labs/vn for like 4 months and recovered man wouldn't that raise my spirits and give me hope but wont happen. Any advice on how to take my mind off it??Does this get easiers as the years go by??

I know everyone says it is a huge part of recovery and also not thinking about the illness. I am a hugely pessimistic person to begin with and I can not for the life of me think positive I am trying sooo hard. And I cant get my illness off my mind been playing video games and everything to divert my attention. And on top of my crappy blip got hit with anxiety today and had to take a valium which I hadn't taken for more than a week so feeling depressed about that as well. I keep thinking if someone comes on that had labs/vn for like 4 months and recovered man wouldn't that raise my spirits and give me hope but wont happen. Any advice on how to take my mind off it??Does this get easiers as the years go by??

Hi D&S, I agree, it is hard to stay positive, but vrts and great a attitude will bring you along way. I hate to say this, that you are going to have more blips like the one you had the other day. I hated them!!! And it would ruin my spirits to. I had a horrible blip back in Dec that last two weeks. It got better before x-mas. But since then, Ive improved to 99%.
Did you do the search on the people that have recovered? I kepy going back to them when i was having bad days. It helped ALOT!

dizzyandsad-
I was in your position years ago and felt better in about 6 months. Keep in mind I didn't start to feel significantly better UNTIL 6 months. You are at 4 months, I know it's hard but you have to fight through this. you will look back on this and be the one writing to new people about how you got through this and how they will too. I never thought I would feel normal again either. i was angry, upset, and very depressed. but things got better. They did. And they will for you too.

Maybe you should talk to somone about how you are feeling? maybe a counselor can give you tools to cope better?

D&S,

There was indeed a guy on the board I used to chat to about 3 years ago who recovered from a very harsh episode of both VN and then BPPV in 4 months. He no longer visits the board and assume he never wanted to look back. Another guy I know in Sydney also came through it all in 4 months with only minor stuff hanging around afterwards.

But having said that, you need to stop thinking it will all just vanish at month 4. If you do (and it might) and things don't pan out that way you'll only be setting yourself up for a huge disappointment amd more stress which will only slow your recovery. I cannot stress this highly enough: you must *accept* that this has happened to you and stop the "why me?" self talk. It will only accomplish the following: increase your anxiety, kill your confidence and leave the door wide open for depression, not to mention slowing your recovery.

The mean recovery time for VN is apparently two years. That does no mean you will feel like you do now for two years but it could take that long until you notice absolutely nothing. It is said that VN is like recovering from a stroke. Nerves must regenerate and other nerves are likely employed to redirect balance traffic. Remember it took a long time even as a toddler for your brain to lock in balance. It's obviously a hugely complex task for the brain.

Hang in there...it won't be long until the blips are fewer and fewer and you feel much more in control. I still think you would benefit from an SSRI for 6 months to get through this tough period.

Best....Scott :cool:

Hey D&S
I concur with Scott...it is essentially about the journey and not the destination. We all want to feel "normal" again and we all will...in the meantime we need to enjoy the small steps and improvements along the way. You have a beautiful baby at home who needs a mom who is happy. We can all spend our time thinking "why me" and "when is this going to be over?" or we can pull our socks up, get working on our VRT's, get outside and enjoy nature and start to think about what we can do to start to get that "normal" part of our life back.
I have always tried to do the "fake it till you make it" routine and it really does work. As hokey as it is, have you watched the movie "the secret" or read the book? Give it a try and see if you can turn your pessimism around, it is so in your control, you choose to think like that and you can just as easily choose to think positively. Going to talk to someone professionally is also a great idea...life is too short to waste it feeling bad.
Have a great day :)
FC

Hi D&S

I totally agree with what everyone has said. Your first step in recovery starts with you and your attitude to this illness. You cannot control what is happening inside your ear but you can control the emotions surrounding it. When you get terribly anxious, remember that that is just part of the inner ear problem, remind yourself that 'this too will pass'. You say you are naturally a pessimist, maybe this is the time to learn from this experience and become an optimist. Maybe that's the lesson. You are young, surely you do not want to go through life being pessimistic about everything. Think about when you are a lot older and get old age aches and pains. If you can survive this, you can survive anything. I also believe this is a lesson about patience. I also wanted to get better quick quick, but it's not happening, but i've realised i have no control over it. I only have control over my attitude to it. There is no other alternative than to believe that all will be well. We are alive and only this exact moment is perfect, it's no good worrying about the future, if there was something that could make this better quickly, don't you think we would all know about it.

Part of life is learning that sometimes events happen that we think are unfair or we have to do things that we don't necessarily want to do, it's called maturing. There are people who are hearing daily that they have terminal illnesses, they are not going to get out of that, there is no hope for them. We still have hope, the blips are exactly that blips, because they will eventually pass. How lucky that they will and that it is not a death sentence. You do have the strength to fight this, you just need to find it. It's inside of you and when all this is over you will be a changed person, find the positive, find the lesson, you will get better.

D&S read this post, its from Lizzy33, she posted it longtime ago. It will help you.

http://www.healthboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=339405&page=4