Dizzy, unbalanced, and troubled. - Inner Ear Disorders Message Board

HeteroHeretic · 05-12-2003, 01:26 PM

Hi everyone, I'm new to these boards. I just made a post in the Depression board that basically explains my other problems, but here I want to know more about my dizziness problems.

I think my dizziness has been with me my whole life. My parents tell me when I was just a baby, I would wake up screaming in the night and not be able to tell them why. A few years later when I could talk, I told them I felt really dizzy. When I was about 10-12, I remember waking up at night feeling very very dizzy, like the room was spinning, and I'd almost pass out. I have no idea why this happens. I've had tests done on me and I'm healthy, and the doctor said it may be an inner-ear problem, but I really dont know. I also remember feeling off-balance a lot during my life. I didnt always have problems with anxiety/depression, but I've always had a problem with dizziness, and I've always been kinda hyper. I remember up to maybe 7 or so years ago that if I stood in a place for a while, I would start feeling off-balance and the floor would feel almost like it was swaying like a see-saw, this would make me very restless and uncomfortable and I would have to move to stop it. I feel vertigo/dizziness easier than others, and things like amusement park rides, high places, airplanes, and just simply spinning make it worse and is very uncomfortable for me. I dont wake up feeling very dizzy any more, but lately I've been feeling off-balance, I feel like I've been walking funny because of it. I do feel dizzy a lot, but it's different. Just recently I even feel like I'm moving when I'm stationary, or that other things are moving towards me. One thing that has been prevalent for a while is the see-saw thing, where the ground feels like its see-sawing back and forth on my sides, and it is very uncomfortable.

I hope all that made sense and wasnt too jumbled. If you want me to clarify, please ask and I'll try. If anyone can relate, give me info, or help me in any way with this, I'd greatly appreciate it.

quincy · 05-13-2003, 02:28 AM

HI HeteroHeretic,

You could have a positional vertigo called BPPV (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo). I've had it for 38 years since I was 11.

I too have anxiety and depression. I'm now on Effexor XR (75 mg) and it's done wonders to ease the depression. I've dealt with the anxiety and my other "issues" through a psychologist.

I have other health issues, but the BPPV is the one that can create that fantasy dream-like state. The balance is what keeps us grounded. Lose that and it's like we aren't part of the real world.

Please ask your doctor to send you to an ENT to start with. It is known that babies suffer from BPPV, and children also.

There are crystals in the ear (otoconia) that get free floating and when the head is in certain positions they can lodge themselves at the cupula in one of the 3 canals of an ear. The messages from that canal aren't sent to the brain, therefore the brain thinks that something's wrong and it compensates, creating you to feel dizzy.

There are treatments to help your episodes to stop.
There is also physical therapy to get your brain conditioned to recognise the dizziness as normal.

But, in saying alllll that, you don't know if that's what you have. Anxiety will exacerbate your symptoms and who wouldn't be depressed dealing with that stuff.
You may be depressed genetically, but add chronic disorders to that, and the mixture is almost impossible to function in.

Been there, am there at times, working on getting/remaining better.

I'll read your other post in the depression forum and also post a few sites where you can check BPPV to see if you may match some of the symptoms.

I hope you'll get the help to get this all figured out.

Best to you,
quincy
[url="http://www.dizziness-and-balance.com/disorders/bppv/bppv.html"]http://www.dizziness-and-balance.com/disorders/bppv/bppv.html[/url]
[url="http://www.utmb.edu/oto/Grand_Rounds_Earlier.dir/Vertigo_Benign_Parox_Position_1994.txt"]http://www.utmb.edu/oto/Grand_Rounds_Earlier.dir/Vertigo_Benign_Parox_Position_1994.txt[/url]
[url="http://www-surgery.ucsd.edu/ent/PatientInfo/info_bppv.html"]http://www-surgery.ucsd.edu/ent/PatientInfo/info_bppv.html[/url]

HeteroHeretic · 05-13-2003, 12:49 PM

Thanks much quincy, I appreciate the reply. I'm really not sure I have BPPV, when I get dizzy, it's usually if I'm sitting/standing in place for a while. But I do have the symptoms of BPPV sometimes. I'm just really not sure, and I wish my doctor would go more in-depth about it with me to pinpoint what it really is. I really want to figure out what's wrong and how to help it.