I totally agree about the anxiety thing - the labyrinthitis came FIRST - the anxiety is the RESULT of feeling so bad for such a long time that you lose your confidence and worry that you will not get back to how you were before you got ill! I have found that the best thing for me has been to take a balanced approach. Don't push yourself too hard when you are going through a better spell, as each time you have a setback, you will get more disheartened. But, equally, not pushing yourself at all for fear of inducing dizziness is just as bad. I am trying to pace myself (difficult, I know!) For example, have gone shopping twice this week - this is quite an achievement for me!! Did not feel too bad at all - although in Marks and Spencers I felt like the floor was sloping sideways - really bizarre feeling!
At the end of the day, anyone who feels so bad for so long will experience some anxiety - it is perfectly normal. I know at times I have worried so much I've worried about worrying!?! Also felt like I could go mad with frustration. Have gone through whole spectrum of emotions - miserable, angry, sad, anxious, impatient, hysterical - and on a good day - sheer elation that I'm feeling like a human being!!!
Hope this makes some of you smile!
Ruth
xxx
Marks and Spencers does this to me as well. . . . ..good job I can order online from there, I almost run past the place for fear. I think I actually get anxious about going in there now, must be something to do with the lighting they use. . . .how weird!
Jayne
I am 37 years old and in March 2007 I started to feel "off" - "foggy" is really the best phrase as it really feels that way. My concentration disappeared, it takes me a while to read e-mails in detail where I used to be able to read once and pick up on all the details.
I have the occasional dizzy spell, it comes on even when I am not moving my head or anything.
I went to my Dr in April and had a full physical - everything came back ok. Spoke to a neurologist, he thinks it is stress (I am going to be a dad again soon, and just bought a new house).
Went to an ENT doctor (am having audio/ENT tests done next week) but initial consultation was that there wasn't anything wrong.
The annoying thing it is so difficult to explain to people how I feel. God knows how I do my work all day - luckily I have a job where I don't have a boss on my back), I am really working at 50% most of the time.
I have bouts of being really tired after lunch. But I am tired most of the day.
But most of all, I am TIRED of feeling this way. I am starting to think it may be an allergy? Sometimes, I feel pressure on under my eyes and around the nose. Maybe an allergist will be my next doctors trip? Do people who have allergies have foggy head, and dizzy spells?
Has anyone had any luck with any alternative medicines? Herbal teas or something.
My only joy has been finding this thread that others feel the same way as I do, but I can't live my life like this.
I totally understand what you are going through Jason - mine started in March too. Same symptoms - off balance, dizzy spells. I can't do much physical activity like I used to. I used to play soccer once in a while with family/friends. There is NO way I can do that now - I get dizzy just thinking about it. I have tried swimming, riding a bike - those types of things just make me feel seasick. Very frustrating...
Maybe it is something in our water supply (we live right next door to each other, neighborhood wise).
No really though, this board has also been a life saver for me. Nobody around me "gets it". It's not their fault at all - but it frustrating for me and them, to have this thing making me function at less than 100%. I can't even go out on a date with my husband. We used to go out to dinner and a movie once a month and I feel too ill to do that. I've tried it. I just don't feel well enough - especially at night.
Hang in there - hopefully this will resolve SOON.
The Following User Says Thank You to missy7777 For This Useful Post: biteneck (06-18-2012)
Thanks for the quick reply. I am so glad I found a local on this board. Maybe we should get together and be dizzy and foggy together! Sorry to hear how it has affected you (going on dates with hubby etc). I know how you feel. I have just moved house and I did the move in a "fog" - God knows how I got through it. I don't want to "get used to it" Every day I wake up, I pray that I will feel "normal" again. But most of my day is that feeling that I have just woken up. No amounts of caffeine can clear me up. I think I can live with the occasional dizzyness but the foggyness it frustrating. Having a beer actually helps, because it feels the way I meant to after a couple of beers!!
Speaking of beer, that is the part that makes me so mad! I can't seem to drink more than one or two beers and feel totally dizzy. I used to have maybe 4 or 5 on the weekend or a date night or whatever, and now I can't even have ONE without it making me feel horrible. What's that all about??!!
Definitely - "This too shall pass"! I've been doing a lot praying, that's for sure! Especially when I am super bad and can't get out of bed (it's been a while). Hopefully, since it has been a while since I have been totally disabled, it is slowly but surely getting better. Please, please please....
I know what you mean about having to do things in a fog. Get this - I have FOUR children to take care of with this head monster!! It's completely insane!!
The Following User Says Thank You to missy7777 For This Useful Post: biteneck (06-18-2012)
best stay away from beer or alcohol in general.. It affects your CNS and dulls the signals... You may feel better on alcohol which most people do, but the rebound effect can be bad.... Its like taking xanax.. I guess once in a while is ok, but the days after are usually alot worse after a drink (atleast for me)
Glad I found this message board. I have been dealing with the same thing for about 15 months now. Slightly off balance, head pressure or tension headache constantly, and disequilibrium or spaced-out foggy feeling that everyone talks about.
I have had numerous tests and seem many doctors over the last year, and have been diagnosed with everything from Labyrinthitis, to Meniere's, to vestibular migraine, to chronic migraine, to depression & anxiety, etc. etc.
Most recently I noticed a connection between my balance and how I feel and neck problems. I always thought that my neck was still and cracking because it was so tight from being off balance and a bit dizzy, but it could be the other way around. I just had a work up from a chiro-neurologist and he says I've lost the curve in my neck and that is causing nerve impingement and restricted blood flow to my brain. This also has an effect on the inner ear, and also the tight neck muscles can also affect the inner ear. They can also create the constant tension headache or pressure band I feel in my head.
So, I am now embarking on another journey to try and restore the curve in my neck. I will keep everyone posted on my results, but it will take a while.
Let me know if anyone out there has neck problems that could be the cause of these symptoms. I may have had a whiplash incident that could have triggered all of this.
Re: Foggy head with ear disorder and all others with disconnect ear problems
Check out The House Ear Institute in Los Angeles.They are the top Ear research and treatment institute and hospital in the world ,and you will get definite answers,
The problem in the US is that if you have an hmo you will not receive the answers or treatment you require from an ENT ,they have policy and budget restraints that do not cover you,the doctors will not tell you this but their hands are tied.If you have a ppo you are much better off ,as you can choose your specialist, but you will still have to do the research yourself.
This ear fullness,disconnection ,spaced out problem is very depressing and frustrating to say the least.I have been 100% cured,by The House Ear Institute.
All of the Doctors are the best in the world and doctors from all over the world go there to train,so you will get a definite answer ,they are a private institute funded privately,and are Awesome.
If you have a ppo or combination type coverage you will be partially covered,but you obviously need to check.
If you do not have insurance a consultation will be around 100 dollars,
It sounds like alot of people on this message board have had very poor ,to say the least diagnosis .
I was treated with medication that The House Ear Institute developed them selves,obviously not covered by hmo or available in other ENT practices.
I highly recommend and urge you to at least check out their website just search "The House Ear Institute",
And I wish you all the best.
The problem with medical care in all western economies today is money,both medicare and social security are bankrupt and it is all about vote buying from politicians,public medicare is going down the tubes by the day, and full of imported third world doctors and mediocre doctors ,The best doctors and funding is in private hospitals as money buys the best brains and hense doctors and research,you get what you pay for.
Public medical coverage will cease in the near future or continue to be extrenely downgraded.Future generations are alraedy inheriting the debt of vote buying politicians and the stupid public who want more coverage for what they can pay into and also the influx of alot of useless immigrants who do not work ,but vote for socialist policies,.Their is no such thing as a free lunch.If you are 40 or under you need to wake up ,as the future of inherited debt, massive inflation from voting for socialist policies is going to effect your generation like no other generation.Monerty policy of sucessive fiat money polititical policies is almost at an end.Read Ayn Rand Atlas shrugged it may wake you up.
Anyway take this info and do with as you choose.
Last edited by adamsmith77; 10-11-2007 at 12:31 PM.
I have had a 'foggy head' now for about seven years. I can pretty much say it has ruined my life. I was a senior copywriter at a London marketing agency.
One winter I got a cold that turned into flu which I didn't improve by smoking. Antibiotics got rid of the flu but left me with perpetual pressure headaches, a sensation of extreme fullness behind each ear and the 'foggy head'. I don't have tinnitus or hearing loss or, apart from some strange but infrequent bed spins, vertigo which I know some of you others have had.
I have other strange symptoms too - for example, food intolerance. I am now allergic to wheat which I never was before - and I feel certain that this is somehow connected with my condition.
I couldn't do my job and I couldn't explain what was wrong with me. It felt as if I was suffering from a perpetual hangover. Of course, when I explain that to people, they smile and raise their eyebrows.
It slowed down my thinking and so I had to leave my job which depended on fluency of expression and creatrivity. With the loss of my career, I lost my house.
I gave up smoking and drinking in 2001 but the symptoms have got no better. My own GP who suggested I have an illness that children get more usually than adults called 'glue ear' - which at least sounds like how I feel.
He put me on a decongestant which I can buy over the counter - Sudafed. this provides some mild relief but not much. I have to double the dose and take it religiously four times a day to get any effect.
My GP tried me on a nasal steroid, Flixonase, and sent me to see an ENT specialst at Guys. It took three months to get an appointment which itself was three months into the future. When I did see the specialist, he simply put me on another course of Flixonase and implied that, surrounded as he was by patients with facial and throat cancers, I was wasting his time.
I went to see another specialist privately. By now, I had self-diagnosed myself as having some form of Eustachian Tube Dysfunction - but of what kind I do not know. The private specialist was more helpful and we tried another nasal steroid though to no avail. Because in the past, when I had been a heavy smoker, I had suffered from bronchial infections, we also tried some antibacterials but they had no effect.
I persuaded him to fit grommets - the tubes - in both ears. Again, they did provide some relief, especially from the pressure headaches but, ultimately, I could not say they actually worked for me.
I have no idea what to do now. I have moved to a new area and will register with another doctor. However, I know that they are going simply to prescribe more Sudafed, another steroid, etc etc. The last seven years have just been an empty waste because of this stupid, trivial but chronic condition.
Last edited by hubertgrove; 10-17-2007 at 12:13 PM.
I'm not an expert but I suspect the core of your problem has little or nothing to do with your ears. My guess is that your ear problems are one of the symptoms.
Have you checked into things like Leaky Gut Syndrome and Candida Yeast Overgrowth?
My suggestion would be that you find a good naturopath doctor who would look at things differently than a standard medical doctor. They would hopefully start by looking at your digestion and overall health rather than concentrating on specific conditions like your eustachian tube dysfunction (even though that needs to be treated too).
I assume you are on a gluten free diet already, but I'd recommend that you consider whether you have more serious problems in your digestive tract. Consider whether you have leaky gut and yeast or parasitic overgrowth and, if needed, treat those things accordingly.
I can relate to what you have. I too have a "foggy like" sense about my head along with some pressure. I have this condition for many years now and try to ignore it as best as possible. I've had countless number of tests from all sorts of specialists to no avail. It has definitely "dumbed me down" a bit. I can still function on level (depending how I feel), but I'm not as sharp as I used to be.
My suggestion to you is to see a neurologist if you haven't done so. In a situation such as this, it's useless to look up all sorts of diseases or illnesses you think you may have. If there is a pattern, this may be helpful to a doctor. In my case, this is a 24/7 situation that I live with. Fortunately, I no longer work and when I did I was not the breadwinner of the family. I was very frustrated at work because I was employed in a position that was well beneath my ability. It was the only way I could function. (By the way, I had dizziness as well which still plagues me from time to time.)
On a positive note, there are many cases in which people recover completely so you mustn't give up hope. For now treat the problem holistically by keeping yourself in the best of health. See a neurologist to rule out any problems in that area. Keep a positive outlook. You're not alone - there are other people suffering from the same syndrome. Surely, someone gets better!!!
I can't take feeling like this anymore..
does anyone here have ANY success stories??
Seems like I never hear any improvements in people with inner ear disorders. can't feel spaced out anymore or I'm going to end up in the looney bin!!
can't feel spaced out anymore or I'm going to end up in the looney bin!!
