Frustrated, thought I was winning to war but the dizziness returns

[fedup36]

Hi all, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and new year... I travelled down to see my family and thought I would have some time away from the site and enjoy the time and try to distract myself from the anxiety... Well all was going very well, had a great Christmas and new year and haven't felt half bad!! No dizzy zaps or anything so felt great and in turn the anxiety reduced...

However today was my last day down south and woke up thinking something bad was going to happen... We had a christening and I was sat there bang, my eyes feel like they shift and I get my dizzy zap!! Cue feeling awfully dizzy and convinced I'm about to collapse! Tried to ride the wave and went to the after party thing which was good and bang happened again stood up talking to someone... It's horrible and I don't understand where it's coming from :(

I'm now sat in the car on the way home thinking horrible negative thoughts like I've made it through Christmas so now my body is going to give up! :( I'm struggling and need some help...

[HoneyLove]

Hi fedup, I'm sorry to hear you're feeling so bad today. Don't be too hard on yourself, if you have little dizzy relapses it's normal to feel anxious, I've been there myself! It's very scary when it happens.

This is the kind of incident you should talk about with your VRT therapist, tell her exactly what you were doing when it happened, the movement you made (looking up at your friend) and the fact that your eyes felt like they were moving (that happens quite a lot with balance problems).

My guess is that you were incredibly stimulated by everything that was happening - the travel, the party, lots of people around, a change from your routine - and it triggered the dizzy spells. That's totally normal for people with balance issues, sometimes we just get overloaded and it can trigger an attack.

You should prepare yourself for the reality that you probably will have dizzy spells sometimes, the VRT may not totally get rid of them. But it will help you to cope with them better and see that you can go through them and come out the other side again. The key is not to let them make you too anxious, as holding on to the stress may not help - easier said than done I know, but I promise you that it gets easier with time.

You've just had a bit of a dizzy relapse, this doesn't mean that it's back for good so please try not to worry too much and do what you can to relax. It might be a good idea to read up about vestibular issues so that you're armed with information about your illness - the VEDA Facebook page is a good place to start! X

[fedup36]

Thank you :) wise words again... I'm feel better already... I'm definitely not panicking anywhere near as much as before... I was just looking down reading something was odd!!

You would be very proud though, did 5 hours of sale shopping on Saturday! No needing to sit done with the dizziness or run away! I admit there were times it crept in but I recall what my VRT therapist says which is that supermarkets and shops are a persons worse place with balance issues so repeat that and crack on and ended up having a lovely time!

[HoneyLove]

That is definitely progress! And the less stressed you get about it the easier it will be. It's important to recognise and celebrate every win like that. 5 hours in a busy shopping centre is a big deal to someone with balance problems!!

For me it was recently being able to take 2 hour train journey and spend a pretty active (for me!) weekend away from home with only very low level vestibular problems, it was such a big step :)

Like I said in the last post, it's good to realise that these things will happen sometimes and to try to not let the anxiety of it get to you, it will always pass away again.