Anxiety or vertigo?

[binks]

Hi I'm new to this..
Does anyone suffer from dizziness as part of their anxiety?

I used to suffer from severe agoraphobia and since 'recovering' from that I live in my comfort zone.. part time job, studying my degree from home, can't travel etc. and if I leave my comfort zone I would get hot flushes, feel like I was going to faint and the general terrified feeling.

This time last year I had pretty much got my life back to the way I wanted, I was attending work meetings, getting buses to about 40 minutes away from my house (it took 6 weeks of CBT for me to even get on a bus for one stop). But then in March, I was walking to town (only about 10 mins away and its my usual journey to work) and I felt like I was going to faint really bad. Whether this was anxiety related or not, it has messed with my anxiety. And especially over the past few weeks I feel really dizzy all of the time! I find myself stumbling at work and this makes me worry. I've actually started wondering if this is my anxiety or an actual health problem.. but I'm too nervous to go to the doctors which is about a 30 min walk because I'm worried about feeling dizzy in that time. I also found I'm sensitive to light.. for example, if walking to the supermarket in the day my eyes can't focus properly which makes me anxious.. but at night time I feel completely relaxed and able to do my shopping.

So I'm just not sure if my anxiety is causing these symptoms or these symptoms are causing my anxiety?
I bet my dr will just say it's anxiety.. but it's so frustrating it's come from no where when I worked so hard at getting my life back closer to the way it was!

Anyone have any similar experiences?

[GingerFish]

I was like this at the start of my panics/anxiety. I couldn't work out whether my anxiety was causing the dizziness or the dizziness was causing the anxiety as both of them always came on so quickly. My dizziness used to just feel like swaying and a bit wobbly but then one day I got this dizziness that floored me. It literally felt like someone was grabbing me and pushing me and then pushing me onto the floor and keeping me down. It was terrifying and only lasted about 4 seconds and I fell the the ground because of it. As soon as I explained that to my GP he said that was vertigo and not caused by anxiety but it certainly caused anxiety! It is what is called a drop attack. I've had many more since so they don't scare me as much now. I then noticed I started to get hearing loss and some pressure in my ears every so often and now I am getting tested for meinere's disease. The doc told me that dizziness from anxiety isn't as forceful as that with vertigo though it can still make you feel quite wobbly whereas vertigo can literally have you on the ground.

[binks]

Thank you, that's really helpful! Maybe it is anxiety then, I just feel like if I had no dizziness then I would feel fine. I've just got myself a doctors appointment for Friday so maybe even if he thinks it is anxiety I could maybe get something to help.

I just can't believe I re-trained my brain for so long to let me get on with every day things and now I'm struggling again for no reason.. :lac:.

[Chrissy8907]

Dizziness is my main issue :( most days I would feel great but then I'll get the dizziness from my anxiety and it's such a pain! My story is very similar to you at the beginning I could hardly do or go anywhere. Now I do most things I want but the dizziness frightens me and worries me that I might faint as well but it of course has never happened! I try to ignore it but some days it's stronger then others :/ I really believe it will pass though the more we ignore it :) please keep me updated on how you're doing :)

[binks]

My colleague made a point today that it could be because I went back on the pill about 4 weeks ago which is a good point. She doesn't know about my anxiety though but has noticed my dizzy spells.

I went all of today without feeling dizzy until walking home from work.. I think whatever is causing it is giving me anxiety though because I was nervous to go into a shop in case I felt dizzy. And on my break I felt nervous/dizzy.. I can't stand being outside during the day, my eyes can't adjust and the dizziness comes. Yet at night or in dim light I'm better.

I just hope my doctor can help..