Plagued by dizziness! [Archive]

OakleyEdward

20-12-17, 13:04

Hello, all.

My first post here!

Since I was around 15 I've suffered with varying degrees of anxiety and all that entails, however the year about to be completed (my 25th) has been my worst yet. For years I've struggled with dizzy spells but this year has been so debilitating, I have seen my GP who checked my ears and such like but told me it's purely anxiety so I don't feel too worried about some big scary illness. However, the symptoms themselves are so debilitating. It's not room spinning dizziness but a feel of wobbly world as I 'affectionately' call it. Especially bad walking down a long straight street or in big, busy shops. Will feel as though things and tilting or swaying. It's really begun to affect my work now as I'm self employed and on my feet all day long. Sometimes it'll turn into a full blown panic where I feel like I'm losing control have to be talked down by my partner. I also tend to get really stiff legs and feel like I've forgotten how to stand almost!

Basically, I'm just wondering if A) anyone has experienced similar and B) if anyone found anything that helps? I've always eaten well, never drink or smoke. I do drink coffee as my business is a specialty coffee shop but have cut down recently.

I look forward to hearing from you all, thanks for having me!

Potter86

20-12-17, 15:33

Its weird you post this as i was going to ask the same question i have that exact symptom,i have been on a walk today for the first half an hour it was ok then all of a sudden ny legs felt like they were swaying and so did my head i also had it in the shower yesterday again my legs went like jelly and felt like i was on a fairground ride,i to suffer from health anxiety and have other synptoms like vibrations and interna body jerks like you the doctors put it down to stress but ive insisted on a nero appointment.so i to would like to know if this balance and dizzyness is an anxiety symptom

WorryRaptor

20-12-17, 15:34

Hey, just wanted to let you know I've been going through something similar. In my other threads I've talked about left sided weakness and numbness, but I've had a dizziness very like yours before, on and off. Just like yours, it wasn't vertigo, or room spinning, but a wobbly unsteady world. As you mentioned it's worse when walking down a street or large places, it sounds like anxiety could be causing it. The large spaces might just be making you more aware of yourself on a subconscious level.

One thing I found that helped me to calm down was to focus on benign reasons for this dizziness. Tight neck muscles was one. What can cause tight neck muscles?....EVERYTHING. From sitting at a desk too long, stress, too much caffeine, these muscles can tense up so easily and cause a whole range of issues. Lump anxiety on top of that and you have a chain reaction of all kinds of wonderful symptoms. Your back muscles, especially trapz are so reactive to emotions. My physio told me that people hold emotions and stress in their back as its some kind of fight or flight thing going on in the brain. Tight back often means tight neck and so on...

You say you're on your feet all day long. This could be making your muscles tight too (especially leg muscles). Once one muscle group gets tense, others try to compensate, so it can all be connected. Maybe your partner can give you a nice back massage to see if that helps. My boyfriend usually gives me a shoulder rub when I get tension headaches and I feel it really helps with those, and an added bonus is that my anxiety always reduces. (I always need him to talk me down too when I'm in a panic spiral, and he's so patient!)

I hope some of that was in some way helpful, and I hope you're feeling better soon.

OakleyEdward

20-12-17, 15:46

@Potter86 Sorry to hear that you're also suffering, it's a very annoying thing to put up with! On the flip side it's comforting to know we're not alone in these things, always amazes me the power of the mind to inflict these things upon us! Let me know if you get anywhere and I'll do the same.

@WorryRaptor Thanks so much for taking the time to reply, and very helpful it was too! I think the description of the dizziness itself is so interesting, the only people I've seen accurately it describe it are anxiety sufferers, doctors and the like only seem to recognise room spin, which it most definitely isn't!

I think the muscle connection is a very interesting one, I know I tend to carry a lot of tension in the neck area, my shoulders are practically touching my ears when I forget to relax them. Definitely will be enlisting my partner's massage skills, for as long as she'll put up with me pestering anyway!

I look forward to updating with some positive news hopefully, already feels better for sharing so thanks again for listening guys! :)

Potter86

20-12-17, 15:56

http://.anxietycentre.com/anxiety-symptoms/dizziness.shtml

WorryRaptor

20-12-17, 16:13

Keep us posted :)

Yeah, the description of dizziness was always interesting to me too because doctors tend to try and make it fit to a room spinning, double vision imbalance that's nowhere near the sensation I mean. My GP looked completely lost when I described my dizziness as a feeling that you haven't found your sea-legs but the waves aren't very high. Not quite a rocking motion, but just that mild, out of touch unsteadiness while on a large ferry that varied in intensity!

Another one was that I felt like I had a tuning fork getting twanged in my torso (unrelated to dizziness). So my GP was like "So you're shaking?" ...No, I'm not shaking, I just feel like there's a tuning fork getting hit, but I'm completely still. The brain is capable of causing all kinds of strange sensations.

Potter86

20-12-17, 16:24

WorryRaptor

20-12-17, 16:52

Thats the same as me the room isnt spinning just jelly legs and jelly head,i dont know much about vertigo is it what we have?

Vertigo would come with an inability to actually stay balanced and would create the room spinning sensation that we don't seem to have. I think what we have is way more vague, and a milder sensation (though it feels really scary!)

OakleyEdward

20-12-17, 18:27

Carnation

20-12-17, 18:47

Potter86

20-12-17, 18:59

Its weird for me though as i can be walking normally for ages then all of a sudden it happens,then its on my mind then.weird

OakleyEdward

20-12-17, 19:19

Hi, I am also battling with this feeling.

Just wanted to let you know that I had a full hour with a neuro and it did turn out to be anxiety. I passed all the tests, even though I thought I was going to fall about a dozen times. It turned out to be a nervous feeling of being scared or body in 'fight or flight' mode.

Her advice was to 'Move Normally'. Easier said than done. :huh:

Hello,

That's really comforting to hear, thank you! I hate that feeling when you're in with the doctor and feel like you're about to fall over, it's such a pain when they're trying to help. Certainly easier said than done on the advice, although I'm sure it is sound advice! Let's hope it's one of those things that disappears as mysteriously as it first appeared!

---------- Post added at 19:19 ---------- Previous post was at 19:18 ----------

Its weird for me though as i can be walking normally for ages then all of a sudden it happens,then its on my mind then.weird

Same here! That's often the case for me on the dog walk, all of a sudden it hits and that's it for the rest of the walk!

WorryRaptor

20-12-17, 21:22

@WorryRaptor

That’s a great description of the ferry, exactly what it’s like! If only we could look on objectively we’d orobably all be quite impressed by the power of our minds to conjure these bizarre and frightening symptoms!

Out of interest did your dizziness just gradually disappear or did you find something that actively helped? :)
I started to tell myself 'it's just tense muscles causing this 'and reassuring myself of the fact I hadn't fallen over or fainted. It gradually started to fade the more I relaxed. I cut all stimulants out of my diet too. When I relaxed, I started forgetting that I was feeling it and one day it was just gone. This took about two weeks with occasional days where it was worse than the previous day, so I had to keep reminding myself to stay calm (easier said than done)

While I hate anxiety, I'm also intrigued by the way our brains can so easily make up legitimate synptoms. If we could only harness that power to work against anxiety instead of encouraging it. :)

Potter86

22-12-17, 16:39

Had this worse today as soon as i woke up my ears felt blocked and my head was lightly jerking,got ou of bed and my legs were like jelly,went on another walk doen the canal and again was like walking on a boat that is a perfect description of it,i feel my head is constantly jerking and when i look at my phone it seems the screen is gently moving from side to side each pulse,i hope this is just anxiety because im fearing the worst now

Crispy

22-12-17, 17:26

Went to do some food shopping today for Xmas - what a nightmare :mad: people pushing, shoving and jostling for a car parking position. Felt very dizzy and 'unreal' (if that makes any sense ?) and couldn't wait to get away from the place. It sounds nasty but a lot of the people whilst shopping look like mindless drones to me - yuck !

OakleyEdward

23-12-17, 09:51

@Potter86 Keep your chin up, those symptoms sound exactly like mine. I’ll sit down to watch something and take my mind off it and it looks as though the screen is gently swaying, and sometimes it actually is! I think our brains are so clever they sometimes make our heads physically move to reinforce our sense of dizziness... if that makes any sense!

Merry Christmas!

---------- Post added at 09:51 ---------- Previous post was at 09:49 ----------

@crispy Supermarkets are my worst nightmare! I think at the best of times they’re a pain, but at Christmas and with our predicament they are the worst! I find humming a tune or even wearing headphones helps when I have to go shopping, create your own little bubble of peace!

Aquilega

23-12-17, 10:13

I have been like this for 2 months now and it does get you down,plus adrenaline surges every so often,stick with it my friends.

CG5246

28-12-17, 19:39

I started to tell myself 'it's just tense muscles causing this 'and reassuring myself of the fact I hadn't fallen over or fainted. It gradually started to fade the more I relaxed. I cut all stimulants out of my diet too. When I relaxed, I started forgetting that I was feeling it and one day it was just gone. This took about two weeks with occasional days where it was worse than the previous day, so I had to keep reminding myself to stay calm (easier said than done)

While I hate anxiety, I'm also intrigued by the way our brains can so easily make up legitimate synptoms. If we could only harness that power to work against anxiety instead of encouraging it. :)

WorryRaptor,

how long ago did you have the dizziness? Have you had any recurrences?

Also were you sometimes dizzy when you sit down? I am having that problem a little bit. Thank you for your advice. I am trying your approach. Fingers crossed that it works for me.

OakleyEdward

29-12-17, 15:13

WorryRaptor,

how long ago did you have the dizziness? Have you had any recurrences?

Also were you sometimes dizzy when you sit down? I am having that problem a little bit. Thank you for your advice. I am trying your approach. Fingers crossed that it works for me.

Hey there,

Just to let you know I also suffer from it sitting down. Especially bad if I'm say meeting someone knew or having to concentrate on the conversation. Keep going and hopefully it'll diminish! I found keeping busy with productive hobbies helps.

CG5246

29-12-17, 20:57

Hey there,

Just to let you know I also suffer from it sitting down. Especially bad if I'm say meeting someone knew or having to concentrate on the conversation. Keep going and hopefully it'll diminish! I found keeping busy with productive hobbies helps.

Oakley-

Thanks for responding!! As I’m sure you understand, knowing that other people with anxiety are going through the same thing helps a lot since it’s such a weird and scary thing to experience!

I find that the dizziness while sitting just hits me at random, even when I’m not feeling nervous at all! And sometimes when I’m just thinking about it...is this true for you too? Do you feel the dizziness when sitting and moving around even if you don’t feel nervous? I have been in an anxiety spiral these past few months and not dealing with my issues over the past year until recently...I’m REALLY hoping this goes away soon and stays away! :weep:

OakleyEdward

30-12-17, 10:28

Oakley-

Thanks for responding!! As I’m sure you understand, knowing that other people with anxiety are going through the same thing helps a lot since it’s such a weird and scary thing to experience!

I find that the dizziness while sitting just hits me at random, even when I’m not feeling nervous at all! And sometimes when I’m just thinking about it...is this true for you too? Do you feel the dizziness when sitting and moving around even if you don’t feel nervous? I have been in an anxiety spiral these past few months and not dealing with my issues over the past year until recently...I’m REALLY hoping this goes away soon and stays away! :weep:

Absolutely! Never has the phrase 'a problem shared is a problem halved' rung so true for me. I've found this forum incredibly helpful as with this symptom I felt as though I was doing a bit crazy.

Completely agree with the randomness of symptoms. It can happen anytime
And anywhere for me, whether I feel nervous or not. One day walking to town is the trigger, the next just sat at home watching a film. So frustrating! I joke that this is the anxiety grand finale and after this this it's done! Hope for the best and plan for the worst ��

I also forgot to mention about the thinking question, I can literally be sat there happy and relaxed but then a little thought creeps in and I start looking around, analysing whether or not I feel it and then bam! It's back!

Speranza

30-12-17, 10:38

Hi

I've had this for decades and was eventually diagnosed with something by an ENT specialist which none of my doctors had ever even thought of. It's a totally benign condition and can be (at least temporarily) treated. It's called Benign Postural Vertigo - BPV - and it might be an idea to have a read about it. There is NO link to other conditions. It's basically caused by micro-crystals collecting in the ear canal.

Might be worth asking about it.

Potter86

30-12-17, 12:31

Absolutely! Never has the phrase 'a problem shared is a problem halved' rung so true for me. I've found this forum incredibly helpful as with this symptom I felt as though I was doing a bit crazy.

Completely agree with the randomness of symptoms. It can happen anytime
And anywhere for me, whether I feel nervous or not. One day walking to town is the trigger, the next just sat at home watching a film. So frustrating! I joke that this is the anxiety grand finale and after this this it's done! Hope for the best and plan for the worst ��

I also forgot to mention about the thinking question, I can literally be sat there happy and relaxed but then a little thought creeps in and I start looking around, analysing whether or not I feel it and then bam! It's back!

I do that ill be sat there symptom free for all of a minute then ill start thinking about it then the symptoms re appear,i havnt had the dizziness for a couple of days now no doubt itll rear its ugly head again soon

OakleyEdward

30-12-17, 15:46

Well good to hear you've had a few good days! I've had a couple of definitely more positive days. Also, just a random question for the fellow wobblers out there. Do any of you find sometimes looking at floors, uneven or not can make you feel odd? We have exposed floor boards throughout the house and sometimes, especially if I'm feeling off, they can look like sloping or all the parallel lines can make me feel off balance. I have actually resorted to getting the spirit level on some rooms and they are slightly off but not majorly.

IrishMonkey92

10-03-18, 09:11

I do that ill be sat there symptom free for all of a minute then ill start thinking about it then the symptoms re appear,i havnt had the dizziness for a couple of days now no doubt itll rear its ugly head again soon

How did you get rid of this symptom? I’ve had it at varied intensity for 2 years - it happened after a panic attack.

How long did it take to go away?