Panic attack and ear problem

[Sensie]

Hello, im a 25yr old female..been suffering from anxiety panic attacks and depression for over two years now....last year my panic attacks had almost stopped and it was all good.my psychiatrist almost stopped my medication when suddenly i got a full blown panic attacks again..now im back on meds .i get these feeling of ear fullness and headaches and dizziness.i think the dizziness is what is making me anxious and making me have panic attacks.i went to ent and got my ears checked and he told i have eustachian tube dysfunction and that can cause these symptoms of dizziness.now i have started medication for that but even then whenever i feel this dizziness i almost have a attack like.m trying to rule out all the other causes which cud lead to my symtoms but dont know what to do.my psychiatrists will probably say that my anxiety is making me feel all this but i had improved so much and suddenly to deteriorate so much for no reason is what is making me feel there is something wrong..if anyone can help

[jray23]

Hi Sensie, I'm sorry to hear about your ear issues! I've been dealing with my own inner ear problem for five months (vestibular neuritis) and have had massive anxiety along with it and even a little depression at times. I say this only to note that I've done quite a lot of reading on ear issues and anxiety/depression, and the two are very much a package deal. Anxiety can very easily cause dizziness and dizziness from an ear issue very often causes anxiety...sometimes in a continuous cycle. This has even been proven in animal studies. So while it is difficult, the best thing you can do is to try to lessen your anxiety. Do the things you've done before to manage anxiety, exercise (to the extent your condition allows), meditate, eat good, try to sleep good, etc. I think you will find your physical symptoms to be more manageable at that point.

The other thing that I can share is that some of these ear problems tend to be "up and down", as in you start feeling better and then feel worse again, then better, then worse, and so on. Not a linear-type recovery. Hang in there and be tough!

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[ErinKC]

How are you doing? I'm experiencing the same thing. I get intermittent ear fullness. Usually it's not big deal, but my anxiety has been heightened recently, so it caused a major panic attack yesterday.