Dizziness & Vertigo Support Group
Dizziness is the sensation of instability. Vertigo refers to dizziness with a sensation of motion. Vertigo is more likely than other types of dizziness to be associated with nausea, vomiting, or double vision, to occur even when lying down, and to feel better with the eyes closed. If you are a frequent sufferer of dizziness or vertigo, join the group and find support.
I was diagnosed with vertigo in 2009. I went on a trip to Havasu with my job which included going in and out of the water, boats, cars and a heap of stress and sun exposure, not to mention a failing relationship I was in.
I came back from my trip and woke up the next morning with extreme vertigo, headaches and general overall sickness.
I was scared. I had no idea what was wrong and I feared the worst.
I went to CVS pharmacy first, they said it was a sore throat. I spent my time online reading blog after blog about what this could be. This did not help me. I read blog after blog (like these) about people who still had vertigo after 5 years and I felt hopeless and in complete despair.
I read this guy's blog about how to cure vertigo by incorporating healthy super power foods, I was scared to eat anything bad. This was helpful somewhat, but drained my bank account and made me lose a lot of weight.
The fact that I was losing weight was not helpful to my relationships with my family and friends. They feared for my condition because they can visually see the effect it had on me.
I decided if I was going to get any answers I would have to visit the best neurology that specialized in vertigo. I couldn't wait to see him because I wanted answers but I was scared it would be something as debilitating as MS or a brain tumor.
He diagnosed me with migraine associated vertigo after running several tests on me. He recommended that I go to physical therapy to re-train my brain to live with my vertigo.
It was incredibly helpful ( and made me super dizzy) but the cost of the physical training made my head spin even more.
I had lunch with a friend and she told me I needed to get another job. I thought, How the hell can I work with this condition?, but I had mounting medical bills and I needed money.
I didn't tell my job I had vertigo, it was a new restaurant going into town and I was under qualified to be a barista but I told them I could and I went in with a positive attitude.
This was one of the best experiences of my life. Working with vertigo was challenging at first but I was super driven. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do anything with my vertigo.
I would later go on to become the manager of the restaurant and it is still running to this day (which I consider a great accomplishment since 50% of new restaurants close within the first year), the relationship I was in ended, but I made many new ones since and we are still friends. I even took up dirt bike riding (I would refer to this as a vertigo nightmare even to this day) .
I told myself that once I cured my vertigo I would go back to blogs like this and tell everyone how I cured my vertigo. So here I am, you will get better. You will go for days, weeks, months and even years without even using the word vertigo or even thinking about it. You might have a random day where you walk into Walmart or anywhere else with synthetic light and feel like you're on a merry-go-round but those are few and far between. (Which I blame those stores, that is not natural to have lights like that!)
You need to get off these sites, stop tapping into the worry part of your brain, and begin proving to yourself that you can live with vertigo!
I came back from my trip and woke up the next morning with extreme vertigo, headaches and general overall sickness.
I was scared. I had no idea what was wrong and I feared the worst.
I went to CVS pharmacy first, they said it was a sore throat. I spent my time online reading blog after blog about what this could be. This did not help me. I read blog after blog (like these) about people who still had vertigo after 5 years and I felt hopeless and in complete despair.
I read this guy's blog about how to cure vertigo by incorporating healthy super power foods, I was scared to eat anything bad. This was helpful somewhat, but drained my bank account and made me lose a lot of weight.
The fact that I was losing weight was not helpful to my relationships with my family and friends. They feared for my condition because they can visually see the effect it had on me.
I decided if I was going to get any answers I would have to visit the best neurology that specialized in vertigo. I couldn't wait to see him because I wanted answers but I was scared it would be something as debilitating as MS or a brain tumor.
He diagnosed me with migraine associated vertigo after running several tests on me. He recommended that I go to physical therapy to re-train my brain to live with my vertigo.
It was incredibly helpful ( and made me super dizzy) but the cost of the physical training made my head spin even more.
I had lunch with a friend and she told me I needed to get another job. I thought, How the hell can I work with this condition?, but I had mounting medical bills and I needed money.
I didn't tell my job I had vertigo, it was a new restaurant going into town and I was under qualified to be a barista but I told them I could and I went in with a positive attitude.
This was one of the best experiences of my life. Working with vertigo was challenging at first but I was super driven. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do anything with my vertigo.
I would later go on to become the manager of the restaurant and it is still running to this day (which I consider a great accomplishment since 50% of new restaurants close within the first year), the relationship I was in ended, but I made many new ones since and we are still friends. I even took up dirt bike riding (I would refer to this as a vertigo nightmare even to this day) .
I told myself that once I cured my vertigo I would go back to blogs like this and tell everyone how I cured my vertigo. So here I am, you will get better. You will go for days, weeks, months and even years without even using the word vertigo or even thinking about it. You might have a random day where you walk into Walmart or anywhere else with synthetic light and feel like you're on a merry-go-round but those are few and far between. (Which I blame those stores, that is not natural to have lights like that!)
You need to get off these sites, stop tapping into the worry part of your brain, and begin proving to yourself that you can live with vertigo!
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My 6mo twin DD's are EBF and just started rice cereal on the first. Everything has been going fine except this morning one of them had a diaper rash (lots of redness around her anus). I read this as one of the signs of an allergy. BUT I did just buy a different brand diaper yesterday (which they have used randomly before w/no issues). Do you think its the cereal or the diaper? Im ready to start...
I want to remind people reading that THIS was my experience, this is how I reacted to these feeds about vertigo. If anyone reading these feels a sense of relief in their condition and a motivation to live with it, then there is hope with these blogs and discussion boards.
However, I am assuming that my audience will be people just discovering their condition and looking for hope when they need it the most. During this time, I didn't find any which made me even more grim about my future (and looking back, slowed my recovery time).
Read the hopeful stories, don't dwell on the sad hopeless stories. It might make you feel okay for awhile but its not going to help you.
*See a neurologist who specializes in DIZZINESS
This doctor will bring you to the next step in your recovery (Seeing a string of ear, nose and throat doctors etc. like I did was useless, a waste of time and frustrating)
Hitting rock bottom (like I did when I first got sick) was the best thing that happened in my life. I cannot believe that I am saying this right now because I have always seen this condition as the worst thing that happened to me. I thought I was dying. I thought my depression would take over my soul and I would be imprisoned to it for the rest of my life. I was slowly letting this take over every aspect of my life and I didn't like it, so I changed it. I changed the way I looked at my condition and pursued everything in my life with much more gusto than before I was diagnosed.
This is the moment where you can choose which path your life will go, choose the right one.
"Keep your head always toward the sun, and shadows will fall behind you" - Walt Whitman