How many of you have fear of heights / roller coasters?

... on the contrary.

Acrophobia = phobia. Phobia = anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorder = mental disorder. Mental disorder = mental.

It's common to experience "physical reactions" from psychological occurrences. Those who suffer from phobia commonly experience dizziness & nausea, they sweet, hyperventilate, shake, & in severe cases vomit & pass out et cetera when exposed to said phobia. These physical reactions do not render phobia a physical disorder.

My comment neither states a) those who have Meniere's develop acrophobia - a irrational fear - after they experience Meniere's symptoms or b) those who have Meniere's develop physiological sensitivities to various forms of motion before they have Meniere's. I said they develop rational fears - rational fears are not phobias - & physiological sensitivities - again, not psychological - after they experience Meniere's symptoms.

... No. It doesn't.

Analogous to albinism, individuals with Meniere's are of higher susceptibility to physical environments (roller coasters/UV radiation) which dominate their physiological condition (vestibular/pigment) - which has nothing to do with phobia. Hence both individuals suffering Meniere's & individuals devoid of pigment are obviously going to logically fear both roller coasters/falling from a height & UV radiation. Thus my use of analogy holds true.

So, the data you're collecting is an attempt to correlate what, exactly? That a) individuals prone to motion sickness & vertigo are going to rationally avoid or fear roller coasters & falling from a height & b) if acrophobic, acrophobics will remain acrophobic because they were acrophobic prior to experiencing Meniere's symptoms? Do you not consider these correlations obvious?

 

Nathan, sorry to break it to you, but you have an utter lack of logical thinking. Let me break it down for you in very simple terms.

1) Who are you to tell me how I am supposed to feel? You obviously do not have the same fear or heights (or extreme motion) as I am, which means you have no idea what you are talking about.

2) You can pick up a dictionary and look up definitions of words. Good for you. Tons of words and phrases are wrongly defined. Do you want me to give you a list? Out of everything that people argue about on here, what's one thing everyone agrees on? Oh that's right, Menere's is NOT a disease but rather a condition or syndrome. Oh, the definition is wrong? How about that! If you like definitions so much, what don't you look up Acrophobia? First thing that pops up is wikipedia, which already links it to vestibular issues.

3) LOGIC should tell you that seeing a spider on the other side of the room (mostly mental), vs being tossed around on a roller coaster (mostly physical) are very different things, yet they are both "phobias". Or do you think being tossed around in a roller coaster has absolutely no physical impact whatsoever?

4) Your argument about albinism is just sad and makes zero sense. Albinism happens at birth or at a young age. Meniere's happen usually much later in life, 30's or 50's. See the difference?

People who have fear of heights/motion will have it BEFORE meniere's. Are you getting it or no?

If we are all albinos who only became albinos after age 30, and we were completely healthy before, and someone asks, "hey guys, did you used to get sunburnt a lot before you become albinos? I wonder if the fact we were so sensitive to sunlight when we were young is an indication or higher risk of albinism later in life" Then that would be a good analogy. But that's not the case. Get it now?


5) I am trying to figure out if there's a correlation between fear of heights and Meniere's. A pretty legit question, much like asking about ear infections and Meniere's, immune disease and meniere's, family history and meniere's, all questions asked before.

What are you trying to do? Just arguing for the sake of arguing? What's the point? If you can't be supportive why even post at all?

 

I was never afraid of heights until MM & loved roller coasters. Since bilateral MM I always feel like I'm on a roller coaster & can't stand on a step stool without holding on to something.

 

bubbagump,

would you mind sharing the links to the sources where it says that acrophobia is linked to vestibular dysfunction?

I may have misunderstood your original point.....so are you saying that acrophobia causes the vestibular issues of Meniere's Syndrome?

 

wikipedia

 

not exactly a stellar resource. The premise that if you have acrophobia then you have a vestibular issue doesn't make any sense to me.

 

it doesn't have to make sense. Meniere's doesn't make sense to anyone, yet we have it.

 

Gustav123

bubbagump there is a doctor (Harold Levinson) who connects acrophobia to a vestibular disorder. His book is called Phobia Free. Read it if you have the time. It is actually quite interesting.

 

that sounds like an interesting read....thanks!

 

Well, bubbagump. it has to make sense to me. If what you are saying about acrophobia... I go get help/therapy to rid myself of acrophobia and..... voila my vestibular issues vanish?

I wish it were so, but the acrophobia is a mental thing that causes me temporary physical reactions. The meniere's/vestibular stuff is physical and has nothing to do with my irrational fear of heights.

So for me, it still doesn't make sense and in order to deal with my meniere's , it has to.

Hope you find relief, bubbagump.

 

sorry buddy, it simply doesn't have to make sense, there's not much you or anyone can do about it.

 

If we all had that attitude, then none of us would have found relief. Lots of Meniere's sufferers have made sense of what is happening to them and found out a way to get on with life. Figuring out if AVs will help, dietary changes, determing and avoiding triggers, coping better with stress, Stephen Spring's protocol that appears to be giving people their hearing back are all ways to make sense of MM and deal with it.

I understand that you don't need to make sense of it, but I do and by doing so I have my life back.

As I said before, I hope you can get some relief, bubbagump.

 

sorry buddy, finding relief is not even close to being the same as making sense out of something.

 

bubbagump,

You can't see where making sense of what is happening to your body and figuring out how to manage your symptoms could (and has in many cases) lead to relief?

 

Oh sure, but what's that gotta do with Meniere's? You don't see most people here (if not all), AND even most doctors can't make sense of this disease? You can't see that the way people find relief in here is basically trial & error?

 

What has this got to do with rollecoasters?

FR is attempting to make you understand that your original info doesn't show causation.

 

I've already explained what this is has to do with rollercoasters. The concept is very simple and I am not going to go through it again, you can go back a read the posts.

But where do I talk about causation? Can you point me out?

FadedRose doesn't seem to understand there is a difference between "finding relief" and "understanding/making sense" of something. Do you see the difference between these two phrases?

 

OK.

I'm not getting in the middle of this. I've known Rose a long time and she's a rational person who makes sense.

Have a great day!

 

Several thoughts. First to the original post: I have had a terrible fear of heights my entire life. I had one very severe, nearly fatal fall from a cliff top in Hawai'i in 1961, but was afraid of heights long before that. BEFORE MM hit me, I could not stand near floor to ceiling windows on high floors of buildings, or at the edge of hills or cliffs. I never liked roller coasters. Actually puked a couple of times after riding one.

Second, to the bubba-Faded/Intrepid debate: no, bubba, we don't know what causes Menieres. No one does. We DO know, mostly through our own painstaking research and visits with many, many doctors and others, that there are some things that work to alleviate some of our symptoms, some things that for some people on the MM spectrum appear to result in total remission, and some people for whom nothing works. That hardly means research is futile. I am basically a lost cause. But I NEVER stop looking for help, or trying new things. Even as basically an MM .01%er, meaning I am cursed with about as extreme a form of our illness as you can have. I still care enough to research, and experiment, and to post here what happens to me when it seems worthwhile to do that.

The alternative is to give up. And if you want to do that, why keep going at all? By all logic, and for other reasons, I should have offed myself years ago. I chose not to, even though financially it would have been a lot better for my family if I had. Because they did not want me to go. And they are the reason I am still here. I DO think that for severe MM sufferers, it is important to find a purpose to continue that your limitations will allow you to pursue. I have found a few, and one of them is internet communications with old friends, congenial message boards, this forum. And I should add that I am an atheist, so I do not view my suffering as contributing to some better afterlife. I know this is my shot at life; but that is not what keeps me alive, because my daily life is not worth living. Staying alive to be there for my family is, because I can still help them with advice, comfort, sympathy, companionship within limits. Again, that is PURPOSE. Function. Usefulness. Seek it, find it within the parameters MM gives you, and never stop seeking ways to push MM back.

Forgive me for ending with a poem, but I seem to do that more here when there is a literary forum for that sort of thing. But Dylan Thomas said things so appropriate in his "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" that I felt compelled to close with it here:

"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Fight, bubba. Fight.