Vestibular Disease and Cognition

I just ran across the post from 2007 which contained an article by Kenneth Erickson on the real life effects of inner ear issues. I have copied it to keep reading it because it helps so much to know this.

Recently, my MM and MAV and BPPV symptoms have been largely under the radar of distress. I thank JOH, AV's and now betahistine for this improvement.

That said, I hired a career coach to help me rebrand myself to get back out to career land and begin earning a living. Well that has been quite a litmus test for where I really am. The process is to go back to my work history and create a case for why someone should hire me based on what I've accomplished. Makes sense, right? Well I keep hitting a wall on this and reading the job boards and seeing the huge amount of complexity and multi-tasking that is required and I simply get overwhelmed and stressed then the symptoms jump back in leading to more feeling of incapacity then survival terror and questioning why after hours of focus feeling like I do not get that I got anything accomplished. What a cycle :'(

The article really explains how vestibular issue affect capacities and this has allowed some compassion for what I am experiencing and that I am going to need an entirely different approach to this earning a living task. I had such a passionate desire to re-engage life as I used to live it to discover this is not likely going to happen even if I feel well. Hopefully this new recognition will stop the 2 am panic attacks.

Is anybody aware of any other such articles that might have updtaed information? I plan to google it now but thought to share and ask first.

 

Replying to me own email

Asked another way, has anybody noticed reduction in certain cognative skills from MM, MAV or BPPV?

 

Thanks Santa. What I appreciate about the article is it breaks brain fog down into very specific types of cognitive impairment which brain fog sorta is a general term. Of the 5 aspects, I can see at least 3 in me which I am grieving about and creates great concern about what kind of work I can do with these limitations. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the condition of my ear on any given day.

 

Again this isn't brain fog and I have been on the full JOH for a full 5 months including vincocepine. Now I cannot find the link to the article but I'll attach a link to the word doc I made. I am clear as a bell on some cognitive capacvities and fall apart if faced with others.

Since I am trying to get back to earning a living and have no idea how the 5 areas of cognition in the article might effect my ability to do a job, I am wanting to find more information. I

think I will contact the therapist's office Monday to see if they have any leads as to how I can determine this beyond finally getting a job and failing at it.

 

I just hung up the phone with Dr Kenneth Erickson. What a generous and caring soul!

He shared several ideas for what we can do to improve our congnitive functioning when dealing with vestibular disease:

1) There is a medication called Namenda which is used to treat alzheimers. It is usually not covered by insurance if not being used for that particular disease and is not cheap. He suggests giving it four weeks to determine if it is helping.

2) The antidepressant Welbutrin he found can help with energy and focus.

3) If we find ourselves in a situation where we need to learn entirely new information like having to study for something or learn a new skill, flash cards are the most effective way to avoid the overload on the congnitive function.

4) As far as therapy goes, he recommends EMDR. The stress that occurs from not being able to make sense out of things, registers in the body many times like PSTD. EMDR works with eye movements and trauma reactions so can be effective and rewiring the circuits. He warns that for some, the vesticular reaction can be a bit difficult early on but the process can reregulate the system if continued.

I will be considering all of this. Hate the idea of more medication but I trust this man.

Hope this is helpful.

 

Doesn't appear too many of us are interested in this topic but I wanted to give an update.

After speaking with Dr Erickson again, he suggested I need to get an assessment about my cognitive challenges and that indeed Kaiser has Neuropsychologists who administor the tests. I met with one last week and start 6-8 hours of testing to see what aspects of my cognitive process are impaired making certain kinds of work very difficult to do. After the results come back in, I'm to go to the Department of Rehabilitation for help getting back to work.

Apparently this is a common issue with MM sufferers but rarely proactively dealt with. Yet another example of how poorly western medical institutions deal with this disease