Complete meltdown

Sandra, you don’t know until you know and to work yourself up before you do know is a waste of time. This coming from someone who has been pretty much in your same situation. I too suffer with severe anxiety. Have for as far back as I can remember. I have had only one true episode of vertigo and that was probably seven or eight years back. I’ve had issues with my left ear on and off for years. I would go to the ENT and we would do a hearing test with no diagnosis. More recently, I was having bouts of what you have described. The feeling of being on a boat, not where the room was spinning, but definitely off. I would walk and have to either grab the wall or my husband’s arm if he was with me. It got so bad I went to the urgent care and he scared me further by suggesting that maybe I was having a stroke and I should watch myself and call 911 if the need arose. Yikes!! This feeling continued until I couldn’t take it anymore and once again went to see a different ENT. He just looked at me and said “classic Meniere’s”. Gave me a steroid, meclizine, and a diuretic and told me no salt and good luck...........really? That’s when I found this forum and started doing some research of my own. I saw several different doctors before I stumbled upon a functional medicine neurologist. He ran a bunch of tests and said it’s not Meniere’s, but my eyes, ears and brain weren’t functioning together. One of the tests I took read my brainwaves and it turns out that I have ADHD and not anxiety. What???? The ADHD was causing anxiety but I don’t have an anxiety disorder as I had been told pretty much my whole life. So I did about six months of therapy along with neck adjustments and by the time I left there, I felt 85% better. I still have occasional bouts with my ear that last about a week and then goes away, along with it comes the boat feeling. I do eye exercises every day to help with it, so it doesn’t get out of control again.
My point is even if one doctor tells you it’s Meniere’s, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is. I mean it could be, but there is so much unknown about Meniere’s and there are so many other things that can cause the same symptoms, that you can’t get stuck in the loop of what if’s, as those of us who experience anxiety tend to do. There are so many things you can do even IF it turns out to be Meniere’s, that can help you through all of this. This forum is awesome and has a lot of people who know what you’re going through and want to help.

 

I also have GAD like you with bouts of depression and have had MM for over 15 years. I have lived a somewhat normal life, but with bouts of vertigo for years. I still ride motorcycle, drive, camp, work and go on trips. Don’t get me wrong I have my times when it gets to me, because Menieres sux!!! Lol. For a long time I stayed pretty much by myself ,afraid of when the beast is going to rear it’s ugly head and you know what? It rears it’s ugly head and I survive everytime. No, it’s not fun but it’s survivable. I’m not trying to make light of it, it’s just part of my life. I came to the conclusion a long time ago that whatever the Good Lord wants me accomplish in this life I’m going to accomplish it with Menieres.
Have I ever had vertigo attack driving? Yes three times, while riding motorcycle? Yes, 2 times. I don’t worry about what if the vertigo attacks happen I know they’re going to happen. having Menieres isn’t the end of life...it just changes it.
It your case what your describing doesn’t sound like a typical Menieres Vertigo attack, a vertigo attack doesn’t care if your laying down or standing up and it’s more the just light headedness and dizzy. It’s a total shut down of you vestibule system, you have NO balance, you cannot walk and usually puke for a good hour or two. What possibly is happening to you and it happened to me (I have anxiety too) Is I used to work myself up and the anxiety was causing me to get dizzy. Hyperventilating and building up to much CO2 in my blood. Md increased my anti anxiety med and it eased up the dizziness. I’m not saying you don’t MM (I pray you don’t ) but the symptoms your describing aren’t really pointing in that direction. Honestly I’ve had MM for a long time and dizziness hasn’t really been problematic, it’s the darn fullness, tinnitus, vertigo and hearing loss that aggravates me. Lol. It never lets me forget. Try to relax and take this stuff one day at a time. Wait to see if that’s what it is before building up your anxiety. Sometimes I think our anxiety is worse then MMS.