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Laura

USA
655 Posts

Posted - 08/26/2004 :  10:42:45  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Hi, all-

Wow! I just discovered this site yesterday and I'm really glad I did. My current TMS manifestation is dizziness and I was wondering how many of you out there have suffered from this at one time or another. I have had many of the TMS problems mentioned in Dr. Sarno's books; TMJ, tension headaches, irritable bowel, urinary symptoms, back problems etc. A little over two years ago I went on a trip to Cancun with my husband and his co-workers. I didn't want to go on the trip (I'd been to Mexico twice and had bad experiences both times) but was talked into it. On my second day there, there was a "booze cruise" to an island (45 minutes there and back) which we were booked to go on. I was missing my two children very much and feeling "stuck" on this island with a bunch of drunk people. The next day, I was talked into a jet ski trip which went through a jungle where there were crocodiles in the water. Yikes! While on the jet skis, my husband hit a wave, my neck flew back, and my jaw smacked together. About that day or the next, I experienced a dizzy, floating sensation every time I leaned over. This had happened to me once in Montreal two years prior. A doctor had told me she thought I had labrynthitis and that it would be gone in three weeks. It disappeared exactly three weeks later. This time, when the sensation didn't go away I went on line and read about a syndrome known as Mal de Debarquement Disorder. It is a "rare" condition that mainly affects women in their 40's. What happens is a person goes on a cruise or long airplane ride and when they disembark their brain cannot readapt to stable land. They continue to feel as if they are rocking, floating, moving, etc. After three doctors told me they couldn't figure out what was wrong I gave myself this diagnosis because it was the only one that fit. The problem is, there is no cure and it can last for years and years. Then, I re-read Sarno's book, the Mindbody Prescription, and I started seeing myself all over that book. I am a definitely a TMS person. Dr. Sarno did mention dizziness as well. I realized there were some similarities in the people to had MDDS to the people with TMS, i.e. many women talked about having fibromyalgia, migraine headaches, and the one common denominator was that the women were under a great deal of stress when they went on the trip that caused the dizziness. I knew immediately that Mal de Debarquement was actually TMS. I saw Dr. David Schechter, in Beverly Hills, and he confirmed that I do indeed have TMS and this dizzy, floaty thing is my manifestation. I have conditioned myself to get it when I see certain people or get in certain situations. I'm working very hard to re-condition myself but it is really hard. Any thoughts? Anyone else out there who has had a similar situation? By the way, some of the people who had the "disembarkment" problem didn't even need to go on a plane or boat to get it. They just woke up that way, always during a stressful time. Dr. Sarno talks about the middle age years being a difficult time, i.e. children growing up and moving out, greater responsibility. My first experience with the dizzy feeling came at the age of 41. I traveled many times between the ages of 41 and 43 and then the trip to Cancun happened. The common factor during both trips was stress. TMS is a tricky thing.

Laura

P.S. Sorry about the long post. I realized after I started that in order to tell the whole story it would take up some room. I promise to be more brief next time!










Louise

USA
68 Posts

Posted - 08/26/2004 :  13:29:17  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Wow! I've had the floaty feeling after flying or being on a boat for years, and never even thought that it could be TMS-related. Luckily for me, I only get the "floaties" for about a day, so it's never really struck me as a being a problem. I always thought of it as just something that I get, although none of my friends has ever had the same feeling. I do see how the stress of traveling could be the cause. It's amazing to me how many of my "conditions" like asthma and allergies have disappeared since discovering TMS.

I'm a patient of Dr. Schechter, too, although I haven't seen him since last fall. I'm still having some episodes of pain, but I'm feeling so much better than I was last year. I'm going through a very stressful situation at work, and TMS has been trying very hard to rear its' ugly little head. I've gone back to journalling and I'm feeling empowered by the resultant lessening of pain. I look at the pain as a physical reminder that I'm stressed or in a situation that is out of my control, and that I need to recognize those feelings. I'm also doing much better at dismissing the physical. It doesn't grab my attention like it used to.


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Laura

USA
655 Posts

Posted - 08/26/2004 :  17:50:32  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Louise,

Just out of curiosity, are you also in your 40's? I would say 95% of the cases of the "floaties" were women in their 40's. There were a few exceptions, and even some men got it. I think for myself that when 40 came I felt like my life was over. My daughters are growing up fast and it scares me. I've been on boats, planes, and trains my whole life and this was a new one for me. It's been all I have thought about day and night, 24/7 for over two years. Dr. Schechter found that I was positive for all the tender points and he agreed that since I have had so many other TMS conditions that this is just a new one for me. I'm trying to get up the courage to get on a plane. I've missed a trip to Maui, Bermuda, and the Virgin Islands (all company paid). I really want to start living again. I miss the days of going places. Luckily, I live in Southern California so things could be worse!

Laura

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Louise

USA
68 Posts

Posted - 08/27/2004 :  10:25:44  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Laura -

Yes, I'm in my 40's - I'll be 46 in November. The kind-of strange thing about my experience with "floaties" is that I've had them since I was a kid. I think that they never took hold as a major TMS symptom because I actually kind-of like the sensation. It's like being mildly "buzzed." So, my pattern was to have the feeling for about 24 hours, and then it would go away. Another strange thing is that I flew to Cancun last month (lots of coincidences here with us!), and this was the first flight that I can remember where I didn't have the "floaty" feeling after landing. I can only guess that it went away with my asthma and a lot of my "allergies". Now if I could only get my left knee pain to give up the ghost!
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Laura

USA
655 Posts

Posted - 09/12/2004 :  16:04:10  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Hey, Louise -

I'm sorry I never responded back to you a couple of weeks ago. I've been so busy responding to other posts I forgot about my original one! I think it's great that you enjoy that feeling and that it makes you feel like you have a buzz. For me it hasn't been that way at all. In fact, just the opposite. It's getting much better, to the point that I barely notice it anymore since I've been doing my TMS work, but when it was really bad there was nothing fun about it. It feels like a bad hangover, not a pleasant buzz. Now, it occurs for me a couple seconds at a time, a couple times a day, and it's very mild. I know it's just my psyche reminding me to get in touch with my feelings and think about what's going on in my life. It truly is like a barometer. Anyway, I haven't had much of this dizzy thing lately but yesterday I was so upset with a parent (my 14 year old daughter's best friend's father) and I had it out with him on the phone. While I was listening to him, I felt extremely dizzy and anxious, like I was going to explode (I hate conflict and try my best to avoid it.) After our conversation I felt a little better but then my daughter was mad at me for calling him (his daughter had ditched my daughter and put her into a dangerous situation) cuz she said it would make things worse. Then, I experienced the worst thing for a TMS patient -- guilt! Wow, what a rough weekend. Today I'm better so I'm glad I got it off my chest. Anyway, there are definitely some similarities between the two of us. Can't believe though that the trip to Cancun was the only one that didn't cause the floating sensation. How funny!

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Ginag

51 Posts

Posted - 12/15/2004 :  14:30:10  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I, too, started developing my vertigo in my 40's and also after every vacation. I managed a travel agency and realized that the first 3 times the attacks occurred had been a day or two after I returned back from a trip.
Eventually, I was dizzy and imbalanced a good portion of the time and had to quit working. I was so frightened and it seems my symptons fed on the fear I had developed. After I found Dr. Sarno's books, I realized that the dizziness stemmed from my anger and rage. However, I can't seem to stop the symptons. I can only shorten their duration. It is so frustrating to be so helpless. I wish I knew how to control the rage. Any advice would be wonderful.Gina G
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Laura

USA
655 Posts

Posted - 12/16/2004 :  10:10:06  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Gina,

Duh! I feel like a total idiot. I read your other post before I saw this one so I just told you the whole long story, not knowing you had already read my post from August. Wow! I can't believe it started for you in your 40's and also after traveling. What is interesting is that a woman I talked to on the Mal de Debarquement (which means, by the way, failure to disembark!) was suffering with it for a long time. She finally e-mailed me and said that she enjoyed traveling too much to stop so she was going to do it anyway (I personally have not stepped foot on a plane or boat since the Cancun trip nearly 3 years ago!). This lady started on Valium a day before the trip and took it the first day upon her arrival in Honduras. While on the trip, she did many scuba dives and told me she spent a great deal of time on boats and in the water. She again took Valium for the flight home and then one night after her return. The dizziness is gone and has not returned (this was back in August I think).

Dr. Sarno would say probably that because she just went and faced her fears and did it anyway that she was cured. I mean, how could some Valium cure you? Also, she had taken Valium many times throughout the period of time she was suffering and it never did anything to help until the trip.

The so called experts believe that Mal de Debarquement is a "migraine variant" or a "hormonal problem." Well, aren't migraines a TMS equivalent? I'm dying to get on that Mal de Debarquement website and tell everyone about Dr. Sarno but I don't think you can post there anymore.

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Ginag

51 Posts

Posted - 12/16/2004 :  10:57:33  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Laura - There is no doubt that my attacks of vertigo are rage related, but I can't figure out why I am imbalanced everyday, some days more than others. I know that when I was a child I never possessed great balance, bike-riding, rollerskating, etc. So I guess that confirms what Dr. Sarno says about it setting up house somewhere in the body where there is an existing weakness. However, what really amazes me is that if I am involved in an altercation of significant emotion, I literally become a dizzy basketcase. The connection is unmistakeable. I'm beginning to wonder if my pattern of breathing has something to do with it. Maybe I cut off a substantial amount of blood flow to the affected part of the body. I wonder if anyone with dizziness problems has tried "controlled breathing" to stabilize the horrible dizziness. Like you, I also now realize I have had other Sarno manifestations such as backpain, bad allergies, tension headaches, etc. But this dizzy thing has totally consumed my life. After reading Sarno, my allergies improved tremendously and tension headaches are not as frequent. But the dizzy thing seems to be here for the duration. The actual attacks of vertigo are not as frequent but the constant imbalance almost never leaves. Sometimes I've noticed that if I have a bad dream, I wake up extremely dizzy and imbalanced. Wild, isn't it?? Then that next night, I take a xanax at bedtime and the next morning I'm pretty improved. If I take xanax during the day, I only get sleepy so that certainly is no solution. I just can't believe that my bad dreams have a definite negative effect on my dizziness. I wonder if anyone else has noticed this. Gina
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Laura

USA
655 Posts

Posted - 12/16/2004 :  11:24:44  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Gina,

What you are describing is exactly how I feel. There is a feeling of imbalance that never completely goes away. Like I said, there are days when it is almost nil, and then on those days my other TMS symptoms flare up worse. I notice the imbalance a lot when I'm bending over like, for example, bending into the back seat of my car to get grocery bags out. It's always been a floaty/imbalance/rocking feeling for me. I just cannot accept that by traveling on an airplane or sitting on a boat in completely calm water I could still feel dizzy after almost three years. My brain has a hard time accepting this. As far as the disembarkment diagnosis, the doctors still have no clue as to why this happens. All I know is that about 99% of the women who had it said that stress "sets you up" for this syndrome, i.e. being under stress at the time the trip is taken. So, it's a matter of "What came first, the chicken or the egg." I mean, stress can cause heart attacks, strokes, cancer, you name it. So, why not a sense of imbalance.

Have you ever read Louise Hay's books? She claims people with vertigo suffer from "flighty, scattered thinking." Well, that's me! And I think if you were to take the literal reason why we are feeling a loss of balance could be because we feel our lives are literally "out of balance." It's interesting where the TMS decides to reside in our bodies.

For the past couple weeks my neck and shoulders are so tense I can barely handle it. This results, of course, in horrible tension headaches. At the present time, my 15 year old daughter who has always been a perfect child has gotten in trouble twice. She's a really good kid and the two things she did I never would have expected. My husband is leaving a job he worked at for 20 years and keeps telling me "don't spend any money because I don't know how the new job is going to be and we may be broke!" (He just became a loan officer and it's all about finding a lead and getting the deal.) To top it all off, my so called "best" friend has been treating me like crap for the past year and I'm ending the friendship for my own mental and physical health, and a business partnership I've been in for a year and a half is folding. Gee, I wonder why my body is reacting like this!!!
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Laura

USA
655 Posts

Posted - 12/16/2004 :  11:27:35  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Gina,

I almost forgot. Just a word of caution; don't go on that Mal de Debarquement website unless you want to get totally freaked out. As far as I'm concerned, the TMS help forum is the only thing we can and should be reading.

Laura
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Ginag

51 Posts

Posted - 12/16/2004 :  16:46:44  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Laura - After reading what you are currently "going through" in your life, I can readily understand your suffering with this "Sarno Syndrome." I haven't read any books by Hay, but I wouldn't consider myself "flighty or a scattered thinker." I truly believe our main problem could be not feeling "in control" of important things going on in our lives. At this point in my life, my 82 year old mother lives with me and my husband in our home. She literally drives me crazy, and I know she is my main problem. This year, my husband was found to have a growth in his lung; and we are currently doing a wait and see thing - getting cat scans every 3 months to track its growth. I guess I am living with constant anxiety which ultimately turns to rage and then triggers dizziness and constant imbalance. I know life isn't a bowl of cherries, but why dizziness??? I would much rather have headaches, allergies, occasional backaches, etc. Like you, I can't even bend down to reach for things. Forget dancing and pilates. I can't move my head from side to side without losing balance. I have to admit it means so much to me to have others to communicate with. Just knowing others share my symptoms is a comfort. GINA





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Laura

USA
655 Posts

Posted - 12/16/2004 :  19:01:12  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Gina,

I think you are right on about the "loss of control" thing being the trigger to this. The fact that we are both anxious and are going through personal challenges right now says it all. I give you credit with having your Mom live with you. I get dizzy just talking to mine on the telephone! And, when my in-laws come and stay at my house when I haven't invited them it really gets me crazy too! I know people who have their parents or Mothers live with them that can handle it but I wouldn't last a week with either my parents or my in-laws.

While we are on the subject of Moms, did you grow up with a domineering, controlling mother? I did. And also my Mom suffered panic attacks (still does) and I grew up with a lot of hysteria in my home. Just curious.

You said in your last post "why dizziness - I would much rather have headaches..." Well, I would think that the brain chose the dizziness for that very reason. I mean, it's not going to give us what we want. Trust me, I've said the same thing over and over. Why dizziness. And, it's so hard to tell people you are dizzy cuz they clearly do not get it. They don't get it until they suffer from it. One woman on that MDD website said she would love to have her physician suffer with the constant swaying and motion and imbalance she feels every day so they he could understand how it feels. What has always been really hard for me is when my husband tells me I just need to get it "out of my mind" and forget it and it will go away. I've tried to tell him that it is a sensation in your head and it's really hard to shoo it out of your mind.

Trust me, I can totally relate to everything you have said. And, to add insult to injury, I haven't travelled because I'm fearful of it getting worse and going back to the level it was when I first got it.I've read about perimenopause and I know it is a symptom of that so I started using Progesterone cream in the hopes to level out my hormones. I also, at one point, was taking a vitamin B complex specifically for inner ear health, which I found out about through the lady I met on the MDD website. I know that Dr. Sarno would advise against taking it so I stopped the vitamin but I still use the cream because I think it helps with hot flashes, etc.

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Ginag

51 Posts

Posted - 12/18/2004 :  11:52:01  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Laura - Boy, did you hit the nail on the head!!! My mother was extremely controlling and intrusive to me as a child. If she could, she would be the same now; and that is the reason for the animosity between us. She also was and is melodramatic and occasionaly violent. Nasty, nasty person. In addition, I was an only child, so you can imagine the fun!!! It is plain to me that she is the main source of my TMS. Unfortunately, she does not have an adequate source of income so I'm stuck with her. I give thanks that I'm married to a calm and patient man who deals with her when need be. I often wish I had his personality. Very, very little ever bothers him. Me - on the other hand - always worried and upset about something or someone. That's probably why I'm constantly imbalanced. As for your fear of travel, don't be. Getting away from the everyday may be just what you need. Throw all caution to the wind, and have a great, maybe inbalanced, vacation!!! As Dr. Sarno says - don't give in to it. Jamaica sounds good to me!!!
GINA
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Laura

USA
655 Posts

Posted - 12/20/2004 :  18:06:03  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Gina,

It sounds like our mothers were possibly separated at birth. My mother is an only child and since she never had siblings of her own, I think she is jealous of my relationship with my sister. She has always tried to put a wedge between my sister and me and she totally plays favorites. Years ago, she told me my sister was her favorite over me and it was like someone put a dagger into my chest. That really stirred up a lot of emotion. Also, someone in her family molested me as a child and when I told her she made all sorts of excuses for it. For some reason, I keep hoping and thinking she will change and my husband says I need to give it up.

As far as the airplane trips go, I think I've really built up a fear about it and don't know when I'll be able to try to get on a plane. Someone I was talking to at a wedding yesterday told me she gets that way after taking a cruise but it only lasts a few weeks (I'm going on a few years!) Also, she said she never gets it from plane trips but other people who have posted on this forum have described getting the floating sensation after plane trips. Jamaica does sound lovely, as does Maui, the Virgin Islands, and Bermuda (all trips I missed because of this). In the meantime, we are doing a road trip to Dallas to see my sister because I'm too fearful. 24 hours each way, with two kids who have never been on a road trip longer than three hours. Sound fun?

Laura
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Ginag

51 Posts

Posted - 12/21/2004 :  14:57:49  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Laura - Since I was in the travel business, I travelled for a week at a time every other month. Even after I developed the dizziness and imbalance, I continued to fly regularly. What I will say is that once I arrived at my vacation destination, after about 2 days, I improved quite a bit. However, once I was back home, it would again manifest itself. Even though my problems began after a trip, I believe it was not the "flying" that caused it but all the emotional baggage of going away that brought it on, such as, will the kids be ok while we are away, what nonsense will my mother start while I'm gone, since I was the manager of my agency, I worried what was going on there, etc. I guess I'm trying to tell you my flying didn't worsen the condition. In fact, for a few days, it made my condition improved. You might benefit from my experiences in this instance. There's nothing like a great change of scenery to keep the inner mind occupied!!! Gina
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Laura

USA
655 Posts

Posted - 12/22/2004 :  09:24:24  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Gina,

Thank you for your wonderful advice. It's encouraging to hear. What is interesting about this disembarkment thing too is that some people who had it never even went on a trip and just "woke up" that way. Also, a couple people said they got it from driving cross country. How on earth does driving your car on a trip provoke months or years of dizziness? I know the car is in motion but it still doesn't make sense. I think you are right. It's all the pre-trip worrying that does it. I'm stressed to the max and my dizziness is having the time of it's life. I'm PMSing big time, I have a zillion gifts to wrap, about 20 loads of laundry to do before Sunday, and a host of other "duties" that only I seem to be able to do. I know that once I get to my destination I'll be with my parents and sister and this always makes me nuts. You can only imagine the inner rage I feel hanging out with my sister, my mom's "favorite." I love her and I hate her all at once.

Now that you mention it, "stress" was the common denominator with pretty much 99% of the people who had MDDS. Many people on that board posted things like "stress really sets you up for this syndrome." Well, the first time I got it I was worried about breast cancer and was awaiting surgery (I didn't have it!). The second time was at a time in my life when I was not speaking to my mother for about a year and my best friend and I were ending our friendship.

Thanks for hitting the nail on the head, Gina. Sometimes I need to be reminded. Thanks to everyone for your encouraging posts. Happy holidays to all!

Laura
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Carol

91 Posts

Posted - 12/22/2004 :  10:52:04  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I want to share a story about a friend of mine regarding this vertigo/dizziness thing. I have posted previously about my own problems with vertigo and dizziness, which are totally gone now, but this story is clasic.

My friend and co-worker was very dissatisfied with conditions at our place of employment. She was only working three days a week, so she had rationalized that she could tough it out, but things continued to get worse. She decided it was time to get another job, and scheduled an interview with a local hospital. (we are medical laboratory technologists.) The job involved weekends and some holidays, and was full time. On her way to the interview, as she was walking across the parking lot toward the hospital, she was struck down with a severe attack of vertigo. It put her on the ground. Her husband was with her, and took her to the emergency room. They sent her home with meclizine, and told her that a few days in bed should take care of it. It didn't, and she ended up having all kinds of tests. Everything was negative. Of course she never made it to the interview, and ended up just quiting the other job because she was so dizzy.

I told her my story, and that I believed that the vertigo might be related to the fact that she really didn't want that full time job. (or the part time one either) Within a week or so of our conversation her vertigo was gone. Interestingly, she is now considering returning to the place where she worked with me, and now she has developed TMJ. I am going to have another talk with her, and this time give her the MBP to read.

Carol
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Laura

USA
655 Posts

Posted - 12/22/2004 :  14:26:39  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Carol,

Wow! That is a story. Sometimes I think my vertigo continues because it keeps me here, safe on the ground, and not up in the air in a closed in (I'm claustrophic big time) space, not knowing if and when I'll see the ground again. After September 11th, who knows. Anything is possible.

Just curious, though, since I don't remember reading your other posts. What was the vertigo like that you had. I mean, did it occur after flying in a plane or being on a boat, and was it brought on by stress and negative thinking?

Laura
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Carol

91 Posts

Posted - 12/23/2004 :  17:49:57  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
There was no connection with traveling at all.

I had accepted a promotion at my lab which put me directly under the supervision of a terribly demanding and difficult pathologist. I was trying to work out some way that I could do my job and not end up fighting with her or leaving, after more than 20 years at that place. One Friday afternoon I received a letter from her accusing me of insubordination because I had expressed my disagreement with a management decision she was about to make. Our discussion had taken place early in the week, but she waited until Friday afternoon to drop the letter on my desk and leave!

I was furious and stewed about it all weekend. By Monday I was ready to quit! Shortly after arriving in my office, while sitting at my desk, the room started spinning! I had to lay down on the floor. I grabbed my telephone and called the ER. (Nice to work in a hospital). Within minutes there was a nurse there with a wheelchair. Long story short, they tested me for everything. No reason was found. I was told that it was probably an inner ear infection and I should be fine in a few days.

The doctor prescribed meclizine, which helped a lot, and the acute attacks of vertigo subsided rather soon, but I continued to have a feeling of being off balance, and of "brain fog".

After I returned to work I sat down with my boss and told her that if I could not disagree with her in the privacy of her office (or mine), I would step down from the position. I just couldn't be a yes man (woman)! Of course she was the boss, so whatever she decided would be done, but I had to be able to give her my honest opinion or I just wasn't going to stay in that position. To my amazement she agreed, and our relationship improved a lot.

The dizziness continued off and on for 2-3 years, with the rare spinning attack. At some point I began to realize that it was related to the stress I had in maintaining a working relationship with her. At that point it just gradually disappeared.

I think now that the initial attack was somehow to prevent me from quiting, which I had every intention of doing that morning. I stress that at that time I had not heard of Dr. Sarno, and I had not had any pain symptoms. They came later when a worse crisis invaded my life.

I really do believe that probably 90% or more of the people who have continuing vertigo and dizziness are experiencing TMS equivalents. I sure do know that I was!

BTW, I do not have any motion sickness. Oddly, while I had the dizziness I was able to ride in a car or ride a bike, but for awhile I couldn't walk without a stick or holding on to something.

Carol
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Laura

USA
655 Posts

Posted - 12/23/2004 :  22:59:31  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Carol,

Thank you for sharing your story with me. I'm noticing the vertigo more than ever this past week or two. Tonight I was at dinner with a friend and her mom. For some reason, every now and then I'd get "the feeling", like I'm on a boat or something. It's only a second or two, but it's enough to shake me and remind me it's not gone. It so happens that this friend I was with has a cousin who had "mal de debarquement syndrome," the weird motion syndrome I've talked about. Her cousin had it for seven years and it is finally gone. I think what is the most difficult for me is not ever knowing if the trip truly caused this or not. I feel like I'm held hostage here in L.A. I know I'm really feeling it more now because of the holiday stress, PMS, and the fact that I'm driving 24 hours to Texas in about two days to be with family.

I'm glad to hear yours went away. I hear most vertigo does eventually go away, it's just I wish I knew when that day would be. With all the other bulls--- that I endure physically, this is hands down the most distressing symptom for me, the one that I focus on the most.

Anyway, thanks and happy holidays! I'm looking forward to a spin-free 2005!

Laura
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Carol

91 Posts

Posted - 12/24/2004 :  08:17:57  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Laura, as long as you continue to believe that you have a syndrome, disease, etc., I believe that the symptoms will continue. After my pain problems started, and after finding Sarno, I started to ignore the pain and "do the work". Then, while I was laying on the couch, the room started to spin in the bad old way. My first, and instinctive, reaction was "cut the b---s---! I know what you are! The spinning immediately stopped and that was the last attack I have had.

It was interesting, while I was being evaluated, that a neurologist was having me do various things while in various positions, and while he performed a specific maneuver I had a severe spinning episode. He said that it confirmed that the problem was in my right ear, and I needed to avoid doing the specific movements he had done with my body. He said that I probably had attacks when I turned in bed to turn off my alarm. I had not had any such problems, so I became suspicious. I tried for a couple weeks to duplicate what he had done, which was to lie down flat, turn to one side, and then sit up. I was unable to duplicate the spinning no matter how hard I tried, but it would happen at times which were totally random.

It sounds like travel is your emotional trigger for the attacks. Try to decondition yourself by understanding that it is a "trigger" and not a cause. Good luck to you. This is a very debilitating problem. BTW, have you tried meclizine? Dr. Sarno has no problem with people using pills to cope with symptoms, as long as we continue to understand that they are only symptoms, and not a disease of syndrome (which, btw, is merely a collection of symptoms)

Carol
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