Coping With Vertigo

I was recently diagnosed with Vertigo last month and its still hard for me understand why and how this came about. Ever since I was about 12 years old I felt these weird feelings like I was floating and spinning in the air when I played outside in the cool weather but they were so minor I never mentioned it to anybody I just kept it to myself. Now I’m 23 and have experienced those same feelings ten times worse!

Last year I took a flight to Vegas and with the excitement I didn’t have time to eat breakfast just drink some coffee to keep me up. One hour into the flight I started getting really hot and suffocating I took off my sweater and still couldn’t breathe right. Since I went with two friends I didn’t want to startle them so I just panicked inside for a few minutes but I couldn’t take it so I got up to use the restroom and get some water, after a few minutes “the horrible feeling” went away.

I was scared and shocked that I made myself panic all over again and started getting anxious to get to my destination. I thought I just needed to eat something and that “it” would go away. As soon as we got there I ate and took some Aleve, everything was fine after that. That was the first time I experienced Vertigo times 10 as I like to say it.

Months passed by everything was good I was just a bit stressed out from the usual routine, work, school, working out, kid, relationships, ect. I was a faithful jogger Monday through Friday anyday I could jog! It felt good and I was in shape. I started getting minor dizziness episodes every time the sun hit me and it wouldn’t concern me at all because once again I had an excuse for it “I’m just exhausted from the work out.”

It suddenly started happening more often and I began to get scared and anxious I felt like I couldn’t relax! My job is an hour away from home and I couldn’t even drive to work or do anything. By this time I felt like I had lost it! Im the type of person that has to be doing something at all times so for me not being able to do anything made me really deppressed.

I finally had it and went to the emergency room, they checked everything and said I was fine.But…that I had Vertigo. They recommended me to a neurologist and the doctor prescribed me Xanax for anxiety and Zoloft for deppression. He told me Xanax would help me with the dizziness, spinning, and floating and that I didn’t have to take Zoloft unless I really needed it. Well my sister was also diagnosed with Vertigo a few years back but she never had the intense horrible feelings that I have.

I have been taking Xanax and it does work but sometimes I feel like I have to rely on my medication too much and I’ll stop taking them for a few days and I feel like I’m floating in the air, like my body is there but my mind isn’t. I try to explain to my friends and family that I feel like a ghost its like im there but I’m not. Nobody understands me! They say its all in my mind but thats not true because “I’m” the one going through it.

I want to know when its going to stop or what’s next? If all this happens because of an ear infection im sure it can go away. I’m so upset because I try to be healthy and I still get sick. I know I’m making things worse by worrying so much and wanting answers but I hate this feeling I want it to go away. I just want to be normal again.