Hmmmm...Are People Here Suffering From Anxiety's Physical Symptoms or Meniere's?

Hi I wrote a long post and somehow I did it wrong so it wasn't recored. I will try again. I have bilateral Meniere's. About 18 years ago I suffered extreme anxiety and panic attacks because no one was able to diagnose the horrible symptoms I was having in my right ear. In 1992 those symptoms went bilateral. I almost had a nervous breakdown and still had no diagnoses. Fortunately I was able to see a very wise shrink who told me I had an extreme chemical imbalance in my brain from all the undiagnosed inner ear problems. He prescribed Prozac and .05 mgs of klonopin twice a day. I had a horrible time trying to convience myself that these drugs would help me, especially with all the bad publicity Prozac was getting at the time. Eventually I realized that these drugs were helping me. After seeing many doctor's, including two at the House Ear Clinic I was diagnosed with Meniere's disease.

I have pretty much tried everything, but surgery to get relief from these horrible symptoms. The vertigo has now subsided and I am left with severe bilateral distorted hearing loss, roaring clanging tinnitus and pressure. After about 14 years I am still on the same dose of prozac and klonopin I started with. Every doctor I have seen over the years, including 3 more specialists at the House Ear Clinic, have told me not to get off these medications. I still have life altering Meniere's disease, but I no longer have depression, panic, vertigo, anxiety disorder or insomnia and I am able to lead a fairly normal life. I still drive and take care of my 4 precious grandchildren. I can't always hear them, but I can hold them and see them. Yes, I am dependent on these two drugs along with the many other prescriptions and supplements I take for Thyroid and cholesterol conditions. I would never even consider getting off these mediations as I have considerable stress in my life with an ill Husband and a mother who just died on Friday. I do tons of research and tried almost all the unconventional medical treatments out there, but they do not help my Meniere's. I will keep trying. Everyone is different. But I can say, without a doubt, that these two medications probably saved my life. Carole

 

I guess my question should have been, how can anxiety cause hearing loss? I totally agree about a connection between anxiety and dizziness, and that anxiety exacerbates mm symptoms, but I am not sure about the hearing loss part. Can it be said that those with hearing loss are the true mm sufferers and others have anxiety-related issues? Or are you saying, Nassman, that you also think the hearing loss is related to anxiety as well?

I will admit I am an anxious person by nature, so I find this interesting, just having trouble connecting the hearing loss with the anxiety.

 

No need to apologize Caribbean! I am a firm believer in a viral link to vestibular disorders.

 

Then I will work NIGHT AND DAY until I find a solution for you my dear! I will even pay for your airfare up here! ;D

 

Me BAD? Come on now....

I'm a saint!

 

This is a really nice thread.

I was diagnosed with Meniere's for years, but I don't actually have it. Most of my "stuff" seems to be caused by migraine. And anxiety definitely triggers mine.

I have been given by my various docs a number of drugs to reduce anxiety; the drugs do not stop the migraine but it stops ME from making it worse. I am afraid of becoming dependent on things like valium, so I don't take it very often. I think it is going to be a combination of things that keep my migraine from popping up. Once a migraine event starts, it takes a 2 by 4 to stop it, so prevention is key (I just spent two weeks having one migraine, which was truly awful).

It is impossible to avoid stress, and anxiety is often part and parcel to stress...so I am seeking ways to avoid, reduce, and deal with stress and also ways to simply learn to relax--in other words, to not BE stressed, to not react to things as though they were stressful. It is possible to learn this.

I hope this isn't garbled. They have me on things that make me sleepy with lots of caffeine that makes me hyper---it's the first time I have been without pain in several months. I am calm and busily productive. Better living through chemistry. I am very grateful for the relief.

 

...Your statement is what I was trying to state in this thread but not very well. If the lexapro and xanax had relieved your symptoms, then I think you would have agreed that it was anxiety related. Like you said, the panic symptoms are nothing remotely akin to the MM symptoms. My wife was in the ER twice with what we and the docs thought were heart attacks. Once they determined it was not a heart attack, they gave her ativan and it all went away.
...Then she started getting the dizziness, the wobbles, and the brain fog. But unlike your case, again the anxiety meds made that go away also. Had the anxiety meds not worked, then it would have been some inner ear disorder.
Rick

 

oh the story of my life... my shrink told me "you're not dying, get over it." just love him!

it's all such a vicious cycle. if anybody here has chronic motion/movement whateveryouwannacall it and doesn't have any anxiety, please please please (i am honestly, sincerely begging you) PM me and tell me HOW you get through life without it... and without taking a benzo or anti-depressant!

i have seen sooooo many doctors over the years that tell me my motion problems are all in my head. well, yes, that is where my eyes, ears, and balance center in the brain are located, so they are right. regardless of whether it is MM, MAV, MdDS, BPPV, whatever, it isn't something a doctor can SEE. but they can see the look of horror on our faces, the sweat on our foreheads, and hear the shakiness of our voices. they can SEE the anxiety, they can't see our motion.. unless they see us fall or see nystagmus or see the results of hearing tests. i think you get my point...

for me, personally, i've had the worst anxiety and panic of my life in the last 6 months. that is on top of chronic motion that is at the worst its ever been. on a regular basis, i rock, sway, tilt, jerk. when that happens when someone visits me, i'm out in public, or in an uncomfortable situation, my head spins. i get dizzy. i am lightheaded. so i have both my illness and my anxiety making me feel soooo good.

personally, i know which symptoms are from an underlying condition, which ones are from anxiety, and how the anxiety can make the underlying condition much worse.

i definitely believe that a vestibular disorder causes anxiety. and i believe that anxiety causes vestibular symptoms. i also believe benzos can help BOTH - not just the anxiety but also the vestibular symptoms. i also believe benzos can hurt both - in their wake they leave anxiety and vestibular symptoms. that's for another thread.

nass, great thread.

 

Re: Hmmmm...Are People Here Suffering From Anxiety's Physical Symptoms or Menier

I don't know how much relevance my balance problems resulting from surgical destruction of a balance nerve has to MM type issues - but - for what it's worth - I could not keep food or water down or make any progress whatsoever until the day they removed the morphine from the iv. From the moment that was gone I was on my way to recovery. I felt it almost instantly. Sometimes, drugs are the cause not the solution.

 

may i add... DOCTORS ARE MORE WILLING TO HAND OUT BENZOS THAN THEY ARE TO GIVE OUT GOOD CANDY ON HALLOWEEN

the heck with trying to figure out what physical problem you have, let's try to make you forget about it! that doesn't work with me!

 

Nassman I agree this is another piece of the puzzle. I have Bi-lateral Meniere's and when I am having a "Meniere's" attack it is always preceded by fullness, loss of hearing in the ear that is causing the problem and then comes the vertigo, etc. I also have to battle bouts of BPPV, both ears, just more of a pain in the *ass then anything else.

But lately I have had four mild vertigo attacks, no fullness, no hearing loss but I am almost constantly off balance, lightheaded and dizzy. I have a feeling it is stress/anxiety related. I started a huge software project at work in July and we kicked it off on 1/1/08 and 2 weeks before the kick off and everyday since I have been dealing with these latest symptoms. Of course working 17 hours days since 1/1/08 doesn't help either but I am going to discuss these with my Neurotologist my next visit. I have had to restrict myself to mostly working at home through but fortunately my job enables me to this.

Mike :

 

One thing for absolute sure ... we all need to keep reading and keeping researching everything that involves vestibular disturbances. Clearly there are overlaps ... mimics ... things yet unknown. Which is why this forum is so absolutely wonderful!!!

All I know FOR SURE is that I'm responding very, very well to the MM treatment. I have been diagnosed with MM, by ENT, and neurologist and GP concur. Actually my GP is pretty astute, he first suspected 4 years ago. (I don't have panic/anxiety, but will be making my point shortly ;D)

However here is my point: we all need to make sure that we tell our doctors about every single symptom (I kept journals), AND tell doctors what works and what doesn't work. AND, if doc doesn't work with you carefully and closely, find another one.

Nassman: congrats on your promotion to Hero! I've also been promoted .... from Newbie to Jr. Member! Doesn't sound quite as impressive ;D

 

This is a very interesting thread. In my case, I have several autoimmune issues, and after being told by docs that my colon disease was anxiety, as well as my Type 1 diabetes AND overactive thyroid, I had to fight for treatment and to convince them something was really wrong. In my case I don't think they attributed it all to anxiety, just the fact that they didn't look hard enough to find out what was wrong. Or that they couldn't figure it out. I am a very happy upbeat person, and one morning woke up deaf to my first symptom of MM. I truly believe none of my disease is anxiety related, but saying that, there is no doubt with chronic illness that anxiety can go hand in hand with it. What is difficult is figuring out what is what sometimes. I think you state a very good life experience Nassman, about how you got up and started living your life again, and were able to overcome some of the anxiety. I have been on the other side with true illness, being told it was "all in my head." Talk about THAT causing anxiety! I was happy to call one doc and tell him once that it turned out it was nothing insulin couldn't fix! And once again, radioactive iodine to destroy an overactive thyroid! Oh well, we have to fight on the best we can. I do believe that if meds help you you should take them, and seek help when needed. Lisa

 

Incredible story. I am glad you got to make that phone call to that dr!

 

I have had most of everything wrong with me blamed on anxiety. I used to go to the ER with heart palpitations ever since I was 15. I was sent home saying it was all in my head, I'm just nervous. Fast forward to when I was 22 (with many trips in between) and I said I'm not leaving until you find out what's wrong. Come to find out I have supra ventricular tachycardia. And it took them all those years to find it and put me on a beta blocker. Same thing happened when I was having gasping choking heart racing episodes when I was sleeping and after having the sleep studies done I have severe sleep apnea.
I was also told for a few years that my dizziness was from anxiety too. I swear as soon as they hear you have panic disorder, that is automatically the cause of any complaint you may have. Very frustrating.

 

Hi,

wow long and interesting thread here. I have a few thoughts about these issues.

1 - meds for anxiety or depression fall right into my basic motto of : With this beast, anything that won't kill you is probably worth trying at some point.

2 - Historically, women in particular, have had to struggle against physicians dismissing physical complaints by assigning a psychiatric diagnosis. This is very frustrating to watch and I am speaking from the caregiver side not the patient side of experience. Does everyone know the inscription on the grave in Key West? Well there are quite a few creative last words there but my favorite is : " I TOLD YOU I WAS SICK !" Funny yes but also a strong comment about healthcare here.

3 - Quite a few years ago, triggered by extreme sorrows - 4 deaths, niece drugged and gang raped, brother with a ruptured cerebral aneurysim and in a coma, failed mammogram, etc - I suffered the morass of anxiety and depression. In my case 90 days of wellbutrin shifted things back to normal on a permanent basis. I am writing this as a lead in to describe what, for me, is a qualitative difference in the feeling. Anxiety/ Depression felt like a large dark hole that could not be climbed out of. Simple decisions took on a unwarranted magnitude.... deciding on which parking space to take seemed like a life and death decision. If there were any hearing/ tinnitus/ balance problems, I was unaware of them. I probably am not stating this clearly enough but, this beast does not feel like that deep, dark hole at all to me. The confusion I experience feels more like being mentally retarded rather than like any decision I make might have dire consequences. I do not have a generalized feeling of hopelessness and sadness ... then again, I am only in my first year of the beast. Maybe, it will feel like this in the future. If so, I am sure I will be chewing on wellbutrin again.

XX
OO

 

Moogs, what does SIMS stand for?

 

Great topic. I've always wondered if the chicken came before the egg or what. But then I think back to when I was a girl and absolutely could not enjoy the merry-go-round or flying swings or really any twirling motion whatsoever. I always ended up with vertigo and upset stomach.

When I was a young mother I had one terrific round of vertigo and was hospitalized for a day or two while they administered histamine.

After a hysterectomy, my vertigo events were few and far between but I still had to leave movies with car chase scenes in them....they precipitated events.\

Jump to 13 years later and I started getting wobbly and with these wobble came tinnitus. And with the scary imbalance, hearing loss and tinnitus going on for months, I experienced my first panic attack. OMG. It was nothing like what I had as a young person or am experiencing now. I didn't spin or get dizzy....I just thought I was gonna die and my heart raced and BP sky rocketed. Ativan controlled these attacks for me.

Jump to a couple years later and the tinnitus, hearing loss, and wobbles returned. But I wasn't as frightened as I had been earlier since I knew what I was dealing with. No anxiety attacks followed and have not followed since then.

For me, the ear problem created the anxiety attacks which I no longer have since I have a good idea that I'm not gonna die from this vertigo and hearing loss and can control my racing fear. I guess everyone is different.

 

Hi Shelly -

SIMS ...
Sequelae Induced Meniere's Syndrome. this is the terminology that USA docs give to Meniere's Disease symptoms that have a possible cause. In my case, a past history of one episode of viral meningitis. The list of possible causes is huge and my guess is that almost everyone on this forum has had at least one thing on that list. So, I tend to view it as mostly semantics. Of course most people who have things on the list do not go on to develop Meniere's symptoms. And knowing a possible cause does not mean there is a treatment that is different.

 

Re: Hmmmm...Are People Here Suffering From Anxiety's Physical Symptoms or Menier

I can imagine there are probably even more "causes" than are listed. There are so many things that are not known. I wish there was a way to find the cause and then have treatment based on your cause. If only it were that easy, right?