Unexplained vertigo making me anxious

[Daisylion]

I have been experiencing vertigo and dizzy spells for 3 months. It comes and goes so I could have it for 48 hours and then it disappears for a few days and then comes back again. It has happened just when I've been lying still with my eyes closed, when I've been out for walks, when coming inside after being outside, just pottering about at home, working etc. Doesn't seem to be any pattern to it.

Not sure if it's relevant but:

For a few years I've had occasional slightly blurred vision in my right eye but the optician can't find anything wrong with my eyes and said it could be eye strain or dry eyes. I have slight horizontal misalignment of my eyes so wear glasses with a small prism to correct this but I only wear these for reading/computer work.

I have recently been getting occasional mild pulsatile tinnitus in my left ear and mild earache in both ears. Hearing isn't affected. GP said my ears look fine.

I've been having mild sinus pressure for about 6 months, complicated by sinusitis in the middle of that and hayfever which I have prescription nasal spray and eye drops for. No congestion, just slight feeling of pressure, which again comes and goes occasionally.

No headaches, no nausea, no hearing loss, otherwise generally fit and well, am 43 years old.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this?

I don't think it's labrynthitis or vestibular neuritis as I've had that before and it came on suddenly and was there all the time but gradually got better until after I was completely better after 8 weeks.

After telling me not to worry about it for the past 3 months I eventually got my GP to take me seriously and I got an appointment with him last week. He thought it could be Menieres disease and gave me some tablets (betahistine?) to take to see if it would improve, which it hasn't.

I have health anxiety so tend to assume worst case scenario and I have a brain tumour or something. The GP said none of this suggests brain tumour to him but I do struggle to trust doctors as my DD is disabled due to medical negligence at birth.

What else could cause vertigo/dizziness? Could it actually be anxiety causing it? I feel like the dizziness is causing the anxiety rather than the other way around! Or could my eye issue cause it (but have had the eye issue for years and dizziness is recent)? I am going to push for an ENT referral but GP said the waiting list is really long.

Sorry for long post but didn't want to drip feed. Would appreciate any advice or insight.

I'm the original OP. I saw an ENT privately in the end and he thinks it is vestibular decompensation. I had labrynthitis/vestibular neuritis 2 years ago and he said that sometimes the brain "forgets" how it compensated for the vestibular problems and all the signals get mixed up (he explained it much better than that!). It can be triggered by a virus or stress and I was pretty stressed at the time. I've had some vestibular physiotherapy that has helped a lot and I would say it is now about 80% better. He said the other possibility is that it is vestibular migraine but I'm not sure that fits as well. In any case, I'm feeling much better now and really glad I got the referral.

I’ve had two horrendous experiences as you describe Dita73. Mine were caused by neck issues.

OP do you have any problems with your neck?

No, not really but I do clench my teeth at night and have tight shoulder muscles so think the tension also travels through my neck. The physio gave me some neck stretches, not sure if they help but they feel good.

Crikey, just came on here to see if there was anything about vertigo and found this! dita73 I had the same in February this year, got out of bed one morning and fell straight back onto it with no idea what was happening, called the doctor who said probably vertigo and it would go which it did after about 3 days.

Then this Sunday, I felt a bit weird and it suddenly came on again, not so bad but on Monday morning it was bad again. It is almost out of body, it is horrible! Terrible headache yesterday, so guessing a migraine that had started Sunday / Monday and this morning I feel slightly better than yesterday (felt nauseous yesterday morning) but it's still there and my neck feels weird.

When lying down, I can't turn onto my right side at all as everything starts spinning, left side is ok.

I don't quite know what to do now, is it worth a phone call to the doctor? I feel like they won't be able to do anything.

I cannot imagine having this for much longer let alone 3 months! It's very unpleasant.

GP said to try the betahistine and if it doesn't work then it probably isn't Menieres. That sounds wrong if it doesn't always work?

That’s really negligent. Serc doesn’t have great proven efficacy with Menieres but is pretty due to limited options. I have a hard time believing Menieres being ruled out on the basis of non-response to a treatment that’s just as likely to work as not. I’d lay money on Menieres and would see an ENT who has an interest in it as opposed to any old ENT.

Sorry, another thing is, have you had an MRI? I do know of one person with similar symptoms where it turned out it was caused by a structural malformation affecting a certain blood vessel in the head in simple terms. Was a mystery why it had just started when the malformation (wasn’t just blood vessel, was more involved) was obviously congenital and it wasn’t until this point they even knew they had it. Had no other effect on them, just this symptom which had come out of nowhere. Small tumour(s) on certain nerve may also be another cause but extraordinarily rare but would show on MRI, really doubt this though.

@Daisylion how are you now? I am having the same thing as you :( had it for months! Hope ur better! I am so fed up xxx

DH probably has Menieres, slowly progressing. His hearing hasn't declined he just gets dizzy spells. He's used to them & just waits for them to pass. Most often first thing out of bed, he was told it's to do with 'bits floating' in the ear fluid so they have to settle down before the dizziness goes away.

@Daisylion how are you now? X

Hi, pretty much all my symptoms are gone now. I got vestibular exercises from the physio which helped. Mainly what helped was knowing that it wasn't anything serious. I do think a lot of weird things like this can be caused by stress and anxiety.