Living with migraine associated vertigo

What a name….. for over a year I suffered from constant dizziness, exhaustion and anxiety to name but a few symptoms. I was diagnosed with labyrinthitus, then FINALLY 2 weeks ago I saw a neurologist who told me it was actually migraines. Janet Jackson has recently pushed this condition to the forefront as she suffers from it too and had to cancel her concerts in the US.

Here’s what I have learnt.

• Not everyone has actually headaches, sometimes you will feel extremely dizzy and exhausted and not even realise you are going through an attack.

• It tends to be more prevalent in women – My mum suffers from constant dizziness due to this too as well as my half sisters interestingly enough.

• You look FINE! The harder part is you look fine, it’s not like you have anything to show for it, like a cast on a broken arm so it’s extremely hard to tell friends than your having a rough day and are more limited to what you can do.

• Overdoing it will make it worse – True I find walking a lot and pushing myself to go out helps me feel less like a recluse but the next day I’ll expect to spend a good few hours in bed. And that’s not even a night out drinking!

• You realise who your real friends are – I have literally stepped back from a few, our lifestyles are completely out of sync now and I just would rather avoid the drama and stress.

• Mind over matter – Acting as normal as possible and carrying on through the dizzy days helps, Who wants to moan day in and day out they feel like crap? It WONT change anything other than make you feel worse.

• Thoughts are things – I really believe that what you think about the most you will draw that to you. There have been weeks when I have thought positively about my situation, that I’m healing and I felt better. When I have a relapse and feel worse, if I worry about it and feel sorry for myself it takes longer to recover!

• Changing your lifestyle is a MUST! I used to go out every weekend and really party hard so to speak lol, even though I’m 35 I wasn’t slowing down in the slightest. Age is just a number after all. But now I can manage a few hours before the tiredness kicks in and I know when to stop.

Do you suffer from migraines and vertigo?

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