Dizziness/floating head feeling. TMS?

I have to say that TMS blows my mind. It’s so tricky — I mean, have you ever tried to explain it to other people, when they go on about their “bad backs,” and so on? (Who even has back pain any more — so last millennium!) In fact, I am personally a very fashion-forward gal when it comes to TMS. I had dry eye before I ever heard about it on the forums, and I had this dizziness/vertigo/disequilibrium a few years ago, and could hardly find it on the forums, but now it’s all the rage. PUN INTENDED! Let’s keep relating this stuff to our anxiety, yes, but let’s also remember what Sarno says about rage, because the anxiety can be secondary, in the sense that what is actually making you anxious is trying to control an inner energy of rage that you don’t even know is there. Anxiety is much more socially acceptable, but if you are working on a secondary emotional symptom, layered under a tertiary (third) level of physical symptoms, it can be a complicated ball of wax.

My dizziness completely succeeded in taking my full attention for quite a while. It wasn’t talked about enough here for there to be any success stories or reassurance. I did everything imaginable. I couldn’t drive on freeways for quite a while.

It went away, almost completely. Other symptoms followed. I have been under a lot of stress, most especially with the illness and right now impending death of my closest friend of 40 years. In terms of the TMS symptoms, I feel as though I am chasing a shape-shifting demon around the room of my body and mind. Or being chased. “Get thee behind me, Satan.!” “Knock it off!”

There is a (new?) study measuring the difference between people who were in a lot of pain who were allowed to express it verbally, but without any “bad words,” and those who used the very worst words, that I can’t even use on this forum. Guess whose pain went away faster? If that doesn’t lend credence to the rage theory, then I’ll eat my f*ing foot.

Love to all. We are getting better. Xxx

 

I recently heard that swearing at work makes for a more efficient and less stressful work place--

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/careers/ijustworkhere/ct-swearing-at-work-huppke-work-advice-0115-biz-20170113-column.html (Why swearing at work is just fine)
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I've been cursing a lot more at work lately and it feels good--no repercussions so far from the rest of the staff--but then again I'm the boss.

 

Bah, hilarious! I too have a dizzying (pun intended) array of TMS symptoms. Dizziness, like spinning inside my head, rather than things spinning around me, was one
of my first symptoms along with limb pain. For the first year or so I didn't see any connection with emotions, it felt so random or influenced by posture, but in the last couple months I clearly see how dizziness follows strong emotions and since I know that I can kinda nip it in the bud in first minutes. Knock on wood ... I also have this thing where I say I've mastered a symptom and then it comes back right after. Is that a thing?

 

Dizziness and vertigo is just awful.

What started off as slight dizzy spells just snowballed into this full blown crazy 24 hour, 7 days a week dizzy and vertigo syndrome. I think that was just through fear and docs not really having any clue.

Had docs saying Labrynthitis so there's me thinking somethings wrong with my inner ear. Internet scare stories of that are grim. The ENT guy just chucked a dart and labeled it "Vestibualr dysfunction". More fear added as I thought I had now a damaged balance system. Funnily enough, the two dizzy tests I passed after which were a year apart found nothing wrong and I passed with flying colours.

Wish I discovered this TMS theory earlier but whether I would have been open to it at the time is debatable.

 

Wow I have finally figured it out everyone. I'm not sure my findings are true for everyone but I thought i'll share with you in case you are like me. It's SUGAR. Every time I eat sugar, or anything with sugar black or white I get this sensation for the next week. the more sugar I eat the stronger this feeling of lightheadedness gets. Sugar needs two weeks to remove the effects from the system, so even If I eat a piece of cake in one day and a chocolate in another day the sugar in the system multiplies and the effects of it take longer to suffice. I have this tested for sure. I did do blood tests which came all normal, I think this has to do with an energy think since I am a sensitive person (or an empathy). I hope my response here helps you deal with what you have.

 

Hi p.i.h.
Certainly sugar is a good boogeyman. I’m very careful with it, as well as with other pretend foods. And... the point, for me, in this exploration of TMS is to catch myself in the act of how my body-mind creates these problems, even if it does it in the context of a reaction to a substance, or to a physical activity. There is always a new “cause” from the outside, including the so-called “physical body” outside me, on which to blame my symptoms. I’ve found these connections to be temporary relief. The real relief is in deconstructing the obsession with the symptoms and uncovering and attending to the underlying anxiety (usually) that is actually causing them through a brain loop.

For example, it just so happens that my dizziness has gone away, because I stopped giving it any attention. I could say it has gone away because of a hundred other things that I have changed, which would be like saying that it was caused by not doing those things. Which is why I came to TMS in the first place after a lifetime of trying to explain, resolve, manage and manipulate a bunch of roving symptoms.

 

PLEASE HELP ME if you have any information on this. I hope some of you are still reading this thread. I found this thread because of Leslie's post. My mother has had a "floating" sensation for at least 10 months now - it is literally driving her nuts, to the point I am afraid suicide is beginning to enter her mind.

She does not get dizzy - just has a constant floating feeling. When she lays down she gets some relief. When she gets up in the morning it starts back, sometimes in 5 minutes, and sometimes in 30 minutes. There was a few weeks of moderate relief when she was prescribed a low dose of an anti-anxiety drug. The doctor eventually increased the dosage (hoping to improve the results) - with the increase, the drug stopped working completely and even the original dose stopped working for her (strange).

She has been to a neurologist, had an MRI, plenty of blood work done, etc - all normal. She has tried a few other anti depressant drugs as well.

For anyone who recognizes these symptoms and has found some conclusion or answer, would you please share this with me? I'm not sure if TMS plays into this, or inner ear issues, eyes, etc. I have her scheduled (@ her request) to go to a psychiatrist in three weeks. I am trying to get her to an ENT, but she refuses to go until she sees a psychiaritrist first because she believes anxiety is partly to blame.

Sorry for the long post. I really appreciate any help, info, advice...

Rod

 

Rod, I've experienced this about 4 times. There is stuff on the internet about MDDS, Mal DeBarquement Syndrome. You can read about it. I used to buy into that for myself and feel like I had something incurable. There are groups that support people that have it, etc. Many people get it after cruises or train trips or anything that is movement for a period of time. And, as was for me, it was only with movement that I didn't feel it. Such as riding in a car.

I've come to understand that it is TMS. If tension can cause a lack of blood flow then certainly the inner ear and balancing nervous system can be in reaction.
In retrospect, I've realized that my incidents came on when I was going to have to do something I dreaded, or when I felt oppressed by circumstances.
If she has done all the blood work and MRI stuff, then she DOES need to look psychologically. No amount of anti-anxiety meds or SSRI's will help in the long run if her psychological issues are suppressed or unresolved.

I can still have times of feeling this way, but it's my reminder that I'm not facing something or allowing something that goes against my true feelings.

The fear of the symptom perpetuates it. As you can read on the MDDS forums, people who feel this way have INCREASING symptoms that pile on top of it.
It is unnecessary. Stress goes to our weakest link....and for your mom and others like me...it can go to that floating/out of your shoes, off balance, feeling.

Please tell your mom to truly sit down with a pen and paper and spill out on to the page what she is avoiding or worried about or her bad memories or even her current fears.

She WILL get better. Paying attention to this symptom will only keep it going. It is psychological.

I hope this helps.

Marcia

 

P/s: Rod, her dose of anti-anxiety meds stopped working because it's a placebo. She believed that it was curing her for a while. But, the psychological stuff will break through. Her TMS returned to the original symptom because it's what she fears the most.

I would strongly suggest she read The Great Pain Deception by Steven Ozanich. She will see exactly the havoc our brains can produce in our bodies.

Have confidence. She can heal!

 

Smart lady, your mom!

I've posted many times about my vague dizziness/rocking sensation/fuzzy-head - sometimes referred to as "brain fog". I was assessed by a dizziness and balance clinic that couldn't find anything wrong, but gave me exercises designed to make me less fearful of the symptoms. They didn't know about TMS, but it was a good start, and helped me to put it all together when I discovered Dr. Sarno and TMS.

This is the symptom that comes back time and again when I'm stressed and stop being mindful, and is the hardest to banish. Back in 2011 I was getting desperate and depressed, but now I don't fear it when it comes up. I accept that it's TMS, and IF I allow myself to stop, think, write, and become mindful once more, it eases off.

Don't make an ENT appointment for your mom, she's seen enough medical people who "can't find anything wrong". Get her this little life-saving book by the brilliant Dr. Claire Weekes, who wrote it decades ago: Hope & Help For Your Nerves. It still helps untold numbers of people all the time, and is recommended over and over on the forum. Available everywhere, new and used. It's my #2 life-saving book right after The Divided Mind by Dr. Sarno.

By the way, if she hasn't read The Divided Mind (my recommendation for someone with something other than back pain) or one of Dr. Sarno's earlier books, she must read that first.

And this article will give her hope - it discusses the psychological factors that increase sensations of dizziness, whether or not someone has an actual vestibular disorder: http://www.whirledfoundation.org/wp...ESS-IN-PATIENTS-WITH-VESTIBULAR-DISORDERS.pdf

 

...and read the article by Sarah Edelmann that can be found in one of the last posts of this thread: http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/psycho-physiological-dizziness-syndrome-ppds.4599/ (Psycho-Physiological Dizziness Syndrome (PPDS))