The Scary Symptoms of Vestibular Migraine: Alice In Wonderland Syndrome

HEALTH

The Scary Symptoms of Vestibular Migraine: Alice In Wonderland Syndrome

One of the scariest things about vestibular migraine is when an attack comes out of nowhere. You could be reading a book, combing your hair or just lying on the couch and a sudden wave of dizziness can abruptly take over your body leaving you in a state of panic. I have dizziness daily, but when I experience bad attacks, it can make me feel as scared as I did on the first day coming down with this illness. Anyone...

June 17, 2019

Fitness and Vestibular Migraine: 3 Exercises That Helped Me Find My Balance

If you’re an active person like me, getting diagnosed with a vestibular disorder can make walking difficult, let alone hitting the gym. For the first 6 months of my newly diagnosed condition, I was unable to do much in terms of working out. Running has always been my therapy, and I could hardly make it .25 miles before wanting to fall over. If I wasn’t running, I was taking boot camp classes at my gym, and all of a sudden,...

May 15, 2019

6 Vestibular Migraine Triggers And How To Manage Them

One question I tend to get a lot on social media is, “what are your vestibular migraine triggers?” “Do you have dizziness daily or just with migraine?” While most of us may have vestibular migraine (or VM,) I would venture to argue that all of our stories on how we first came down with this disease is specifically unique to you. Whether you were on a plane that caused your first inner ear problem or if you came down with...

April 4, 2019

5 Ways To Cope With A Vestibular Disorder

Yesterday was normal. You woke up, drove to work, had a few drinks with friends during happy hour, cooked dinner, watched your favorite TV show and then went to sleep. Never in a million years would you think that a “normal day” would be something that could be taken for granted until you lose the ability to function, well, normally. Anyone who has been diagnosed with a vestibular disorder, or frankly any chronic illness, has mourned for their old life...

January 23, 2019

How To Live A Normal-“ish” Life With Vestibular Migraines

As an ambassador for VEDA, I receive a lot of emails from other vestibular disorder sufferers about my diet, fitness, and how I live a normal life. Unfortunately, experiencing the beginnings of a vestibular diagnosis tends to take most of us down the same dark road. It’s easy to lose hope and hard for a lot of us to imagine our “new normal” aside from being a prisoner of your house. So many people, like me, find themselves in the...

December 17, 2018

Managing Your Vestibular Migraine During The Holidays

The holidays can be a fun, yet stressful time, especially if you’ve been recently diagnosed with vestibular migraines. It can be hard to want to go to a party when you’re fearful the food, lights, noise and overall environment are going to cause you to spin into a dizzy spell. While I wish I could tell you I had all of the perfected tips to make company parties, family/friend’s holiday parties and traveling home a breeze, I can give you...

October 31, 2018

Scared Dizzy: How I’ve Adjusted To A Vestibular Disorder Two Years Later

Since I can remember, Halloween has always been something I look forward to each year. I love dressing up, the decorations, haunted houses, and scary movies. And while I patiently wait for October 31st each year, it now has a new significance to me. You see, two years ago on Halloween night, an evening at home watching a scary movie with my husband, turned into a horror well beyond the two-hour rental. What felt like a stroke mixed with a...

September 20, 2018

Persevere Through The Dizziness – Do The Activities That You Love

Something that has inspired me since being diagnosed with a vestibular disorder is seeing others “defeating their dizziness” by not giving up on the things they loved pre-diagnosis. I initially had a hard time with any hobby or activity that I used to love for fear of falling or feeling embarrassed that I looked drunk. However, a lot of time and healing has passed, and along with that, has come the confidence to get myself out of my dizzy comfort...

September 18, 2018

5 Easy And Migraine-Friendly Weeknight Dinners From The Dizzy Cook

So often a vestibular migraine diagnosis is more than just being dizzy. It can be accompanied with chronic fatigue, light sensitivity, imbalance issues, hearing loss, tinnitus, brain fog, headaches and so much more. And when you’re already feeling awful it can be hard to want to pull yourself off the couch or find the energy after a long day to not only cook dinner but make sure that it’s migraine-friendly. But what if I told you that you could prepare...

September 16, 2018

Balance Awareness Week 2018: Help Vestibular Patients Find Balance

October will be the two-year anniversary of my life-changing dizzy symptoms that would later reveal itself as a diagnosis of vestibular migraines and vestibular neuritis – permanently damaging my vestibular nerve. I will never be able to forget how a night home watching a scary movie with my husband turned into a horror well beyond the two-hour rental. Sensations of falling, spinning and melting into my couch convinced me I was having a stroke, but really, I would learn that...