Post by KimHi Mary
What you said in your previous mail makes so much sense to me now. I wonder
I didn't have a vertigo attack.
Hi Kim,
Believe me if you had a vertigo attack, its like nothing you have ever
had before and you would know it was something very out of the ordinary
and very frightening.
Post by KimLately I'm scared of driving specifically a long drive to work and sometimes
when I stop I feel faint. It also sometimes feels when I stop my car as if
the car is moving backwards. Never knew one could get a vertigo attack from
driving - thought only from heights and flying.
The vertigo attack was not caused by driving. Something caused the
vertigo and I just happened to be driving. It was just coincidence. I
was not anxious in any way that day and had never had vertigo before. I
remember that day very well and I had no anxiety, and I have driven for
40 years and never had anxiety when driving. True, I felt nervous on the
highway, but if you saw the traffic on the highway here, it would make
anyone nervous, though not as bad as me. But I never had any anxiety
when driving in the city till that day when the vertigo happened. It
happened out of nowhere. Its not like something I would even think
about. I didn't even know what it was.
Can you give me more
Well, in my case, (can't speak for anyone else), no doctors could figure
out exactly what caused my vertigo attack, but I asked all of them if
they thought it could be anxiety, though I've never had vertigo before,
but they said it was very rare to get vertigo from anxiety, and did not
think it was that. They all thought it had to do with crystals in the
inner ear that some people can get, mainly when you are older (I am in
my late 50's), and that can cause vertigo which can be from minutes to
hours apparently. Mine lasted about 3-4 minutes but seemed like an
eternigy. Vertigo is nothing even close to feeling faint. I have had
faint feelings since that vertigo attack which was a little over two
years ago, and its a piece of cake compared to vertigo. I had never had
vertigo before and it was the most frightening experience I ever had. I
felt something was pressing down on the top of my head and everything
was spinning around like I was upside down and over to the right, over
to the left, etc. I was driving so quickly pulled in to a small plaza,
and luckily I was driving in the city and lucky that there was somewhere
to pull into. I had about 5 seconds to react or definitely someone would
have banged into the back of my car or I would have banged into a car in
front of me. I was so disoriented, I was able to put the car in park
with great difficulty but was not able to get out of the car. I had to
honk the car horn to attract attention as I was so frightened. I thought
for sure I was having a stroke. There's a lot more to it, but enough to
say I went to a walk in doctor and he said he thought from my symptoms
that it was an inner ear problem. After that, I was referred to two
neurologists and an ear specialist. they all said inner ear. One
neurologist did say there is a very small possibility of it being the
aura part of migraine, which I've had since my 20's but I've never had
that symptom before, so I doubt it was that. I had vertigo again a year
and a half ago when on holiday in the UK and it was bad as I was sitting
in a friends home, and again I had it a year ago in my own apartment.
But it was the first vertigo that caused me to have the driving phobia.
Its too bad it happened when I was driving, or my anxiety when driving
would probably never have developed the way it did.
This is not something I really like to talk about now, but I just wanted
to let you know that there is a huge difference between feeling faint or
even feeling dizzy, than vertigo. I've had them all, and I would take
feeling faint and dizzy 100 times over one attack of vertigo.
Mary