Austin's Success Story: recovery from BPPV, vertigo, visual symptoms derealization & more with OCD
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- Опубліковано 28 чер 2024
- Dizzy? START HERE: thesteadycoach.com/free-course
It's a pleasure to share Austin's success story with you today! Austin always had a fear of dizziness as well as OCD and anxiety, so it was his nightmare when he first experienced dizziness symptoms. Everything started May 2023 with a bout of BPPV that quickly morphed into dizziness, derealization, visual sway, chronic pain and more. Despite starting an SSRI, things progressively got worse until he was basically housebound in November 2023. Thankfully, at that point he decided there was nothing wrong him and he started desensitizing himself to his symptoms. In this interview, he describes some of the tools he used and how he's doing today.
Most notably, Austin experienced spinning vertigo as one of his symptoms. He even describes being able to bring it on just by focusing on it and feeling anxious! Spinning vertigo is excluded from the diagnostic definition of PPPD so many people who have it fear that they don’t have a neural circuit problem, but as Austin demonstrates, it absolutely can be a neural circuit symptom. Vestibular and medical testing can rule out a structural problem that is causing it.
Learn more about me on my website thesteadycoach.com
Please note that Yonit Arthur, The Steady Coach and any of our other guests are not acting as an audiologist nor offering audiology or medical services or advice on any public videos or on any other content. This channel provides wellness education and personal opinion only, and are not meant to be a substitute for medical or mental health instruction or intervention. Use any tools discussed at your own risk.
00:00:00 Intro & about Austin; he describes always having been an anxious kid
00:03:59 He had an attack of BPPV that set off a lot of researching and anxiety; the vertigo went away but dizziness remained
00:06:56 He had dissociation & derealization, rocking, walking on a boat, & general dizziness
00:09:46 He kept researching once he had to leave work and feels that was a huge contributor
00:12:50 At his worst, symptoms were 24/7 and he was having attacks of vertigo that were clearly neural circuit
00:17:23 The timeline & he decides to start desensitizing himself
00:19:19 "When you have something that intense, it's only reasonable to think there's something crazy going on with you."
00:22:33 The mindset change and taking things as they come; provoking symptoms on purpose
00:31:17 Stress made him susceptible to the symptoms; learning how to say no
00:35:39 The optimistic and resilient attitude that has led to Austin's recovery
00:42:57 "I changed my relationship with what it meant to be dizzy"- somatic tracking and being humorous about symptoms - Розваги
It can take a while, that's what makes it so hard. It's not a lightswitch that you can just flip on and off, it's like a dimmer switch up and down and all over the place. But with enough safety and reassurance your body will calm down and symptoms will fizzle out. What I've come to realize is the world is not a steady place, things move and wiggle, you'll see signs sway in the wind and water vapor on hot asphalt in the summer... your brain can trick you into having weird sensations because of that stuff that's basically what visual vertigo is, your brain in a highten state of movement. All you need to do is convince your brain of safety and it WILL eventually go back to the base line. It's not an overnight process and it might bounce around but that's normal. Stay the course and you will get better. Feel free to shoot me a message if you have any specific answers answered.
Austin
Do you have any facebook or instagram?
im almost done watching the video and i love your attitude and perspective on things now, hoping i can get there too. im not finished with the video yet but based on your comment regarding safety how exactly did you feel safe in your body despite having the sensations there? for me when i have the sensations simply saying this is pppd and just a brain error doesn't seem to help as i am physically experiencing things that are so real
@mindyli5974 it just takes time and practice, just like anything. You don't have to actually do anything, your body will adapt and desensitized. Your only job is to know you are OK and your body will start to believe that. It takes some time though... subconscious is running the show give it time be patient know it's temporary and you will be golden, be kind to yourself.
for how long did u take ssri?
Austin I relate so much to your story and it has given me hope. Thank you so much for sharing. There are just a few questions I have to help solidify my beliefs and move forwards if you don’t mind? Do you think your initial BPPV was caused by crystals out of place or stress? Can BPPV be purely neural circuit dizziness and not crystals requiring manoeuvres? I woke up one morning and turned to my left and the room started spinning. Later on in the day, I checked for the spinning sensation by lying back with head tilted to left and sure enough the spinning started again. I obsessively kept checking for the spinning by tilting my head back several times a day. The spinning progressed to other head positions and got worse. Rolling over in bed, lying flat on my back. I obsessively kept checking for the spinning by tilting my head in all sorts of angles. All the while, my anxiety became debilitating. I was diagnosed with BPPV. I haven’t been able to get an appointment with a therapist yet to perform manoeuvres, but I’m wondering if it’s possible that my brain now expects spinning when I tilt my head and so it does. I dread lying down in bed, rolling over, tilting my head back or even sitting at an angle on the sofa or a chair. But I’m starting to expose myself to these positions and telling myself I am safe and noticing some improvements..
This interview was so real and simple! I love the fact he did not go to a million doctors, he just knew it would pass. Most days I have that confidence. Feeling crummy definitely makes you more resilient!
That's the biggest challenge the up and downs but once you lose the fear it gets much easier and things taper away one by one.
I'm to the point where driving is really the only thing that gets me. So close to being all better
Hi Mam , I m from India.... I have no words to explain how your videos really helpful what I m going through since last 6 months.....no doctor understand my situation😭 they just said it's ur anxiety and gave me ssris which doesn't work for me as much ...., even my parents are also depressed about my health 😭😞..... I recently found ur UA-cam channel, to be honest I started crying while watching ur videos that there is somebody in universe who understand my situation❤ plzzz don't stop making such content on your channel .....thank you so much for awaring people about this situation......🙏
I found The Steady Coach channel about five months ago. Changed my life! I went from a dark depression to hope and progress. Keep watching her videos! And she has a free course as well as coaching and a community of us fellow recovering dizzy folks.
This truly is the way out!
Congratulations Austin on your recovery. As a fellow survivor of Yo’s interrogation, thank you for sharing your success journey. It will be a big help to others.
Loved your video man hope you are well!
@@ozcoretv9485 Thank you.
Mark, you survived AND I still quote you!
@@TheSteadyCoachIt was an honor.
Thank you both, I get something from every recovery story I hear.
Hello Dr yonit... Please make more of your somatic tracking exercises for anxiety and fear as it's really helpful❤❤
I applaud this success story. I have listened multiple time just to gather the essence of each turn in the road for Austin. I am still at the structure hungry stage. Big thank you to both of you!!
If structure makes you feel safe then by all means go for it! Safety plus time is what it takes to set your mind/symptoms back to baseline
So relatable. I got better after listening to Yonit and Dan as well! They both saved my life.
how did you feel safe in your body? i want to get better and over this so badly and watch dr. yo's videos but i feel in the moment of sensations its hard to apply the knowledge from the videos because the sensations are physically there and how can me just saying this is a brain error help me out because it doesnt
Biggest take away for me was…there’s nothing wrong with me! Let it be and get on with life. I’m gonna watch this again. Lots of wisdom here.
💯 that's me in the video take it a day at a time and when the symptoms show realize what there are and keep going, it only gets easier.
@@ozcoretv9485
I really liked what you said…”I can sit in my room and be miserable or go out and be miserable”. . Basically..going out feeling miserable is showing my brain it’s all Safe. Hope I got it right.
I love his attitude, I'm ready to take on this level of acceptance!
YUP i have a PhD in google searching my symptoms
Austin....l keep going back to places that make me feel uncomfortable but it hasn't changed my sensations
same! there has to be a perspective on the situation i’m missing
Hi Jill, I know we discussed my recommendations at the Q&A! The exposure approach works for some but not for everyone.
It can take a while, that's what makes it so hard. It's not a lightswitch that you can just flip on and off, it's like a dimmer switch up and down and all over the place. But with enough safety and reassurance your body will calm down and symptoms will fizzle out. What I've come to realize is the world is not a steady place, things move and wiggle, you'll see signs sway in the wind and water vapor on hot asphalt in the summer... your brain can trick you into having weird sensations because of that stuff that's basically what visual vertigo is, your brain in a highten state of movement. All you need to do is convince your brain of safety and it WILL eventually go back to the base line. It's not an overnight process and it might bounce around but that's normal. Stay the course and you will get better.
Austin
Thank you
OMG. I've compared driving sometimes to feeling like I'm playing a video game (I do pull over, but stuff seems like it's going by very fast, even when I'm driving slow)--it's surreal. So glad Austin learned how to control it.
I can totally relate to your description about driving. Holy cow.😢
@@crystalH30 I'm so sorry! It's bizarre and scary. I have hit things in the far periphery too, last was a dumpster in Oct. 2023. It took the passenger mirror and assembly off. But, that was before I even knew I had a vestibular disorder... Now I know the sides are the issue, so I'm really careful. Eye tests come out normal, so that's pretty weird. I hope you don't hit stuff.
The other day I was on the floor doing the guided meditation and had an intense vivid vision of someone spitting in my face super agressively and it triggered some vertigo. That was direct confirmation to me that I have a lot of hostility in my subconscious mind. Crazy experiences with this chronic dizziness..
Thanks for sharing!! ❤
Great talk
Great attitude and approach to it
I like his analogy to break ups/dating
More great information from Another perspective. Got plenty of takaways, thank you both.
This is such a wonderful recovery video! I love Austin’s approach im defo taking away lots of tips! Thank you! I have suspected vestibular N in march 2023 and PPPD. I was in such a bad way last year. I’m 13 months in and getting better. Healing does happen!! ❤ thanks again dr yo for all you do!
❤❤❤
One thing i get confused with is how do you allow and accept symptoms without then over focusing on them. I find when im allowing im focusing on the sensations not in a panicked way in this is ok brain we are safe. but lets say im talking to someone i know im still very much aware and focusing on the symptons and sensations.
Notice them in a calm way for five minutes then get on with your day, allow yourself to feel them accept them and move on with your day.
@ozcoretv9485 Thank you so much for your reply. I have the problem of moving on. Would you then try and focus on other things. I also have another question. Sometimes I don't know whether my symptoms are there or not, Sometimes I don't know it its just the natural movements of my body but I'm thinking these are extra movements. Did you ever have this problem. If so how did you deal with it. I don't know whether to always have my attention on my body to feel its natural movements
@KatyWilkinson-feller yes totally... when your body is in that highten state of movement it can play tricks on you, for instance any movie with a weird panning/ swirling motion would give me the intense feeling of vertigo. That went away after I stopped freaking out about it. Wasn't over night though.
Ask Dr. Yo: how do I work on healing my dizziness without overfocusing on it? ua-cam.com/video/t_-PHxrB4Ug/v-deo.htmlsi=l1fDN_YStCIfkOTm
This is very interesting coming at it from a CFS/ME point of view for recovery. I wonder if it would be possible to please have a video in relation to CFS/ME recovery?
Totally the same principles! Many people with neural circuit dizziness also have debilitating fatigue. Sam had both: ua-cam.com/video/og4mfWkTaiE/v-deo.html
@@TheSteadyCoach thank you very much for your reply and great advise in your videos.
There are lots of success stories with people recovering from CFS/ME and MEFM on Rebecca Tolin's somatic mind/body channel. Well worth checking out, as it's inspiring. I recovered 80% myself, just by listening to my body and doing a lot of shaking and dancing, turning trauma into journal entries and then stories I shared with the community, Chi Gong, long walks in nature - and facing the repressed emotions and traumas that led to it. Most of all, tapering off benzos and psych meds and 3 other useless prescriptions helped the most. Turns out they'd been disabling me - they worsened everything, and sedated my emotions. You can't heal what you can't feel. Trauma counseling helped too once I'd quit - Peter Levine's books and videos are wonderful, as are James Gordon's. But 4 years of inescapable stress brought the chronic fatigue back, plus pain and the usual "comorbid entities" that go along with MEFM: Irritable Bowel, Bladder, eczema, etc. But I did it once, and can do it again when life calms down - especially with the help of wonderful sites like this one! What a lot I've learned - and how fascinating most of us get our PhD's from the School of Google and the library! ;) Turning the experience into creativity in some way helps too - I dance, write, and perform now. Quite a big improvement from my 20 years mostly housebound and bedridden!
love his attitude now hoping i can get to a ur there i dont care attitude too
U can i was in your shoes as well looking and recovery videos thinking I wouldn't get there, but surprise I got there. Patience, safety, and time my friend.
Oh wow. Biggest takeaway. So you can create spinning vertigo yourself! This is the first time I ever heard anywhere on the internet that spinning vertigo can be neural circuit dizziness 🙏🏽
YES that's why I was so excited he was so clear about that! Spinning vertigo is excluded from the PPPD definition because (drumroll) that's just how they wrote the definition of it, but it can be a neural circuit problem.
Oh my goodness! Alice in Wonderland!!! I did not know what to call this but yes!!! I remember telling my husband, “ I feel short… closer to the ground”!!!
dr.yo how can i manage the stress about upcoming events or knowing i have to be somewhere i can't avoid which leads to having sensations in the present and a lot of anxiousness and fear which makes my sensations worse as well and brings ones i havent felt in a while. i have an upcoming event that involves things i havent done since before getting like this including a longer car ride and back to back events because of a family thing and i can't avoid them but just leading up to them i have been experiencing everything again and i feel so scared all the times and the second i remember the events coming up i start to feel worse and i understand how this is mindbody because just the thought of it alone makes me feel horrible but i dont know how to manage or calm down my fear because it just doesnt feel in my control and is making me sensations present today, please help me i feel horrible
You are not alone in how you are feeling. Check out this video if you haven't already ua-cam.com/video/P1tS9uuq7xA/v-deo.htmlsi=uoAFlacmPI--dMO5
Even natural supplements
Any suggestions please?
Magnesium glycinate definitely makes me feel better with no side affect, take before bed. I feel more myself less panicking I just need to stay on it.
So maybe I missed the detail of when he was using an SSRI, did he stop? or is he still using it? Great story though, glad hes feeling better and more confident to say no to things he doesnt want to do.
I did stop using before I fully recovered
Dr Yo, my pppd started with bppv ( more than once). After 4 years of pppd a d maybe 4 times bppv in these years, i did not have bppv for a longer time
But...in december 2023 i started feeling the bppv sensations again. After Several testing there seemed to be no bppv. However i kept feeling weird for 2 months. In first feb. i was tested again, than there was the bppv! They did the epply and i felt better right away! Now, end of april, i started feeling the same again😢like feeling bppv. But... with testing only a real small and slow spinning ( just like in dec) but not really like a real bppv attack. So..now i am in much doubt! I dont want to suffer for 2 months again😢what do you think about this? This morning i tested myself. NO spinning at all.
But, this evenweg, when looking up backwards with my head, the ceiling moved for a few seconds and than stopped. It makes me feel so awfull. So...is this sensation cristals? And, is it possible that even a tiny cristal can give me these sensations 😢...i dont know what to think of do! Can i get rid of this sensation? Is it a small cristall? Can i remove it? Or is it nervous system what makes me feel like this and i dont have to do anything😅🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
I’m exactly the same, wondering if it’s crystals or my nervous system? Would love to know. Definitely BPPV though as the spins happen when I move my head.
Please Dr Yonit, would you please be so kind to tell me, i feel like bppv, but when tested, there is no spinning at all. Sometimes just a little slow spinning...but not really noticeble...
When i look up i am dizzy for at least half an hour or longer. I am.so afraid there is still a small cristal lingering..that is giving me these sensations. What can i do😢i did the epply several times but no spinning, and still this sensations when looking up..please i would love your opinion.
Stop doing the maneuver if it isn't causing spinning, sometimes their can be lingering symptoms from bppv which is normal and I went through should only last a couple weeks to a month, those crystals eventually dissolve on their own anyway. Try to stop reading about it and freaking yourself out, that can can you to develop stress symptoms. You are safe and will get through this.
Hi dr Yo are any supplements for visual vertigo?
None that have been shown definitively to help. Anecdotally I have seen magnesium help, and vitamin D levels should definitely be checked and you want them on the high end of normal.
@@TheSteadyCoach thanks
My brother is being driven insane by this, we need urgent help, some sort of step by step plan to help
Which manoeuvres were done for the spinning? There are so many, Epley, Brandt Daroff, BBQ etc
He did the Epley.
@@TheSteadyCoach Thank you! How do you distinguish between BPPV caused by dislodged crystals or neural circuit dizziness, or does it not matter?
@@Midnightshow96 bppv is very predictable and goes away pretty quickly
@@ozcoretv9485 Ahh got it. My last question! I wondered if you did Epley for 2 weeks until the hard core spinning went away? I've been doing Brandt Daroff for 3 days so far, 3 x a day. Thank you!
I did it until the hard-core spinning went away but you can try what they call the half summer salt which is easier to do but I wouldn't do it a bunch just a couple of times
Holy shit finally someone called it Alice in wonderland syndrome! Yes yes yes ugh
Hi, this is literally what happened to me. I’ve been dealing with it for 11 months. I got diagnosed with binocular vision dysfunction by 4 different neuro optometrists.Does this mean that I could have possibly been misdiagnosed? I d done 16 weeks of vision therapy with no results. Sometimes I do feel like maybe doing nothing and stop trying to fix my problem would be best. On top of everything, the financial stress of trying to pay for all this therapy is making everything worse. I’m just worried that there is something wrong with my visual processing and if I do nothing it will get worse.
I went down the same route, binocular vision... they use broad symptoms that could be anything. Stop giving your money to them. Pppd amplifies pre existing conditions that you didn't notice before. I promise it's not because you have an eye misalignment issue dr yo even has a video about binocular vision disorder and debunking its association with dizziness. Notice how much free content dr yo produces, and even her paid courses are cheap as dirt... shows she truly cares and wants to help. Vs those specialist that charge you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Trust that you are OK and show your mind safety and it'll eventually balance out you you will go back to baseline.
Please see this video, I discuss BVD! ua-cam.com/video/o0F6n_QB4iU/v-deo.html
Hello mam.. I am a doctor.. and need to use a microscope for diagnosing cancers..
I had bppv recently.. and I am better in almost every aspect of life.. I can drive, and have no symptoms even with looking up or down...
Only thing that is triggering me is use of microscope... It makes me nauseated and anxious... Almost like a panic attack...for 4-5 hours.. But no specific dizziness
How can I treat this... It hampers my professional life...
Kindly help...
I’m not understanding where he is located ? French Canadian here, sorry 🤪
I'm from Saint Louis Missouri
@@ozcoretv9485your story was amazing I had a fear of dizziness since age 12 over 50 yrs ago I had the same type of parents
So proud of how far you have come
It’s bloody hard loosing the fear
That’s what I tought. It’s been 10 years for me now but I only discover Dr.Yo last spring and now I’m knowing what I have but seems like I didn’t suceed to convince my brain that I’m safe yet.
@@ozcoretv9485 Ha.. the Show Me state! Appropriate!
I have been looking for answers for years I am exhausted.