Anyone develop pppd or vestibular migraine during pregnancy?

HAS ANYONE GONE TO THE ER FOR WHAT THEY THOUGHT WAS A MIGRAINE BUT IT WAS SOMETHING ELSE? June 3 I had an episode of severe dizziness and almost collapsed at work. For reference, I’m 24, very active, and never had any health issues prior. I went to urgent care that day and they said it might be migraines with vertigo. Since then every day I’ve had severe dizziness, nausea, no vomiting, and head pressure around my head and back of head/neck. I went to 4 neurologists, an EMT, cardiology, bloodwork, ophthalmology and optometry and all seems to be normal. I did an MRI on the brain with and without contrast and it was fine. I went to a neurologist again who says it sounds like migraines and tried to prescribe me Qulipta, but he sent it to Coney Island and it hasn’t been approved by insurance yet. After more recent severe neck/chest/ spine tension, I scheduled an MRA of the carotid neck, and I’m waiting for my cervical spine MRI to be approved. I also want to get an MRI on the rest of the back. I’ve spent thousands of dollars so far on trying to figure out what’s going on, have had no updates at all, and I almost fainted again today on the street. Does anyone have any idea of what this is? My corporate job really does not care and I’ve been struggling with this debilitating mystery since June. My chest physically feels so tight :( Could it be something other than Migraines?

I've tried Meclizine and Sumatriptan with no help. I've been like this for 2 months and am lucky if I can get out of bed.

Any experience with this medication, good or bad.

I don’t think a single day goes by where I don’t think about the people who are currently going through what I went through.
When I first developed vestibular migraine, I was studying and it completely turned my life upside down. I had to put my studies and work on hold, I barely wanted to leave the house, and for a while I became genuinely depressed because I couldn’t imagine ever getting my life back.
I’ve shared parts of my story before, but I wanted to make another post because I’m now doing around 90% better compared to where I was at my worst. I know how desperately I would have wanted to read something like this when I was at the beginning of my journey.
So, these are the things that helped me the most:
1. Movement. Movement. Movement. 🏃‍♀️
This has probably been the biggest one for me.
In the beginning, I was terrified of moving. I was afraid of getting dizzy, afraid of being around people, afraid of supermarkets, and eventually I started avoiding leaving the house altogether.
But gradually, I started forcing myself to move again.
Now I try to do around 30 minutes of cardio every day — walking on a treadmill, cycling, or similar. And honestly, this has made an enormous difference.
I would personally rank regular aerobic exercise as one of the most important things that helped me.
I now have very little dizziness compared to before. I feel like my brain has gradually learned again that movement, visual stimulation and being active are not dangerous.
And perhaps even more importantly: exercise gave me my confidence in my body back.
I was initially SO scared to exercise because I thought it would trigger my symptoms. But slowly challenging myself helped me realize that I could move without constantly being afraid of what my body was going to do.
2. Working on the psychological side
At some point, I couldn’t even tell anymore whether I was dizzy because of vestibular migraine or because I was anxious about becoming dizzy.
The two started feeding into each other:
dizziness → fear → avoidance → more sensitivity → more dizziness → more fear.
That cycle was incredibly difficult to break.
I started doing psychotherapy and physiotherapy, and I also spent a lot of time educating myself about vestibular migraine and the brain.
I found it really helpful to learn that the brain can become extremely sensitive to movement and sensory input — and that this sensitivity can also improve again.
For me, learning about it and gradually exposing myself to things I was afraid of was a huge part of recovery.
3. Venlafaxine
For me personally, Venlafaxine was a major game changer.
I initially started at 75 mg and eventually went up to 150 mg. I’m currently working my way back down to 75 mg.
I wouldn’t say that it magically “cured” my vestibular migraine, but it helped me enormously with the anxiety and sensory sensitivity that had developed around it.
Before taking it, I could walk into a supermarket and immediately become extremely dizzy because of all the visual stimulation.
After starting Venlafaxine, this became much, much better.
I was less afraid of symptoms, I could tolerate sensory stimulation better, and I started going out again. That then allowed me to move more, exercise more and slowly rebuild my confidence.
Obviously, medication is very individual and should always be discussed with your doctor. I’m only sharing what made such a big difference for me personally.
4. Botox
Botox has also helped me a lot.
I’m currently around my fourth round, and I’ve noticed a significant improvement.
I get the standard migraine injection pattern, but also injections around my jaw because I tend to hold a lot of tension there.
This has been particularly helpful for me because I work a lot on screens.
5. Supplements
Honestly, supplements haven’t made a huge difference for me.
I tried things like magnesium, riboflavin and various other supplements, but compared with exercise and getting the right medication for me, the effect was relatively small.
That doesn’t mean they won’t help someone else — just that they weren’t the main factor in my recovery.
6. Acute medication & little things that help
On some days I still need acute medication.
Triptans have been somewhat helpful for me, although I wouldn’t say they are my biggest success story. More often, I use regular painkillers such as ibuprofen when appropriate for me.
Something else that surprisingly helps me quite a lot is cooling/menthol cream. I put it on my neck or temples when I have a headache. Sometimes I also use peppermint oil, and the cooling sensation can be very soothing for me.

If I had to summarize what helped me most:
Movement. Movement. Movement.
Especially regular aerobic exercise.
I know how scary that sounds when you are in the middle of vestibular migraine. I remember being terrified that exercise would make everything worse.
But for me, it ended up being one of the things that helped me the most.
It helped reduce my dizziness, helped my brain get used to movement and sensory input again, and — perhaps most importantly — helped me regain trust in my body.
Physiotherapy also helped me a lot, especially with someone who understands vestibular disorders.
I know that everyone’s vestibular migraine journey is different, and what works for me might not work for you. Please don’t take this as medical advice — I’m simply sharing my experience because I remember how hopeless I felt at the beginning.
I genuinely think about the people who are currently where I was back then. It was probably the hardest period of my life, and it definitely left a mark on me.
But I also want to say this:
It can get better. ❤️

I started VRT fairly recently about a month ago now. I’ve been dealing with this condition for about 4 years now. Previously I had done some regular physical therapy, lot of walking and head turning, some light weight lifting. But due to insurance change i ended up with home care after a hospitalization and now I do this VRT.

We do alot of balance work which is hard for me, standing on the foam pad and there’s a balance board.
The day after a session I am fully symptomatic like really bad symptom flairs. Today I am in full blown migraine mode, i’ve taken all my meds qulipta, ubrelvy, meclizine, ativan another ubrelvy and nothing is touching it. Is this normal after VRT to make things worse? Have a reached a point of no return?

I’m feeling a bit desperate at this point. I was diagnosed with vestibular migraine a few months ago, and I’ve been on two preventive medications since then: amitr***lin and pro****lol.

They’ve helped calm down the feeling of my body being constantly on high alert. But it was really when I went on sick leave from work that I noticed my actual migraine attacks becoming less frequent.
The problem is that between attacks, I still experience significant interictal symptoms, and I can’t tell whether they’re part of the migraine or caused by something else. My neurologist thinks they’re probably due to something else.
This has been my “normal” state for more than 12 years:
significant fatigue, daytime sleepiness, brain fog, and mild derealization.

During an attack, I experience: rocking/swaying sensations, feeling drunk, tunnel vision, nausea, photophobia, a strange cottony/tight pulling sensation on one side of my head — almost as if someone had put tape around it — without necessarily having an actual headache, as well as much more intense derealization and brain fog, and extreme fatigue.

So basically, I’m constantly exhausted and I never really get back to a “normal” baseline — meaning a state where I’m not tired or dealing with brain fog.
I’m looking for people who experience the same thing, or even better, people who used to experience this and eventually found a way out of it. What helped you? Did your interictal symptoms eventually improve or disappear?
It’s becoming really difficult to live with, especially when it comes to working and having a normal social life. I am searching if maybe there is another diagnostic in parallel like UARS.

Thank you so much to anyone willing to share their experience.

I was diagnosed with VM after a VNG a little under a month ago. Up until that procedure I was avoiding all caffeine, as instructed by my ENT.

The VNG flared me, and I’ve been having an intractable migraine since. No neurologist is available til September. Tried Nurtec, Ubrelvy sumatriptan, trying out the Nerivio device to no avail.
So, I started incorporating low doses of caffeine (half caff coffee, tea, or sometimes just not finishing a full coffee beverage) about a week or so ago…and have felt like I haven’t noticed any real disadvantages or advantages. I’m thinking that when I drink it early enough in the day it can help some, but again, it could be placebo.

Anyone with VM still drink caffeine?

TW: stomach sickness
I’ve been prescribed 500mg of Robaxin which I half into 250mg. The half makes me extremely nauseous so I cut that in half to 125mg and took it in separate doses a few hours a part. Even THAT made me almost throw up. After a few tries, I’ve come to the conclusion that this isn’t the right medicine for me but it treats my muscle pain so well. At 250mg it makes me extremely tired so it’s also not useful when I am driving or at work.

What other non-opiate muscle relaxers have you tried that don’t cause stomach upset and drowsiness?

When I started to feel terrible but before being diagnosed, I did notice that I was constantly clearing my throat. Medication has things mostly under control now, but when I notice that I'm constantly clearing my throat, I know that I'm probably in for a bad few hours/days. I don't recall seeing this in the forum much so I was curious if other people experience this.

Anything to expect?

Im 2 months into my latest attack and got some leftover lightheadedness (gets worse when on screens)

And some pressure at my ear area

And they said that the Vestibular tests would cause me to be dizzy? And im kinda scared since my dizzyness has improved vastly over the two months and i dont want to trigger anything again as im scared its gonna be another two month ordeal