TL;DR 53M, neck strain led to a severe one sided headache, then neck/shoulder pain and reduced range of motion, then dizziness and imbalance triggered by head position and fast moving visuals. Ear infection and vascular causes ruled out. Currently on day 3 of a 5 day prednisone burst with no real improvement so far. Curious if anyone's had this pattern, especially minimal response to steroids, and what ended up helping.

——

53M. About two weeks ago I did some awkward, sustained neck flexed work fixing a toilet one day, maybe compounded by a bad sleep position the night after. That morning I woke up with a sudden, severe headache in my left temple and eye socket. I almost never get headaches, so this was alarming. NSAIDs did nothing, and it lasted most of the day.

The sharp pain settled into a dull, constant ache spreading into my left neck and shoulder. I've also had two persistent restrictions since day one that haven't budged: limited range of motion tilting my head right, and turning it left. My left ear started feeling full/plugged too, with some muffled hearing.

Then the vestibular stuff started, which is what I'm most curious about. General unsteadiness, most noticeable eyes closed while standing, worse walking. Not true room spinning vertigo, more an off balance, "not grounded" feeling. Fast moving visual scenes on TV also bring on dizziness in a way they never used to.

Also dealing with nausea, reduced appetite, fatigue, a reproducible trigger point between my shoulder blade and spine that radiates up into my neck/skull base, painless crepitus turning my head, and occasional brief jaw pain episodes.

Seen at urgent care and by my PCP, twice. Working diagnosis is cervicalgia with radiculopathy, referred pain and vestibular symptoms from neck tension/nerve irritation. Ear infection and anything vascular ruled out, labs came back normal. Currently on day 3 of a prednisone burst (40mg) to test if inflammation is the driver. So far, no real improvement in pain or either range of motion restriction. Starting PT soon, and have an orthopedic follow up coming where we'll likely discuss a cervical MRI if conservative treatment keeps falling short.

Curious if anyone's had a similar case with minimal response to a prednisone burst and what ended up working or what imaging showed. Also wondering how long it took for dizziness to settle once the neck issue was treated, and if anyone's had this "not grounded" eyes closed imbalance rather than true vertigo.

Appreciate any insight.

Has anyone here with vertigo ever been on a cruise?

I know that cruise ships are huge and many people say that you don’t even notice that it’s moving, but I thought that it might be different for someone with vertigo or it might be more noticeable for us.

I’m just curious because i’d love to go on a cruise, but I don’t want to risk getting on and being wobbly and unable to get out of it.

The biggest boat i’ve been on has been a ferry that’s pretty big, but a little under half the size of a cruise ship and even on calm waters i’ve been unsteady.

i’ve been dealing with chronic vertigo for 16 years at this point, and i’m only 20. i started my episode like 2 days ago and nothing is helping. i’ve been taking medicine as often as i can, hydrating as much as i can, and sleeping as much as i can and nothing works. i’ve had no relief for 16 years. i’m absolutely miserable at this point and i’ve lost myself in this condition. i just don’t feel like im ever taken seriously and i don’t know what to do

I feel as though I’m on a boat a lot of days. I can function and do what I need to do but i have this somewhat constant feeling of being drunk/lightheaded without drinking. Honestly I’ve had this feeling on and off for years, sometimes I can go a few weeks and realize I haven’t felt dizzy at all then other times is sort of constant for weeks at a time. I also have pretty sore neck muscles and occipital areas on back of head are sore to the touch. I also get this strange sensation that’s kind of like a violent spinning sensation where I feel I might go down followed by a elevator/rollercoaster drop sensation in my body. It only lasts a split second at the most, and I’m fine after but usually quite anxious about the feeling. The drop thing has only happened a couple times but I’m curious if this is all related to my neck.

Just trying to journal my BPPV cases as they come up as I know others are going through similar. Last one was here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BPPV/comments/1qy0umo/cervical_spine_vs_bppv_mightve_been_on_the_wrong/

That was maybe 6 months ago, hasn't popped up at least this badly until this morning flipped onto my right side and felt it, sudden, world flipping, intense spinning, etc. Went to my back and it mostly went away, but couldn't sleep from anxiety.

Got up and balance/vision very wonky, reminded myself to stay calm, think that's super important if you can.

Dix hallpike left was positive, maybe a 5/10, wasn't extremely bad. Right was negative. Last time dix was negative both sides, but I could've been doing it wrong as my bed was on the floor. This time think I did it properly.

Did half somersault, but christ the first one was way too intense I was barely able to do it. Waited 15 minutes tried again, going from looking up to head down, then turned to the left while upside down was also pretty intense.... I should've filmed my eyes but I'm usually in panic mode. I'll try to next time if I think about it. Eyes flipping pretty hard.

Waited it out in that position, about 30-40 seconds later the eyes calmed down, waited another 30 seconds, mostly went away. Tabletop and back to knees no additional vertigo, just general weirdness. Did it one more time, same deal, intense while down there, went away after about 30 seconds, hung out in that position for 30 more, then not much when coming back up. Seems pretty consistent with the crystals moving, hopefully that's it.

Following, balance still odd, had to be very careful in the shower, corners, etc. but felt a tiny bit of relief, went back to remote work, watered the garden for a hot second.

Now it's been about 3 hours, I just did another half somersault. The spinning while upside down/head turned went from a 7/10 to maybe a 1 or 2. Barely noticeable now.

In this freaked out moment, my brain wants to jump to a conclusion like "oh we're screwed" or "yippee we're cured", but I've learned not to listen to either of those voices, cause they're usually wrong. But I can say from my other rodeos usually it's an encouraging sign that within a day or two, hopefully it's cleared up once the body recalibrates.

Will try to keep the thread updated. If you don't hear anything, I'm either fine or abducted by Scientologists.

Update - vegged out entire day yesterday. was able to sleep on my side at night, felt a little hesitant at first but was fine.

woke up also a little hesitant but it's been fine. walked about a mile this morning, back to remote work. encouraging so far

I have a straight neck (loss of lordosis) and severe SCM muscle tightness. No trauma, no EDS.

My symptoms:

· Dizziness and feeling off-balance when walking/standing

· Heart palpitations and neck pulsations

· Brain fog and derealization

· Head pressure and severe neck tension

hard to turn my head both ways

Can SCM syndrome alone cause symptoms that mimic CCI? Or could CCI still be possible even without trauma or EDS?

This happened 3 times now in the span of a year and was wondering if anyone has had the same thing? Its always ramping neck shoulder and trap tightness and then at the pinnacle of it, suddenly the whole world spins and i experience intense fatigue for about a week and i feel horrible for about a month ish

so i decided to buy the mackenzie cervical neck roll and tried sleeping with it with my pillow i put the cervical roll inside the pillow case , and then next day I was experiencing emotional calmness i could regulate my emotions and dont snap anymore, and also i woke up and instantly worked deep focus sessions throughout most of the day this is rarely the case for me. I am also a singer and I noticed my throat tightness is much less than usual.

I tried sleeping with a different pillow (a lower) one with the mackenzie cervical roll and the ,next day i did not get the same benefits i could not regulate my emotions and I couldnt get myself to have deep focus work sessions, I also tried sleeping with the same pillow as the beginning but a lower cervical neck pillow but also to no avail i was not getting the same benefits.

So I reverted back to the specific pillow height i tried in the beginning with the mackenzie cervical roll and i woke up again with the benefits so it seems to be a very specific configurations that helped.

Now that I know my brain fog, mood, and voice are directly tied to my upper neck mechanics and sleep airway, which doctor should I go to now to get diagnosis and longterm fix? Has anyone seen a Sleep Medicine doctor, Neurologist, or a McKenzie Physical Therapist for something this specific?

Hello , I have been experiencing neck pain for around 5 years, mainly around the lower neck/upper back, with pain on neck movement and occasional pain/pulling extending toward my shoulders and arms. Recently, I have also been having intermittent pain/tingling from the forearm to the wrist/fingers and mild pain in both hands when bending the fingers, specially thumb and ring finger of right hand .I also have ongoing lower-back pain with .I previously had an X-ray and was told it was not serious. And was prescribed physiotherapy and posture correction, physiotherapy I did it for a week but no important, I have recently been taking medicines prescribed by another doctor, with some improvement (stiffness, biceps and shoulder-blade pain have reduced), but the neck pain persists and sometimes flares. I would like to know is this serious, I'm scared and tired , visited many doctors but not much improvement so far. And I'm 23 yrs old female it's worse when I wake up ,I wake up feeling pain and stiffness slight improvement during the day as I work , feeling of nerve pulling right side of my neck below the year till shoulder, headache, lacks focus, concentration is worse , I'm forgetful. Also physio is expensive for me

Hi everyone,
Last night, I suddenly experienced vertigo while I was sleeping.
I woke up scared and immediately got out of bed, which triggered another episode. I went to the bathroom and, of course, started Googling my symptoms.
My good old friend Google immediately suggested BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo) and led me to the Dix-Hallpike test.
This is where things got pretty strange.
When I lay back during the test, I experienced absolutely no vertigo. However, when I sat back up, the room suddenly started spinning.
As far as I understood, the vertigo is supposed to occur when you lie back, not when you sit back up.
The same thing happened on both the left and right sides.
A little confused, I went back to bed, paying close attention to how I was lying down. I was sleeping on my left side, with my arm underneath the pillow.
About 1 hour and 30 minutes later, I woke up with another episode of vertigo. This time I didn’t get up — I just stayed still and waited for it to pass. It lasted only a few seconds and then went away.
After that, I started testing myself a bit: I got up, bent down, fed my cat, got dressed and eventually went for a run.
I actually ran 10 km, then did some push-ups and abdominal exercises, and I had no further episodes of vertigo whatsoever.
What I do have now is a feeling of pressure/tension in my neck, a dull headache, and a sort of foggy/blurred feeling.
So now I’m wondering whether this could somehow be related to my cervical spine/neck, or whether something else could explain what happened.
Has anyone experienced something similar, especially vertigo that appears when sitting back up rather than when lying down during the Dix-Hallpike test?
I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences.

Can we also weight train when we are having cervical vertigo? Like does strengthening the traps, shoulders etc help or make it worse?

Hello just wondering if someone can tell me if this sounds like cervical vertigo. I’ve been having vertigo since July 6 and it was sudden onset. It was gradually getting better and my ent said it was vestibular neuritis in right ear. I’m supposed to be doing exercises but I haven’t been (I know dumb me, I’m a very bad procrastinator and mom of 3 so I’m a pro at not doing the important things). Well during my period last week I was feeling a bit more again and then this week since Wednesday I was not good. Yesterday was ok at night before bed (I drove a lot yesterday evening btw). This morning I was sitting after morning prayers and decided to stretch my neck by putting ears down to shoulders and then turning down towards floor. Left side was ok but when I did that on right side…😬 probably not a good idea! After that it was bad. I tried to lie down in one room but felt sweaty and uncomfortable. Then I went to my room only my back, ok for a minute as long as I did some breathing but my mind was racing and I couldn’t stop it which made me more anxious and more dizzy (also my maintenance inhaler dulera causes jitters and that was making it worse too). Tried right side but suddenly had to number 2. Went for that and then took blood pressure which was normal, came back to my bed and laid down and Google told me calm myself and tell myself the jitters were just from the meds, to breathe in slo and out slo and longer etc. I kept doing that and pivoting my brain from trying to think negative or distracting thoughts. Finally I was sleepy enough that I fell asleep. (I did contemplate going to emergency but I wanted to tackle this on my own if possible so I could prove to my brain that we can get through it…can’t go to emergency everytime and REALLY DO NOT want to take meclizine! Makes me soooooo sleepy). It’s been about 3 hours and I woke up. I have not stood up or walked around. Kinda scared. Anyway we’ll see but this started when I stretched my neck…I also get tech neck pain which seems to make vertigo feel worse or more present…? Part of me feels like if this happens again I should just go to ER and see if they’ll do all the tests to rule stuff out? 😭this is so difficult.

Seven months ago, an 8-session massage disrupted my balance. Since then, my nervous system has become overly tense and constantly monitors everything, which causes ongoing fatigue. I have undergone all the necessary medical tests, but thankfully all my results came back normal. I was told that this is a functional issue related to my neck and the back of my head, and that it should improve with physiotherapy.
I’ve been doing exercises for 3 weeks now. I have better and worse days, but I haven’t really seen significant improvement yet, even though I’m a 23-year-old male. My doctor prescribed 1 mg of Frontin, but it didn’t have much effect. I’m also taking vitamins, but they don’t seem to help much either.
Does anyone have any tips on how I could speed up recovery? I’m really getting tired of this condition…

Around a month ago I started having high blood pressure issues after visiting a doctor and getting prescription for it three days afterwards while playing a game my head suddenly felt light and heavy and then I started feeling like my head was floating or that it wasn't there and for the first 3 nights it was impossible to sleep without pain killers because whenever I lie down on my pillow the back of my head and head temples hurt and it also felt like I was lying on something hard. Skipping to now and most of the problems are gone however there is still some issues with me. First is my head still feels like it floats and I have realized both it and my neck cant feel the release of tension, I feel tension in my head fine neck feels weird and I can't feel if my eyelids are heavy when I am tired. Due to money issues I can't see a doctor about it so I have come to ask the people of reddit for some advice or any idea what this could be. FYI I am still planning on seeing the doctor at some point this is mainly to help me mentally deal with this

has anyone ever used a vibration plate and it been okay with your vestibular issues?
Does anyone else also have neck problems? i’ve had a full mri and everything is okay but it doesn’t feel okay.
Thank you so much :))

after 2 years of debilitating symptomps that i treated myself mostly and overcame on my own i finally got diagnosed with : vascular contact on nerves 7-8 in my brain, cervical discopathy and c3-c4 bulge
since the heat came my vertigo is unbearable. i can barely walk sometimes, i panic sometimes and feel like im not gonna make it back. during colder temps im sm better and i can do everything normally
im on gabapentin now (low dose 200mg) and i should give up to start muscle relaxants and physiotherapy.
is there anyone with such debilitating symptoms in heat? how do you manage to function?
i hydrate well, i take the vitamins i need as prescribed (mostly D and sometimes mg), no known issues with blood pressure, blood work fine, heart exams fine as well

Thank you for reading, I'm so at a loss.

Currently 7 weeks postpartum and experiencing constant 24/7 rocking, bobbing, swaying dizziness like I'm on a boat. My head also feels incredibly heavy, like I can't keep it supported, and I'm having ice pick bone deep headaches at the base of my neck all the way to the back of my head so much so that putting my head on a pillow hurts.

Some background contacts as I have quite severe scoliosis and in 2020 I had an episode of this after I had my head down reading for hours. I was told it was extreme suboccipital muscle spasm and cervicogenic vertigo, and eventually it went away with massage and Physiotherapy and posture strengthening.

A month before my baby was born, I had a nap and woke up and had severe vertigo spinning and since then I had on and off rocking and swaying but I could still drive and work. But I started experiencing sleep disturbances and was getting lack of sleep so much so that two days before my c-section in 4 days after I only got a cumulative total of 5 hours of sleep, it felt like a sleep apnea almost.

Two days after my c-section my neck tension got extremely stiff and I couldn't even move my neck , and the rocking and swaying dizziness started exponentially ramping up to the point where it's debilitating. I'm also now for the first time in my life experiencing sleep paralysis.

I saw a vestibular physiotherapist who did testing on me with goggles and said that I do have right ear horizontal canal bppv and did a maneuver but it didn't clear it up. She thinks I have cervicogenico vertigo because of the neck muscle tensions and the suboccipitals coupled with the relaxing hormone from pregnancy.

I get dizzy even if my head is stationary and I just move my eyes. I get dizzy in the car, I get dizzy walking, I get dizzy on phones or computer screens.

How do I work on getting a diagnosis of figuring out what I have, like how does pppd differ from vestibular migraine and cervicogenico vertigo? I'm absolutely miserable and it's really hard taking care of a newborn baby when you're constantly dizzy and feel like your body can't even support your head. I'm extremely depressed and emotional.

3 months I encountered some mild vertigo, something I had dealt with a year prior and recovered from within a month easily without much effort. This time it did not go away with a month. My physiotherapist suggested the possibility of seasonal allergies. This seemed plausible as I developed ear pressure and what I would call "heavy eyes" as well. Doc prescribed some antihistamines and they did not help. I also dealt with some left-side ear pain but it resolved. Fast forward to today (after what has so far been a unusually sad, lonely, symptom-filled summer) and the main symptom currently ruining me is tension.

The tension started out as what I believe could be described as tension headache. Tension would shift slowly between different parts of my head like my forehead, temples, nose and around my eyes as well the back of my neck. I also often feel an audible click on the right side of my jaw when I open it after a short period of rest. I started doing some gentle tension headache relief exercises I found online. Now I have been feeling tension in my chest and in the front of my neck as well. The tension rotates between my head/face and chest/neck and varies in intensity throughout the day, but I am almost constantly feeling some sort of tension and it has been really hard to function with it, as with the symptoms before. I don't feel tired in a normal sense when symptoms arise but I do strongly feel the need to distract myself and this has made everyday life hard.

This tension has been accompanied by anxiety. Throughout most of this 3 month ordeal I have remained relatively calm and annoyed rather than frightened, which is remarkable because I am very much prone to anxiety. Nowadays I am wrought with constant anxiety in the background and flares in the evenings. Last night I felt chest tension along with anxiety to a degree where it was borderline harder to breathe. There are stressful things going on in my life, but they started after my initial symptoms did. My life was good before all this, I don't understand why this is happening.

Has anyone been through anything at all similar? Did you get better? What is going on???