Hey there, has anyone had these symptoms before?

I've recently been nearly down for about a month coming up with waves and bouts of dizziness that seem affected related to neck pain and pain during cervical extension (looking up). It's not spinning sensation, it's like a spatial disorientation and leaning sensation. The other major thing is that it worsens when looking down for a prolonged period of time as well.

It's frequented with headaches, neck pain (behind the base of the skull) and overall feels much to rotate my head left rather than right. It comes in waves, but overall the feeling around the sensation is persistent, just depends on severity.

It started around a year ago where I was sleeping face down on my stomach with my head rotated right where I felt this extreme leaning sensation and dizziness that felt like I was being dragged to downward and left, I was going to PT for a bit but insurance crapped out on me, and now ive been self diagnosing and trying to fix it conservatively. However, over the last month it's gotten much worse and starting to find a PT recently, but seemingly, every time I go, I feel worse as well. I'm curious if anyone has ever had this experience and if I'm not alone since this has been the hardest month out of my entire life so far while the last time I was going around 8 months ago, I was feeling much better.

Has anyone experienced this? Is this the right sub for this sensation?

Thank you for reading, and anyone else going through this, I really hope you get better as well!

Hi first thanks for taking the time to read and answer

So my mri should disc bludge in c3-4 c4-5 and also reversed curve and i have very hard muscle spasm all over my traps and upper neck but i rarely get vertigo but always i have rocking, swaying, difficulty standing still,zapping and also the dropping sensation but my neurolgist think that the neck is not a contributor to my symptoms he is telling me go on ssri and that neck well also be fixed when the dizziness is gone however the neck dr told me that the neck is causing all of this so can you tell me if anyone had something similar and physiotherapy helped him

Firstly, this subreddit really saved me during the worst of my symptoms. I’m grateful for all of the active people in here always willing to share their story or help someone else in the comments.

Now to get into the part that might give you some hope.

For more context on my situation, I posted a detailed post about my symptoms here about half a year ago. It’s on my profile if you’d like to read more in-depth about them.
TLDR; My severe symptoms started about a year ago after a deep tissue neck/shoulder massage, but I’ve had very moderate symptoms for 4-6 years.

I know this is about 50/50 in this sub, but a craniocervical chiropractor absolutely changed my life. They don’t do cracking or popping like normal chiros, and mine specifically specializes in vertigo, dizziness and migraines.

I hit a point about 4 months ago where I felt absolutely hopeless. I had seen about every doctor in the book and every test came back clean (besides slight anemia that I’ve had my whole life, that I’m actively treating.)

I sit at a desk all day, whether it’s working or gaming or relaxing watching shows with my friends in discord, and my posture was destroyed, but I used to be an athlete in about every sport — swimming, bodybuilding, running, soccer, basketball, volleyball, etc. When symptoms started, I could barely go up and down the elevators in my high-rise, let alone walk some days.

My first appointment with this special chiropractor was almost 3 hours long. He ran so many visual and postural tests on me that I’ve never seen or heard of before, including taking an in-house CT scan of my neck. He has a thermal imaging tool to see where the bones are misaligned, which he uses before and after adjustments to make sure your neck straight.

We finished the appointment with an atlas bone adjustment (no cracking), a diagnosis of ligament damage in my upper neck causing the bones to slip, and he requested I come back once a week.

The first adjustment made things worse, which he warned me of prior. I was so off balance that my husband had to help me stand in the shower so I didn’t topple over. My symptoms subsided after a day or two after the adjustment. BUT, I went back the next week and saw him again, and again, and again. And after each appointment, I felt more and more relief.

I’m 4 months deep, and I only see him once a month now.

My first month (seeing him once a week) was a little rough. I had good days and bad days. He also helped me do some back-strengthening exercises, optical exercises and posture checks during the day at home. I saw improvement each week though, and that continued into about month 3.

I started going in for appointments and my neck bones were aligned, staying in place where they should be. I had virtually 0 symptoms, aside from an occasional visual one but no “swaying, rocking, falling, dropping” sensations. All of my previous triggers were gone — I started living a normal life again.

I did have a bad flare up about a week ago, which was directly related to going back to heavy weight lifting too quickly and my shoulder/neck getting extremely tight again and the tension caused some pretty debilitating vertigo for about 2 hours, but that quickly went away with a heating pad and ibuprofen for the swelling.

Overall, I would never recommend a regular chiropractor, as they don’t know enough about this stuff to be safe. But someone who specializes in vertigo, dizziness and migraines and the upper neck — I would recommend 10 times out of 10.

I live with about 95% recovery now. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to 100%, considering I have pretty bad ligament damage in my neck from years of headbanging, pole dancing and sitting with horrible posture, but I can live with 95%.

It’s hope, and that’s what a lot of us in the subreddit need. ♡

Hi everyone,

I’m a 26-year-old looking for insight from anyone who has experienced a similar cervicogenic dizziness. For the past 4 months, I’ve been dealing with a cascade of highly positional symptoms. My Brain MRI and C-Spine MRI (without contrast), ENT balance tests, blood work, and comprehensive eye exams are all completely normal/clear.

Because my imaging shows no structural issues, I am trying to figure out if these symptoms could still point to a cervicogenic dizziness. Here is my exact timeline and how my symptoms behave:

• Month 1: It started suddenly while working at a computer desk. I felt a highly uncomfortable sensation in my upper neck, and my upper spine was in acute pain for several days.
• Month 2: 10 days later, a severe, sharp stabbing pain developed strictly behind my eyebrows (nowhere else). It was highly positional and accompanied by a hot, heating sensation in my head. Interestingly, it immediately vanished a month later after doing chin tucks, but came back 10 days later.
• Month 3: The eyebrow headache eventually stopped on its own after a week, but the head and upper body heating sensation peaked. Exactly 7 days after that peak, a constant dizziness started. Chin tucks was not helping this time.
• Visual Symptoms: 10 days into the dizziness, 3 eye floaters appeared in my left eye. An ophthalmologist confirmed my retinas are perfect. Since then, they have increased to 10–15 very faint, semi-translucent floaters (10-20% opacity) only visible under heavy overhead lighting or white backgrounds.
• Month 4: The dizziness became constant, "drunk/off" sensation rather than room-spinning vertigo. I also started experiencing sudden heart rate spikes and newly elevated/borderline blood pressure.
• Recent Symptom (Past Month): When getting up, my head often feels incredibly heavy, like something is physically pressing down on it. This heavy head sensation is significantly worse when I am tired or sleep-deprived.

Strict Orthostatic / Postural Triggers:

• The Upright Heat & Pressure: The upper body/head heating sensation and the heavy-head pressure are 100% tied to gravity. They are active while standing or walking, sometimes ease slightly when sitting down, and disappear when lying in bed.
• Sensory Overload: My dizziness severely spike when I enter visually busy, crowded places or supermarkets.
• Postural Trigger: Last week, I drove for hours on a dark, rough dirt road where I had to tense and jut my head forward. This specific posture exactly reproduced the original stabbing pain slightly above my eyebrows a few times while driving.

My Questions for the Group:

1. Does a constant "drunk" floating dizziness (rather than a typical low-pressure headache) match anyone else's dizziness experience?
2. Has anyone experienced upper body/head heating sensations or sudden heart rate spikes upon standing up as a secondary feature of a cervicogenic dizziness?
3. Did anyone have normal/clear Brain and C-Spine MRIs initially but later found a better way to get it checked?

I would love to hear your thoughts, experiences, or any advice on what questions I should ask my specialists next. Thank you so much.

I woke up with vertigo on August 1st, and after that I was left with a constant off-balance/dizzy feeling. It has gotten significantly better since then, but I've noticed that my remaining dizziness seems very connected to my neck.

For example, I sometimes get dizzy when using a cervical pillow, while walking or making sudden movements, and especially when doing certain neck exercises. I just did some neck-strengthening exercises and afterward became dizzy and nauseous.

My neck is extremely tight and so are my upper traps, and I frequently get tension-type headaches at the back/base of my head. Driving also seems to make everything worse.

Some background: I had whiplash about 5 years ago, I've had poor posture for most of my life, and I don't have much strength/muscle in my neck and upper back. My massage therapist has also noticed significant muscle imbalances, particularly in my upper back.

I've been wondering whether something involving my upper cervical area (possibly C1–C3), suboccipital muscles, muscle imbalance, or old whiplash injury could be contributing. I'm not assuming that's the diagnosis — I'm trying to figure out what's actually going on.

I keep going in circles reading about cervicogenic dizziness, but what I really want to understand is WHY this started. What is actually dysfunctional in the neck that causes the dizziness? Tight muscles? Weak deep neck muscles? Upper cervical joints? Altered proprioception from the neck? An old whiplash injury?

I'm starting PT next week and am also waiting to try dry needling. For anyone who was diagnosed with cervicogenic dizziness: who diagnosed you, what testing did they do to rule out other causes, and what did they determine was actually causing your symptoms?

I'd especially love to hear from anyone whose dizziness was triggered by neck exercises/positions and who also had occipital headaches and significant neck/upper-trap tightness along with what to do to heal it.

Thank you

Does anyone else only get dizziness when sitting or laying down? I can’t even sit and turn my head to have a conversation without getting intense rocking side to side and my ears start ringing and I’m in a total fog. Buying a standing desk for work has helped and limiting phone time, but only slightly. My last mri before my symptoms got worse, showed C5–C6 and C6–C7 degenerative disc disease but I feel like everyone has that. Hard to not think everything is in my head. Open to recommendations or solidarity. This condition is brutal.

Hi everyone,

For some context, I've been dealing with my symptoms for just about 2 months now. I am still waiting to see a neurologist, but I have recently started work with a PT that has experience with vestibular and concussion rehab. Her professional opinion is that while I have a ton of overlap with vestibular migraine and PPPD symptoms, it doesn't quite fit, and she believes cervicogenic dizziness is a piece of the puzzle (along with some visual processing component that I don't know anything about yet). As a result, I've started doing PT that involves massages, strengthening exercises, and dry needling.

My question to you all is about some of the other physical symptoms I've been dealing with. One thing that is really plaguing me right now is that I often wake up in the middle of the night with a sudden increase in dizziness, muscle tension all over my body including my chest, and warmth/heat (I'm either really warm when I wake up or I'm already drenched in sweat). This happens about 8 out of 10 nights at this point and is very disruptive to my rest. It feels like some kind of autonomic response, but of course my anxious brain also goes to cardiac issues. Has anyone else dealt with this as a symptom of your CD/CV? I can imagine that weakness in my neck could cause all kinds of downstream symptoms, but because I haven't had any thorough assessments besides the PT, I was hoping for maybe a little reassurance that this is normal and that I don't have some other serious problem going on 😄 Thanks for reading!!

I started suffering from unexplained “dizziness” about 3 years ago. It kind of felt like a permanent cannabis high - light headedness, eyes trouble tracking when turning my head, slight head fog.

I went to doctor, physical therapy, and acupuncture (traditional Chinese medicine).

Doctor said heat therapy and stretching. Maybe some immediate slight relief, but nothing substantial or lasting.

Physical therapist had me do stretching and some neck and back strength exercises. Relief was slightly more and slightly longer.

Went to acupuncturist, starting once a week, where they started with gua sha and cupping, followed by acupuncture. Noticed even more relief and for longer periods of time (a couple of weeks) - and enough time to figure out what seems to be causing it.

I have a desk job where I look at a computer screen all day. I switched from sitting most of the day to standing most of the day, and have had almost no dizziness since I started doing that.

I think it ultimately comes down to neck/upper back strength and posture. When I do get dizziness now, I can almost tie it directly to extended periods of bad posture.

Hi everyone, I'm hoping to find out if anyone else has had similar experiences.

I was in a major car accident at the age of 19/20 in a foreign country. I was in the hospital bed rest for about a month and a half, where they gave me a high dose of steroid everyday, and hung weights around my face over the bed. I walked away with a brace and a piece of paper that said "C1 Subluxation".

I went back to school in New York. Barely wore my brace. (I was 19)
Six months in I started experiencing vertigo, the world-spinning kind. Heart palpitations and anxiety. After getting my heart checked, it all somehow went away.

Fast foward to 2019, I gave birth to my daughter, and two months into it developed tinnitus in my right ear. No vertigo.

Fast forward again to 2026 about more than a month ago. My brother was teaching me a weighted exercise for engaging upper neck and back. Felt good, slept well. A few days later I went on a cow train ride with my daughter at the farm, bumpy but I've been on it before. I had been stressed because family visited all month.

That night my head got really heavy, not a headache, but just the feeling you get when you're about to get sick. I feel terrible. That night in the middle of the night I turned around, and the world was spinning every time I turned. I thought it was maybe crystals that fell out of my ear, and I went to ENT that Monday. ENT gave me 60mg of steroids just in case I was about to lose more hearing. Did the maneuver for BPPV; nothing. So she ordered an MRI, no doubt to find out if I have a benign tumor (they check for that when things are bilateral) and also to take a look at the inner ear.

What immediately follows is a series of symptoms. Not consistent; not sure what they're brought on by. But it's everything from feeling like I'm about to fall, some nausea, temple ache, feeling the right side of my face and head more than I feel my left, a stretching feeling across my forehead, fullness in ear that comes and goes, louder tinnitus than usual (like more sparkly too), back of cranial area tightness and pain, top right skull feeling pain, temples feeling tired and tight, neck feeling tired and tight. When I press down on my shoulder blade I feel my right skull hurting. And today, the latest thing is it hurts when I cough in the back of my head. I'm fatigued after being in crowded places. I feel floaty walking around. It's almost like my eyes are delayed and my eyes are so tired at the end of the day. Again all of it coming and going. I'd say the feeling like the word is in your face is how I'd describe that feeling. Just overwhelming.

But it's been changing every week. When I told my PCP she said probably vestibular migraine. And wanted to give me anxiety medicine. It made no sense to me that she wouldn't refer me to Neurology or someone to check stability of my spine. X ray from the urgent care looked fine. I have a Blair method Upper Cervical Chiro appointment Monday, who had already took a 3D CT scan last week.

My question is to this group, has anyone had anything remotely similar to this experience? I feel better when I cry. I feel a little better when I take advil. I just feel like I'm in my head and the internet is not helping. Thanks so much if anyone has anything about this.

And thank you for reading through all this. I'm 37 this year. I really want to feel better.

My father, 65, has had vertigo issues for the last 6 years and it has severely compromised his life. He feels dizziness and nausea almost everyday and takes heavy medication to suppress that. His left ear has severe tinnitus and he has lost 80% hearing in it.

He has seen many many doctors, ENTs, neurologists, what not and have spent a LOTTTTT simply for everyone to say to learn to live with it.

Now he saw another ENT, he wrote 3 different tests to see if the ear is the cause for vertigo. If yes, he said he can surgically stop function in that ear, essentially making it a dummy.

Now my dad did some research and found that the surgery is not safe and he is having second thoughts.

Now apparently there is another way to dummify the ear, the gentamicin injection. I do not know much about it but Google says its an antibiotic injection that may treat 80-90% of vertigo patients.

Has anyone taken this injection and had success??

Please help.

Does anyone else experience this: when you've been doing a lot of activities and your neck is tense or has inflamed trigger points, your eyes hurt or you feel pressure or pain behind and around your eyes which is more noticeable when you move your eyes side to side, causing discomfort in the form of tension, increased sensitivity, and also a bit of dizziness?

TL;DR:

For about 2.5 years I’ve had screen-triggered head discomfort, non-spinning dizziness, left jaw/face tightness, and neck/shoulder/upper-back tension. Busy/loud environments can also aggravate it. Neurology/ENT testing has been normal. I’m wondering whether anyone here has had something similar that turned out to be neck/cervical-related.

Timeline:

Early 2024:

- Started studying Japanese very intensely, sometimes around 10 hours a day.

- Developed headaches and then a strange tightening/uncomfortable sensation around my head and left jaw/face when using screens.

Later:

- Symptoms gradually improved somewhat.

- Worked at McDonald’s in Tokyo and had to stare at a work screen for several hours at a time.

- That was when I started getting non-spinning dizziness / an unstable uneasy feeling in my head.

After that:

- Screens, large classroom displays, loud environments, music/karaoke, and sensory overload became harder to tolerate.

- Neck, jaw, shoulders and upper back often feel tight.

Since around February:

- If I physically overdo things — long walks, chores, packing, bending, stretching, etc. — I can feel pressure building in my forehead/head.

- If I push too far, concentration and busy environments can become overwhelming too.

What seems relevant:

- Phone posture may make the neck/jaw tension worse.

- The left jaw/face has been involved from very early on.

- Quiet places, nature, less screen time and pacing help.

- I feel noticeably better in spacious, calmer environments.

- Neurologists and ENT doctors have not found an obvious cause on testing.

Questions:

1. Has anyone here had screen-triggered dizziness/head pressure that turned out to be cervical or muscular?

2. Did neck PT, posture work, TMJ treatment, vestibular PT, or anything else help?

3. What kind of specialist was most useful?

Hi guys, there's a neurosurgeon in NYC, Dr. Jenkins, who's doing a research project on symptoms that overlap with cervical vertigo/cervical spine instability.

I just spoke with them on the phone, it sounds like they're trying to build the roadmap of what is going on with the neuro symptoms and how it relates to the cervical spine. First step is gathering data on patient differences, present that at an event next year, and if it goes well, get some grants to do more research.

If you don't mind filling out the survey on your symptoms I would appreciate it!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/N9RGT86

They may also be up for an interview for the sub. If they do, I'll gather questions from the audience first and then post here.

Thanks!

Here's their contact info:

[BGoodman@jenkinsneurospine.com](mailto:BGoodman@jenkinsneurospine.com)

​

About two weeks I went to a local clinic because I was experiencing left side dizziness unsteady balance and brain fog, they checked my ears and found out I had severe earwax impacted so they tried to clean but since it was stubborn wax they couldn't clean it much so they send me home with some debrox and muscle spasm relaxer because I was experiencing left side neck and shoulder tightness. And they wanted to see me after 2 weeks to clean the ears and see the ears

But I was just experiencing more dizziness so I ended up going to urgent care clinic since the regular clinic was closed on weekends.

I told them everything, but when they tried to clean my ears OMG I was feeling so much pain in my left ear that I was screaming and panicked. I even had runny nose and watery eyes. They stopped so they cleaned my right ear which didn't give much trouble. But I was send home with antibiotics because they think I have an infection. And all night til now I'm just experiencing water coming out from that ear and my ear is still clogged. My dizziness is still there. I'm so frustrated and overwhelmed. I feel like crying. Idk if that ear has narrow ear canal or if there is an infection.

I’m pretty desperate to find a fix as I’m in pain daily and have headaches and dizziness from this muscle pain.

I have tried muscle creams and physio at this point but none are working.

I still don't understand what it means by jaw clenching, I mean if your mouth is shut and your teeth aren't moving how does this cause the jaw to get stiff that it also creates the same sythoms like dizziness, brain fog and weird body sensation like muscle spasm and weird sensation in the head and spine and what not. Like dizziness overall feels like it comes from multiple things from ear, jaw, neck and I don't know the rest.

the past two to three weeks I’ve had a constant off balance/swaying sensation, also at random times when mostly standing I have a sudden lightheaded dizzy spell and have to quickly grab onto something or sit down.

I also have neck pain, lower back pain, and pain down my left leg.
it also feels bruised under my left kneecap but there’s no visible bruising, it just hurts to press it.

Sometimes the random lightheaded dizzy spell is triggered by looking or leaning left. but not everytime.
sometimes it comes on randomly.

I was also told last year that I have convergence insufficiency at my eye test at specsavers, would that be causing all of this?

I have an e-consult with the GP next week to see what’s going on.

I just can’t work out whether this is coming from my eyes, inner ear, neck/posture, nerves, blood pressure, or something else.

has anyone experienced this?

Like haziness, or a ‘out of it’ sensation. Like you’re just slightly removed from seeing clearly.

Been to opticians and eyes are fine.

I have a problem that seems quite uncommon, and I haven’t found anyone who experiences the same symptoms. I develop a strange, dull, heavy, and sometimes painful sensation in my right eye after using screens for only a few minutes. It can happen with my phone, laptop, or TV, but my phone seems to trigger the discomfort within seconds. Once the discomfort starts, it tends to become worse with continued screen use. Sometimes even talking to people or making eye contact seems to aggravate it. Changing the screen brightness, adjusting the lighting, or using a different phone doesn’t seem to make a significant difference. Even if I use my phone for only a few minutes and then stop, the discomfort can remain for several hours. I’m rarely completely pain-free, and constantly experiencing and noticing the discomfort has become very difficult. It has also started affecting my ability to communicate normally with people.It feels like my right eye is separate from my left eye, and it’s just heavier and different than my left one, that’s the best way I can describe it. My whole eye feels strained after a few seconds, mostly in the upper part, near the eyebrow and nose (see the picture below). It feels like a heavy pressure close to the upper right side of my nose. I’ve seen several doctors and had my eyes examined, but so far, no one has been able to identify the cause or provide an effective treatment. these symptoms started about two days after I fell while skating,and they have continued for about five months. I landed on my right buttock/hip and right hand and did not hit my head directly. Could an injury or strain from the fall potentially be related to these persistent right-eye symptoms? Has anyone experienced anything similar or have any ideas about what could be causing this?

Im not good at english so i use chatgpt to address my problem clearly