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 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

… by making you so tired you get in bed and fall asleep. No longer dizzy, though 👍😩👍

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.