Hi I'm new here. I'm Camille and I'm 23 and from Washington D.C. I realize this should probably go in the welcome thread, but oh well here I am. Let's get into it.
November of 2013 I had this terrible sensation of someone slapping me in the face, right on my left ear, and then I lost my balance. It happened in front of co-workers and it was really scary. Just sitting down eating lunch, got up to leave, BAM! like a force a nature. They all thought it was dehydration or that I stood up too fast and I went ahead and let them think that because they don't need to know the inner workings of my anxious brain.
So I'm panicking, trying to get back to my desk. All the while, it felt like the floors were moving or that I was falling sideways. I felt myself grabbing onto the wall for balance. My left ear was in massive pain and was ringing. At this point I couldn't distinguish between whether or not I was dizzy because of my ear of if my anxiety was making everything worse. Anyway, I went crying to my boss, saying I felt dizzy (which was true), and that I needed to go home. I walked around an outdoor plaza, thinking that fresh cool air and some perspective would help. Nope. I downed two Ativans because I was in a complete tizzy, and I booked it home.
I tell my mom (who is an advocate for me seeking anxiety help but who doesn't necessarily understand the whole thing) that I think I experienced vertigo out of no where. No ear infection at all, just vertigo. I make a doctor appointment and everyone in that office kinda probably knows about me and my anxiety by now, so they kind of just wrote it off as a one time vertigo type deal and sent me on my way without further analysis (ugh). She said I should get a blood panel but I never did because I'm afraid of what they'll find in my blood, health anxiety, we all know about that. What ended up happening is that I self diagnosed myself with TMJ because I knew I did clench my jaw a lot, made my brother (who is a dentist) give me a free mouth guard for nighttime, and went about my business.
Sometimes I chew gum or something tough like a carrot and I get dizzy, or my ear will do this popping thing and then I go into a panic. But then sometimes I can eat anything and nothing happens. Or sometimes I'll get dizzy and feel unbalanced when I've been chewing nothing at all. The sensation like you're about to fall over or be sucked up into the sky...
I'm trying to figure out whether the anxiety is informing the TMJ/inner ear stuff or whether the TMJ inner ear stuff exists independent of the anxiety. Just yesterday I was in the bookstore tilting my head sideways to look at the book titles and when I straightened back up my dizziness and unbalance is there again which makes me think it's an ear thing. Of course I panicked and left immediately.
It feels unreal, like a very dizzy dream. Has anyone else experienced this with along with their anxiety? It's ONLY my left ear. Literally only the left side of my body ever experiences anything. I'm trying to make sure it's just psychosomatic or if I seriously should see someone about my jaw and my ear....?