Hi there. I feel your pain. I’ve been experiencing what you’ve gone through. I have been managing it for three years now. It’s horrible. I have had periods of months of relief and then I’ll get what I call migraine flare ups. The ears and dizziness are the absolute worst. I found a device for my ears that has helped, it’s called “Zok” and it has helped. You can get it on Amazon. I’ve found diet changes are really helpful too, I follow the Heal Your Headache diet when I fall back into migraine. Also the cookbook “The Dizzy Cook” has been great. I get Botox, take sumatriptan, and am starting a new med my Dr just prescribed. I also seek care outside of Western medicine and that has helped immensely. I’m sorry you are going through this, you are not alone. I’m so thankful for this community.

Oy vey. A "chemical imbalance"??? All that means is you were prescribed an antidepressant for serotonin imbalances...for which no studies have proven why the SSRIs, etc even work...

Sounds like you had a very typical migraine attack w loss of vision, etc.

Do NOT get on the venlafaxine, unless it's your last resort, as it's extremely difficult to wean off without disturbing side effects.

You're being treated similarly to everyone w migraine: ie, they don't know what causes it, they can't cure it, so treatments are "hit and miss".

Stick with whomever had the good sense to get you diagnostic radiological studies, e.g. CT/MRI scans.

Everyone else was "guessing" and hoping you would respond to antidepressants or antipsychotics.

Welcome to the land of "never-ending migraine treatment".

Lin Amendt, PhD

Where to you live? Have you been to a good headache clinic? Depending where you live, there are several in the country. You can have several different types of migraines at the same time - welcome to our world of pain and indicissiveness! I'm sorry for you and all of us. Stay with us - we support each other.

Hi
Thank you for sharing your experience. I’m sorry that you are going through this. I hope that you feel better and get relief.
I’m still not sold on the vestibular migraine diagnosis.
I think more is going on with me.
I don’t have any good days. I only have bad days and worst days.
Something going with my kidneys and the doctors are looking into bone cancer as well.
I’m so confused and lost.
Every doctor I go to has a different diagnosis. I’ve seen an infectious disease doctor and she said that all my symptoms are caused by the Epstein Barr virus 🦠 I’ve asked her if migraines can last up to 6 months every day. And she said not really.
I’ve tested positive a few months ago when I was in the hospital. The neurologist in the hospital told me that I have cranial nerve irritation from the EBV.
The right side of my head hurts so bad with constant ear pain and eye pain.
So I have no idea what’s going on with me.

Thank you so much for your reply.
I’m still not taking any of the antidepressants.
But I’m leaning towards taking one of them.
I can’t stay like this.
I have constant eye pain and a little blurry vision and I have the stabbing ear pain with ringing. And the imbalance of my body.
I’m going to see an endocrinologist and an infectious disease specialist as well. Like you said it’s a guessing game.
That’s why it’s a little bit hard for me accept these diagnoses.
Because vestibular migraine is the most common migraine.
According to google vestibular migraines rarely lasts longer than 72 hours. And what ever is happening to me is been going on for 5 months.