Phobic Vertigo

Hi there,

I’ve been to see my new neurologist today (the third one I’ve been assigned in 2 years), and he tells me I have ‘phobic vertigo’.

There is little information on this online. I have no balance and feel like the world is moving contantly (I know it is, but you know what I mean ) . But I don’t feel I am ‘afraid’ of falling ?

Has anyone been diagnosed with this? Thank you

I’d never heard of phobic vertigo before, so I did a quick google.

It sounds like phobic vertigo is the fear of the dizziness, feeling sick and the unsteadiness of vertigo. Vertigo is nothing to do with the fear of heights, or falling.

I hope you can get some helpful advice about it anyway! I have problems with my balance and all the other symptoms.

take care

Ellen

Hi A,

I have balance problems hate it. It’s not so bad at the moment but I feel like I’m on a boat all the time. I take vit b12 500 mcg. I’m sure that this has halped with all my symptoms. I am going to ask my MS nurse about it on Monday.

Good luck,

Adrian

Thank you guys.

Many years ago I used to suffer panic attacks (about 30 years ago). Apart from all the other symptoms… thinking I was about to have heart attack… thinking I couldn’t breath… etc… I also felt the same sense of vertigo as one feels when afraid of heights. It was really as if the ground was moving and was frightening. For a while I was agoraphobic, which is a paralysing fear of going outside.

I never heard it called ‘phobic vertigo’ but that is apparently what it was.

I get vertigo often with MS but it is not accompanied by the sense of sheer panic that I had all those years ago.

So unless you feel extreme levels of panic with the vertigo, yours is not ‘phobic vertigo’. Far more likely (if you are dx with MS) to be vertigo caused by the MS which is quite common as the neuro should know!

Pat x