Constant diziness falsely related to alcohol

Hi, I am glad to finally post here. I am new to writing on the forum, but not to TMS. I have successfuly recovered myself from disabling TMS pain over the past years and am well documented on this.

I thought I became very good at recognizing and disabling symptoms, but today I have fears and doubt again.

I have been drinking a little more alcohol these past months, although I already did this over the course of my entire life. After sobering up and going for long walks, I often noticed I had a few seconds sometimes when I was unbalanced and thought I was going to fall ("like my balance was being removed for a couple of seconds). But I think I always had this and it didn't worry me at all until it seemed to become more frequent.

Then it started to be more like general diziness when walking, on and off, and the symptoms would completely disappear when I was under the influence of a few glasses of wine, but return after being sober, like 5-6 hours later. I got scared as it seemed to get worst and I couldn't function during the day (I only drank in the evening) so stoped drinking completely, thinking if was a form of withdrawal symptoms.

But now it's been 5 days it's only getting worst, like with feelings of being nauseous and general sickness as well. Now it seem to be more when I enter a place that I get dizzy, more than when I just walk. and it's not so much about feeling I am gonna fall like in the beginning. That is even more why I am thinking of this being a TMS, because symptoms are moving (the concern started around two weeks ago) and also because if started when I started to worry.

Now I am thinking that avoiding alcohol completely might make it worse, cause in case of TMS I normally do everything that would make it worse if it was a real condition, to prove myself I believe 100% it is not. So by not drinking I am feeding the idea that it's not a TMS. It's like if I had TMS pain in my stomach, I would not stop drinking coffee, to prove myself it has nothing to do with that !

Let me know what you're thinking, maybe you've been through that ?
Huge thanks,
Al

 

Thanks a lot for your fast answer ! really appreciate that. And I didn't know what PPDS was that is great news wow it seem to match that !!

Then I guess now I am only wondering if I should keep drinking to tell my brain I know it's fake, or take it as an advice and try just quit it - though it would mean I believe it's not a TMS... I am facing an interesting challenge now.

 

That’s like the only thing I do all day, sit and write

 

Could that be vestibular migraine? I had that and it was horrible...lasted a few weeks at a time. I don't have this anymore -- never had another symptom ever again! Do you have any other symptoms of migraine? I know one woman whose symptom of migraine was dizziness only, but that wasn't the case for me. Good luck!!!

 

Do you feel at all conflicted about alcohol? Like you 'shouldn't' drink, or it's something you've had a problem with in the past? I've been there, if so - after being a bit of a toper in my youth, I went teetotal for nearly six years recently, and being sober became my new 'identity', and I spent hours daily on Quit Drinking sites and Sober Inspo blogs and support forums... I convinced myself that being sober would solve all my problems, and if it wasn't, I just wasn't sobering hard enough... I got on quite a high horse about it...

This year, in my ongoing quest to be a bit kinder to myself and lighten the hell up , I am coming back to having the odd glass of red wine. I had an initial flare of TMS symptoms after all those years of anti-booze conditioning - anxiety, eye symptoms, odd pains - but going forward, I am finding it so nice to be able to mellow out a little from time to time... I'm appreciating the conviviality of it, and the accompaniment to good food, and as long as I don't overdo it, I'm finding it a useful tool in my relaxation kit...

But I have had dizziness as a TMS symptom, and if this is a thing you're at all conflicted about, then sure, I can well believe it's TMS!

Cheers!