New to online support - need advice

Welcome....I recommend you find a therapist who specializes in your needs. They have therapists on here or you can,call your local therapists.

I found a therapist that specializes in my condition, however he finds me "a fascinating women" and wants to talk about himself, so I need to find a new one.

Hi kelbelle- This is my first time signing on to this site, so I hope I'm doing this right. I suffer from panic attacks and agoraphobia also.

Just 9 years ago, I was pretty much living the All-American dream. I had a wonderful career as a nurse (which I absolutely loved). My husband had a wonderful job in the airline industry. We had a son who was involved in every activity imaginable. I was PTA Mom, attended every school function. We did everything together as a family and traveled as vacation time would allow.

Then my World came crashing down. My health deteriorated rapidly and the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong. It took a full year of multiple hospitalizations, firing my primary care doctor, getting a wonderful allergist and going to a major research hospital. I had actually developed Meniere's Disease which was causing horrible vertigo attacks among other symptoms. In addition to that I had vocal cord dysfunction (which causes asthma like attacks) and had been treated multiple times with albuterol which did nothing... except raise my pulse level immensely and cause me to be jittery. I also had severely occluded sinuses and was having life threatening allergic reactions to dust mites and several other things.

It was after all of this that I was not secure to go out by myself anymore, but I got stronger and could go many places with my husband or friends. We didn't travel by plane anymore.. but when I wasn't having the vertigo attacks in clusters, we would take trips across the states. I forgot to mention that my husband was laid off from a major airlines right after we got back from the research hospital and he was off work for 1 1/2 years. So- even though we struggled immensely financially- he was here with me and I got stronger with his help.

However- in 2008, I was surprised by the birth of my beautiful little girl. She was a HUGE blessing, but considering the fact that my OB/GYN told me I could never have any more children- and being without family support- it was a pretty hard challenge knowing I was going to have to raise a little one. I wouldn't trade her for anything in this world... but I did notice an increase in anxiety.

Then just this past Summer- I started having panic attacks, especially inside of places like Walmart. These increased and I have now got to the point that I'm not truly comfortable going anywhere. We can't plan hardly anything and it breaks my heart to not be able to tell my daughter "Yes honey, we can go to Chuck E Cheese"

For a person that used to do everything for everyone, had a wonderful career and was fiercely independent.... I feel so isolated and at times, useless right now.... although- don't get me wrong.... even though I can't do a lot of things with my kids now, I know it's very important that I'm here for them because we still do things at home together and I'm here to support and love them no matter what.

I also have a psychiatrist/psychologist and he is good.... but he is not receptive when I tell him we really need to have group sessions or need to be able to contact other patients/people who are going through what I'm going through. He seemed uninterested in that. I told him- my biggest help in understanding and coming to grips with my inner ear disorder was by connecting with other people who also were going through the same thing. Many of these people became wonderful friends and the understanding was amazing.

Please don't think you are alone. I have no doubt there are many others who are suffering through the frustration and isolation of panic attacks/agoraphobia.

And we need to be there to understand and support each other.

I would LOVE to start a support group in my area, but it's hard to find others who are also dealing with the same HELL because doctors won't begin to give out patient names.

Hello!
How were you diagnosed with the Meniere's Disease? I have been having periods of hearing loss/disturbances as well as vertigo for 2 years. I also have constant migraine headaches and sinus infections. I always feel as if there is fluid in my ears and it never goes away. Are any of my symptoms similar to yours?

Dawn- some of these symptoms are similiar to mine and some are not.
My case is kind of difficult because I didn't just develop one condition at the same time- I developed several.
I have very severe allergic reactions. With my allergies and sinus issues I was suffering from frequent sinus infections and had to have sinus surgery.
One of my earliest symptoms that I can associate with Meniere's is the tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and the vertigo.

Just having fluid in your ears can cause vertigo and so can Migraine headaches.

There is a condition called Migraine Associated Vertigo which can very much mimic Meniere's disease, but it doesn't usually cause hearing loss. But looking at your symptoms, you could easily have this and just be suffering from periods of hearing loss due to allergy/sinus symptoms.

I would see a neurologist first to get treatment for the migraine headaches and see if taking care of the migraines eliminates some or all of the other symptoms and then go from there.

It took over a year for me to get diagnosed. It was a long process, but mainly because I developed mutliple conditions at once and the doctors were trying to just link everything to one condition and that wasn't possible. It was a few different conditions causing mutlple different symptoms.

Hope you get relief soon!