r/Dizziness

Wanted to give an update since I’m approaching 4 weeks of dealing with this.
For context, I’m 18M, and everything started the morning after a very heavy night of drinking. I woke up with severe dizziness, a rocking/swaying sensation, head pressure, brain fog, and hazy vision. It felt like the floor was moving underneath me rather than the room spinning.
Current symptoms:
Persistent rocking/swaying dizziness that fluctuates throughout the day.
Head pressure, recently more noticeable toward the upper back/right side of my head.
Occasional pulsating headaches.
Brain fog, feeling disconnected, and hazy vision.
Occasional nausea and lightheadedness.
Ear fullness/pressure, with popping that temporarily makes my hearing clearer.
Symptoms often worsen with prolonged standing, stress, poor sleep, and sometimes busy environments but recently they’ve actually helped.
Some interesting things I’ve noticed:
Car rides significantly improve my symptoms. This is probably the strangest finding. I can feel dizzy and off balance beforehand, but once I’m riding in a moving car, I can feel almost completely normal. I’ve had car rides lasting around an hour where I felt great, only for the rocking/dizziness to return almost immediately after stopping and getting out.
Exercise often makes me feel better. Lifting weights regularly improves my mental clarity and sometimes reduces the dizziness. I’ve even played full-court basketball and felt decent during it, although symptoms worsened afterward.
I’ve experienced periods of almost complete recovery. Around weeks 1–2, I improved significantly and had stretches where I barely noticed symptoms. I even attended a packed college football game and felt almost normal. Unfortunately, the dizziness returned and became more constant again.
Lying down and sleeping usually help. Symptoms tend to be worse when standing for extended periods, especially later in the day. However, I’ve occasionally experienced dizziness even while lying down.
Being sick seemed to temporarily change my symptoms. I recently developed a respiratory illness, and strangely, my dizziness became less noticeable for a period before gradually returning.
My symptoms seem sensitive to certain substances. Marijuana noticeably worsened the head pressure and fogginess, and caffeine also seemed to aggravate things. I’ve been avoiding alcohol while trying to recover.

Where I’m at now:
I’m still functional. I attend college classes, walk around campus, socialize when I can, and work out. But I constantly feel like something is off, and the symptoms can change dramatically from one day to the next.
It’s been mentally exhausting, especially during my first semester of college. The fact that I’ve already had periods of feeling almost completely normal gives me hope that this is something temporary and treatable.
My biggest questions:
Has anyone experienced persistent rocking/swaying dizziness that actually IMPROVES while riding in a moving car but returns immediately afterward?
Has anyone had symptoms disappear or significantly improve for several days, only to come back again?
Could the combination of rocking dizziness, ear fullness, head pressure, and visual fog point toward a particular vestibular or neurological issue?
And most importantly, did anyone with a similar experience eventually make a full recovery, and how long did it take?
I’m hoping my specialist appointment finally provides some answers. Any similar experiences would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve been dealing with dizziness since around 2019. Back then I would randomly get dizzy while driving and I think I was having panic attacks without even knowing what they were. But the difference is, I was able to live my life**.** I drove everywhere, went out alone, went wherever I wanted. I was the person I wish I could be right now. Then around 2022, life happened, my anxiety and panic attacks got really bad, and everything changed. I stopped driving on highways, stopped driving far, and my world just became smaller and smaller. It’s been 4 years and I’m so tired. I can barely go out without feeling dizzy, lightheaded, panicky or scared. Sometimes I look at old pictures of myself going everywhere alone and I miss that part of my life so much. I see people casually driving somewhere or going out without even thinking about dizziness and I think to myself that’s all I want, that’s my only dream. I’ve done everything. Blood tests, iron, vitamin D, ENT, neurologists, eye doctors, vestibular testing… everything comes back normal. I want my old life back. I want to drive, go out and enjoy myself without constantly thinking what if u get dizzy, what if I faint, what if this time is different and something really happens.

the past two to three weeks I’ve had a constant off balance/swaying sensation, also at random times when mostly standing I have a sudden lightheaded dizzy spell and have to quickly grab onto something or sit down.

I also have neck pain, lower back pain, and pain down my left leg.
it also feels bruised under my left kneecap but there’s no visible bruising, it just hurts to press it.

Sometimes the random lightheaded dizzy spell is triggered by looking or leaning left. but not everytime.
sometimes it comes on randomly.

I have an e-consult with the GP next week to see what’s going on.

I just can’t work out whether this is coming from my eyes, inner ear, neck/posture, nerves, blood pressure, or something else.

has anyone experienced this?

eating dinner and my head was turned to the right then I turned it to the left a bit quick and I got a scary stopping head sinking impending doom feeling im wondering if this is due to anxiety and or low iron?

What do these symptoms sound like?

have had all these symptoms constantly for 3 months. The worst symptom is this unreal feeling. When i google it the symptom allign with derealization/dissociation. I also have fatigue even if i sleep well i wake up in the morning not refreshed. Also i have headache and tension in head. Back of my neck also hurts and sometimes when im walking i feel like im about to faint. I dont see any difference in my symptoms if i dont do anything the whole day versus when i go to the gym

i’m not great at explaining things so i will try my best.

around two years ago while i was working at kmart i started noticing when i was walking in open areas it would feel like i was going to fall backwards, so to counteract that i would speed walk to an aisle with my head down almost leaning forward, once i got to an aisle i was fine, no issues at all. that slowly started to transition into my driving, when i was driving it felt like my car was going to flip backwards so i would lean almost over the steering wheel because my body physically felt as if it was going backwards.

fast forward a few months, it took over my whole life. i wasn’t able to work anymore, i wasn’t able to drive, and walking anywhere i had to hold onto someone to stop the sensation of me falling over. i ended up going to doctors and having CT scans of my head and going to hospital because i was convinced something was wrong with me, but after they did all their tests they all said, "i have no idea”. the only form of an answer i ever got was that i have a SLIGHT enlarged vestibular, but after going to an ENT he said it wouldn’t cause my symptoms, it would cause vertigo which i don’t have.

slowly over the years i was able to drive again short distances without feeling like the car was going to flip and i was able to walk outside without feeling like falling over… fast forward to now, i am able to drive most places if the roads aren’t wide and able to walk outside/ in very small aisle, but as soon as i enter a shop that is open and there is nothing around me, i freeze. i physically cannot walk, as soon as i take a step it’s like my eyes go black and my brain shuts off and im falling. i am so lost and im so frustrated because i want my independence back, i want to be able to go back to shopping by myself and not needing to hold onto someone 24/7.. does anyone have any ideas?? please!

TLDR; i’ve had balance issues for the past two years that got worse then slowly better, no explanation for any of it, want my independence back ASAP need advice.