Hello all,
I have not had a formal diagnosis of complex PTSD, or inner ear disorder. I also understand that I need to follow up with my primary for a proper medical diagnosis. Having said that, I have been struggling with tinnitus for 1.5 years now as well as some other unusual physical symptoms:
Feelings of dripping without discharge in my left ear,
Tinnitus either in my left ear or both ears,
Low-grade dizziness/balance issues... I have a hard time concentrating on a particular object.
Sometimes I feel "light" or "high"-- not in any drug sense, but it feels like a disassociation like life around me is distant and insignificant.
These symptoms started after I was very stressed out about a graduate college course that I was taking (and dropped out of after bombing on the midterm). After I dropped the course in March, I had a nasty cold and my left ear felt clogged with fluid for a week (this is when the tinnitus started). The fluid eventually drained and I can hear fine, but the tinnitus persists to this day and every day or two I suffer from these fluid discharge or "fullness" sensations that are very psychologically distressing.
I have struggled with generalized anxiety and apprehension my entire life. My father is an alcoholic who is still very much addicted and I don't have very many fond memories of my mother, who is a life long sufferer of depression and anxiety herself. I believed my entire life that I was suffering from an anxiety disorder, but now I believe that I may be hanging on to emotional rejection, neglect, and abandonment that stems from my negligent avoidant mother and my overbearing self-centered (NPD?) father. I also worry that my lack of coping tools has led to mismanagement of stress throughout my life and is now manifesting in physical symptoms, such as the ear disorder symptoms I mentioned (stress onset Meniere's Disease? Eustachian Tube dysfunction?)
What I'm really asking for is reassurance that these physical symptoms, anxiety, stress, are inter-related and that people have recovered from them :/
I have not had a formal diagnosis of complex PTSD, or inner ear disorder. I also understand that I need to follow up with my primary for a proper medical diagnosis. Having said that, I have been struggling with tinnitus for 1.5 years now as well as some other unusual physical symptoms:
Feelings of dripping without discharge in my left ear,
Tinnitus either in my left ear or both ears,
Low-grade dizziness/balance issues... I have a hard time concentrating on a particular object.
Sometimes I feel "light" or "high"-- not in any drug sense, but it feels like a disassociation like life around me is distant and insignificant.
These symptoms started after I was very stressed out about a graduate college course that I was taking (and dropped out of after bombing on the midterm). After I dropped the course in March, I had a nasty cold and my left ear felt clogged with fluid for a week (this is when the tinnitus started). The fluid eventually drained and I can hear fine, but the tinnitus persists to this day and every day or two I suffer from these fluid discharge or "fullness" sensations that are very psychologically distressing.
I have struggled with generalized anxiety and apprehension my entire life. My father is an alcoholic who is still very much addicted and I don't have very many fond memories of my mother, who is a life long sufferer of depression and anxiety herself. I believed my entire life that I was suffering from an anxiety disorder, but now I believe that I may be hanging on to emotional rejection, neglect, and abandonment that stems from my negligent avoidant mother and my overbearing self-centered (NPD?) father. I also worry that my lack of coping tools has led to mismanagement of stress throughout my life and is now manifesting in physical symptoms, such as the ear disorder symptoms I mentioned (stress onset Meniere's Disease? Eustachian Tube dysfunction?)
What I'm really asking for is reassurance that these physical symptoms, anxiety, stress, are inter-related and that people have recovered from them :/