Pressure behind eyes, brain fog, nausea, dizziness

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bigb

New member
I've suffered from insomnia for a long time and thought these were just symptoms, but maybe it's something else. Maybe somebody out there can help me figure out what the heck is wrong with me so I can get some help.

A little background:
I'm a 51 year old man. I drank heavily and did a lot of drugs when I was young, but very little since the age of 30. I suffered from severe, chronic, anxiety induced insomnia for about 25 years, beginning a few years after quitting quitting drugs and alcohol. I've been on Paxil for about five years, mainly to help me sleep.

My symptoms:
I currently sleep fairly well (with the help of Paxil) -- usually seven or eight hours a night. I feel okay when I awaken, but after two or three hours, I start feeling pressure behind my eyes, nausea, dizziness, my speech becomes slurred, my thinking becomes cloudy, and often there's some mild hallucinations such as floating kidney bean shapes and little flowing black dots. My eyes burn and I have difficulty focusing.

I take a nap every day around 11:00AM or noon for one to two hours and after that, I feel fine. If I miss my nap, I feel awful for the rest of the day.

I've quit several jobs because of the problem. I currently work for myself and can take a nap break, so it's bearable, but it still has control over me. I can't plan anything for the morning and have to make sure I have time to take a nap, otherwise I'm a worthless burnout.

I've researched it a bit and it sounds somewhat like migraine-associated vertigo, but it's not random or stress induced like migraines seem to be. Anybody have any idea?
 
Migraines can as well be quite random. Still think it's migraines, but you might wanna get a scan. I've suffered from migraines for a few years and I can tell it's what I have due to sinus pressure and nausea caused by it.
 
I agree that its migraine related. Being a migrainer myself I've had some of the symptoms you speak of. There is a migraine called basilar migraine. You can look it up. I would turn my head to back up and get dizzy. I was losing my balance also. My MD gave me a course of high dosage prednisone. It worked. I still get regular migraine symptoms but not the basilar type. Sometimes its hard to breath through my nose and my eyes don't focus. If I'm not at work I just go to bed. Migraine takes many forms. Good luck in seeking treatment.
 
Hi all, have you had any CT /MRI's of your neck and head done?? ive had similar symptoms. i believe alot to do with it is anxiety however once you get this out of your system you can pin point what is actually happening, in my case my head pressure was brought on by the anxiety/stress, now that its out of my system my neck seems to be where the pressure radiates from and my latest ct scan has stated i have minor retrolisthesis of C4/C5. so perhaps get these done also. hang in there!
 
I don't think it's stress related, since I'm not stressed out. But it does sound like migraine symptoms people have mentioned. I'll have to talk to my doctor about it.
 
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