The first time I contracted MDD (although I did not know the name then) was in 1995 from a 4 day cruise. At the time of this voyage I was very excited about taking my first cruise and was fulfilling a dream I had always had. I was 45 years old at that time and in excellent health. No prior history of sea-sickness.Felt great on the cruise, but when I got home the rocking started and lasted for 2 1/2 months accompanied by nausea every day. The only thing that helped the nauseous feeling was to eat a little bit. Went to 3 doctors, they gave different pills, nothing helped until one specialist said to get off all caffeine. I did and a week later all my symptoms disappeared! In retrospect, I think that was probably a coincidence and that the MDD had just run its course. I cannot be 100% sure of that though.
The second episode was 2 years ago. I took a one hour flight from Northern Calif. to Southern Calif. and was under extreme emotional duress. The rocking lasted only 2 days. Under Dr Hain's definition this would be termed "landsickness" instead of MDD. The rocking and fuzzy headed feeling was the same as MDD.
This third time, was nearly a year ago and brought on by a long airline flight from Los Angeles to Belgium. The emotional feeling at the time was that I was extremely "excited" about going to Europe for the first time. I was 48 years old. The day after I got to Belgium is when the rocking and swaying started. I felt out of kilter in my head too, but made the best of it and had a grand time in Europe anyway. The weather was cold and rainy and I did a great deal of walking everywhere. Spent 3 weeks traveling all over Europe in cars, trains, subways, and a ferry boat crossing over the English Channel from France to England. The Ferry was the worse...very choppy waters, half the people on the boat were sick. First time in my life I ever felt sea-sick...it was horrible. After the trip, when I returned home, is when the symptoms all increased in intensity and magnitude.
Those 3 episodes were all related to travel. I was healthy as a little Ox before I traveled. The only minor medical complaints I had were hypoglycemia ( low blood sugar) and orthostatic hypotension (low blood pressure) at times. I usually could control these through diet and exercise. PMS symptoms happened every month but many women have this complaint. If I ever had a head ache I knew I was getting sick. I very seldom had a head ache.
With MDD the symptoms were very intense, probably for the first 6 months. Intense rocking/swaying motion feeling continuously and never ever ending unless I drove in the car or went to sleep. Over time the rocking feeling has decreased substantially, although stress, or lack of sleep can bring it on big time again. Probably the worse feeling to me is the fuzzy head, spaciness, or "Brain Fog" feeling in my head. I feel as if I am not operating on all cylinders...or that I have a short circuit in the wiring up there. Half of my brain feels like I am here and the other half feels like it is out in "Ozone Land" somewhere! So hard to concentrate, hard to remember things I just did and just walking in a haze some days. Stores with florescent lighting, lots of shelves, crowds of people, corridors, bright white walls or floors are just way too much visual stimulation for me to handle. I hate going shopping now. Many times, when the symptoms are high, I have found myself just wondering around aimlessly in a store with no clue as to what I am doing. I know I must look like a "space case" but what I feel like is a "mental case" and I just have to get out of the store quickly. My head always hurt or just felt like intense pressure bearing down and my eyes can get very blurry and also feels as if everything is way too bright. I also had blurry eyes, headache, and fuzzy head when I would get hypoglycemia so wonder if there is a connection with low blood sugar and how it would affect chemistry in brain and MDD.I also had a "fullness" feeling in my right ear. The more the symptoms increase the more the fullness feeling is there. The symptoms are up and down all the time. I am fine in the car, but as soon as I get out of the car I am worse off. The symptoms used to be so bad, that the cat being on my bed and scratching itself used to really set me to rocking. That doesn't bother me anymore. It also seemed that just sitting on the toilet or taking a shower made the symptoms worse.
After 2 months of symptoms, I found an ENT and he did the hearing and balance tests which were all normal. He recommended an MRI. That's about the same time I was doing my own research on the internet and found the MDD web site. OH! I was soooooooo excited to finally find my symptoms so clearly defined. I KNEW this was exactly what was wrong. I went armed with all my recent info to the doctor, and I don't know whether his ego was on the line, he just didn't know anything about MDD or just wasn't interested but I couldn't even get him to talk to me for 5 minutes on the phone about this....not unless I was willing to set up another appointment. I had already paid him $350.00 cash for the tests (no medical insurance), and he would not give me 5 minutes more of his time!!!!!!!! Kept insisting on an MRI...but I knew that would be a total waste of my time and money....as the 3 times I got all the symptoms were the past 3 times I had traveled! I kept telling the doctor that I knew my symptoms were related to travel and he kept saying get more tests done. Well, enough was enough at this point. I was not only insulted that the doctor was not listening to me, but I was mad that he wasn't even interested in an illness or syndrome that he might not have ever heard of before! I gave up on that doctor. I wrote to Dr Hain and he suggested I see Dr Baloh, at the University of Los Angeles. Last March, I saw Dr Baloh...one of the leading dizziness specialists in the country ( He is a Neurotologist-a specialist of the inner ear and all the connections to the brain, eye, etc.). After a 4 page questionaire and within 5 minutes of speaking to me he gave me the diagnosis of MDD. His recommendation was physical exercise, stress management, and getting plenty of sleep. He advised against medication, as my symptoms were low at that time. He said I could take Klonopin but only for a month or two, if the symptoms increased in intensity. He advised against it because of tolerance and addiction problems with this drug. When the drug is stopped, the dizziness starts right back up again, according to Dr B. He believes that MDD is most likely a brain chemistry problem.
Over the course of the year I have taken Ginkgo Biloba, Vitamins, Ginger. I have not taken them on a regular basis so I cannot make an assessment of whether they helped or not. I am exceptionally physically active in my work and home life...always running with a million zillion things scheduled. I believe that has helped me the most. Taking a brisk walk outside always make me feel emotionally better, even if it doesn't seem to help the rocking. Unfortunately, I have not been able to give up my coffee and diet sodas so I cannot tell if giving up the caffeine again would help me or not. I need to do that as an experiment. I took the diet medication "Phentermine" and it seemed to help the brain fog for a couple of weeks. I then started taking the medication "Imipramine"(10 mg.), just 5 weeks ago so I got off the diet pill to give the new medication a chance to do its job with no complications from another drug. So far, I feel slightly better but not much. My doctor just prescribed Klonopin(.5 mg.) but I haven't taken it yet, as I am very concerned about building up tolerance and addiction to this drug. I am still weighing the pros and cons. And since this last bout of MDD I have not traveled on a boat or plane. Cannot avoid the car, but I am scared that I will never get over the MDD if I board another boat or plane. The last week I have started religiously taking my vitamins and an antioxidant called COQ 10(50 mg. twice a day).
In conclusion, because my MDD symptoms started in my 40's, I believe that it is related to changing hormone levels from perimenopause. Perhaps low blood pressure and low blood sugar all are factors in there to change the brain chemistry somehow. The biggest puzzle to me is, why can I get in my car and feel totally, absolutely fine and dandy and NORMAL again. I know it would be the same if I boarded another boat or plane. I am not willing to risk making my symptoms worse with travel again, or prolonging them one extra minute so I will remain on land and feel like I am permanently out to sea!!!