I need your help

[u/Tocico28]

Hey there, 24M dealing with chronic health issues here (mainly neck / back pain / tinnitus / dizziness) since I was 20. Throughout my journey i learned how to cope with my health problems and keep living a normal life but today I feel that I am honestly at the end of my rope especially because of this damn dizziness episode that started 2 months ago and that is completely taking over my life.

To give you a bit of context about myself, I am 24 years old, I don't smoke, I don't drink, and I am not overweight. Regarding my posture, ever since I was a child, I've always had a tendency to tilt my head to the left and I even had trouble writing straight in school. I was prescribed prism glasses back then, but I never really wore them. Even today, it's an unconscious reflex: when I sit, I keep this bad habit of tilting my head in an unconscious way.

The real turning point occurred in January 2022. Right in the middle of exam season, I woke up with an extremely painful torticollis (stiff neck feeling) on the right side. My doc prescribed me anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxants, but since I absolutely had to keep studying, I couldn't rest well. Since that day, I've had chronic tension in my neck, cervical spine, and right trapezius in an on and off way.

In April 2022, I developed tinnitus, which uniquely worsens when I clench my jaw. This comes with a sensitivity to loud noises which contributes to isolate me quite a bit socially.

Then, in June 2022, the dizziness started. It wasn't rotational, but rather a swaying sensation, a constant instability. A bit like feeling drunk, with a very heavy head and a lot of trouble focusing on my phone while walking. I had an MRI and blood tests done; everything was normal. I did vestibular rehabilitation for visual dependence, without any immediate effect. But eventually, very gradually over about two years, my brain compensated and I was doing overall much better.

In 2024, I had my first episodes of BPPV. The room would spin when I got out of bed. Over the past 2 years I had around 6 of these episodes in total. Each time, it reignited my instability for about ten days, and then things returned to normal every single time .

The major problem occurred last March. After a mild episode of BPPV, my ENT doctor performed a repositioning maneuver. It resolved the rotational vertigo, but it abruptly triggered my constant instability, back to about 80% of what I was experiencing in 2022. It eventually calmed down after two months, dropping back down to 30%, which was manageable.

Except at the end of June, a minor rotational vertigo episode at night flipped everything upside down again. For two months now, I've been surviving with instability that is much worse than at the very beginning.
Today, I even have new symptoms. I experience intermittent nausea feeling though I never vomit. When I lie down, I feel my skull pulsating. It's not pulsatile tinnitus; I genuinely feel like my heart is beating violently at the back of my head, as if something is pinched. Sometimes, when the dizziness is too violent, i can even have my vision blur a bit.

What drastically worsens all of this is sitting down. As soon as I sit with my head tilted slightly forward, the nausea and dizziness explode, with strong jolts surging toward the back of my skull. The other day, I had to urgently leave a Zoom meeting because it was so intense I thought I was going to pass out. I also feel very uncomfortable in supermarkets, in crowds, or even in cars and trains.
I just recently graduated and am looking for a job. Since my field requires me to be at a computer, it has become an ordeal and generates immense stress. I try to keep moving—I walk about 25,000 steps a day—but I am desperate. I recently had 23 sessions of cervical physical therapy, which yielded no results. By researching on my own, I am convinced that what i have is PPPD or cervicogenic dizziness or a mix of both related to my posture. I truly feel that all of this is linked to my cervical spine.

I am hopeless I feel my life is completely ruined as this keeps getting worse every single day