The TMJ Association - changing the face of TMJ

TMJ Resources - Our Family - Patient Talk

Hugh

The beginning of my problems began with the feeling very hyped up with a great deal of anxiety which I could not understand. Over a period of a few months I started to feel very strange and had issues with a 24/7 “drunk” dizzy feeling and panic attacks. These issues made my job as a programmer impossible and I basically crumbled over a period of months to a point where I was unable to work. Over the past 4 years my symptoms have been various like the instruments of an orchestra. While most TMJ comments seem to point directly to the jaw pain, I have had a variety of the referred pain issues and only dull ache and the odd click in the jaw joint.

After having had the depression stick pointed at me by doctors it took nearly 3 years for them to suggest TMJ. Being basically very dizzy, the anti depressants they stuffed inside me just amplified this dizzy feeling 10 fold and I was bed ridden when taking them. My doctors felt this was a justified way to start even though no tests had been done.

After being told about TMJ it as a further 12 months before I was able to accept TMJ as the cuase of all my symptoms. Along with the dizziness 24/7 I get very severe eye pain. I was told to get my eyes checked in case I needed glasses. Two pairs of reading glasses later and a bit more study revealed eye pain as a symptom of TMJ as referred pain from the cranial nerve/s, no thanks to the doctors, thank God for the internet. My eyes were substantially more painful after being outside on a bright sunny day. Turns out that there is an issue of light sensitivity associated with TMJ problems.

My dizziness plus the eye pain makes everyday issues like performing, as you need to in a good job, impossible. I can put up with the pain but not the dizziness. Pain killer won’t deal with dizziness. I feel like I have a hangover and in some sort of trance state.

During my TMJ experiences I have had various forms of tinnitus, pitch variation or distorted sound, pain in the ear, blocked ears with no wax, pressure in the head. Also, I had night sweats feeling overheated, panic attacks and tidal wave sized anxiety which I concluded was due to the main symptoms confusing the system.

I am not sure about other people with TMJ, but with mine, I had increasing various confusing symptoms over a period of the first 2 years and it caused me to feel my life was over. There seemed to be no help. After a while some of the symptoms such as anxiety, panic attacks and night sweats subsided. I continue to battle today with eye pain and dizziness. I have generally accepted it is TMJ and that I need to find a way to manage it.