I made this page to spread awareness about vesibular disorders, since I have one but not a whole lot of people know what they are, or even what the vesibular system is. A vestibular disorder can absolutely fuck your life up. The definition of a vestibular balance disorder, specifically vesibular neuritis, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine, is:

"Vestibular balance disorders can affect orientation and balance. Vestibular neuritis is a condition that affects the vestibular nerve, which connects the inner ear to the brain, causing prolonged vertigo usually in the absence of significant hearing loss. Viral etiologies are considered the primary cause of vestibular neuritis. Symptoms include continuous vertigo (the sensation of spinning or tilting), inability to balance or walk straight, nausea/vomiting, and reduced ability to focus or concentrate."

I developed this disorder in 2021 after catching covid, and was in the ER on two different occasions for severe nausea and vertigo. I couldn't walk on my own or turn my head while standing without falling over. It took 5 weeks to get an accurate diagnosis from a combination of visits to an audiologist, ENT, neurologist, & physical therapist. Because I got my diagnosis so late, the damage to my nervous system was already done, and there was nothing I could do to try and mitigate the symptoms besides physical therapy. I had to relearn how to walk, how to drive a car, and how to ride a bike. -1000/10 horrific experience would not recommend.

One of the symptoms of vesibular neuritis is the brain fog/confusion that comes with it. Your brain unconciously spends a LOT of energy processing spacial awareness (ie where your head and limbs are in relation to your surroundings), and if one nerve in that machine breaks, all the energy that normally gets spent elsewhere has to take on spacial processing work instead. If there's more than one audio source happening around me it gets really hard for me to concentrate and I'll get dizzy @~@. I can listen to my hardcore music just fine with noise cancelling headphones, but if I'm in a big box store with music playing, people talking, intercom announcements, check out noises, etc, the symptoms get VERY bad. Flashing lights/trippy bright visuals will trigger my symptoms the same way. It's almost like a combo of non-leathal epilepsy + autistic sensory overload. Which SUCKS bc I like my bright colors and my fast loud music!! This also is what makes it very hard for me to learn new things or retain information. Learning how to code this website is taking longer than I want bc I was fighting with my brain the entire time lol.

Vestibular disorders are also not included in the list of ADA protected disabilities, even though a damanged vesibular system can be life changing and potentionally force you to medically stop working altogether. It takes several tests to determine the cause in order to rule out a stroke or other causes, especially since the symptoms can be very vague and hard to describe. To this day, I still get "bad brain days" though. The day after a concert/convention/event with lots of people or noise will always bring a "vestibular hangover" as my doctors like to call it. But thankfully after months of physical therapy, I can walk on my own again and ride my bike/drive. It's a miracle I can still go to concerts to begin with! I can't say I'm mentally healed yet, or even that I've made peace with this disorder, but at least I have a strong support system and am still able to do the things I love.