Is this complex PTSD?

[Teatime]

Hello all,

I have not had a formal diagnosis of complex PTSD, or inner ear disorder.  I also understand that I need to follow up with my primary for a proper medical diagnosis.  Having said that, I have been struggling with tinnitus for 1.5 years now as well as some other unusual physical symptoms:
Feelings of dripping without discharge in my left ear,
Tinnitus either in my left ear or both ears,
Low-grade dizziness/balance issues... I have a hard time concentrating on a particular object.
Sometimes I feel "light" or "high"-- not in any drug sense, but it feels like a disassociation like life around me is distant and insignificant.

These symptoms started after I was very stressed out about a graduate college course that I was taking (and dropped out of after bombing on the midterm).  After I dropped the course in March, I had a nasty cold and my left ear felt clogged with fluid for a week (this is when the tinnitus started).  The fluid eventually drained and I can hear fine, but the tinnitus persists to this day and every day or two I suffer from these fluid discharge or "fullness" sensations that are very psychologically distressing.

I have struggled with generalized anxiety and apprehension my entire life.  My father is an alcoholic who is still very much addicted and I don't have very many fond memories of my mother, who is a life long sufferer of depression and anxiety herself.  I believed my entire life that I was suffering from an anxiety disorder, but now I believe that I may be hanging on to emotional rejection, neglect, and abandonment that stems from my negligent avoidant mother and my overbearing self-centered (NPD?) father.  I also worry that my lack of coping tools has led to mismanagement of stress throughout my life and is now manifesting in physical symptoms, such as the ear disorder symptoms I mentioned (stress onset Meniere's Disease? Eustachian Tube dysfunction?)


What I'm really asking for is reassurance that these physical symptoms, anxiety, stress, are inter-related and that people have recovered from them :/

[Rainagain]

Hi teatime,
I don't know anything about tinnitus but I do know that physical symptoms can be associated with anxiety.
In my case it is chronic head pain.
I think you should try to make sure there isn't a physical cause of your ear problems before assuming its stress related. With me I had a post op infection at a time when I was very stressed and it caused nerve damage or set up a chronic pain condition somehow.
I'm sorry you are suffering, recovery is something I don't know about, but my pain has become less intrusive over the years, its either reduced or I just don't register it as much any more.

[Resca]

Hey Teatime,

I'm sorry to hear that you're suffering so much lately. The physical symptoms of stress and anxiety can be the worst because the source is so much more difficult to get at. I just want to echo Rain and suggest that you try to handle the ear issue first. If you can at least get some relief on that end, it might make it easier for you to focus on any potential underlying and/or emotional issues.

No matter what the "root cause" - as if it's ever that simple, right? - might be, it's completely possible to recover from mental and emotional suffering. It takes time and work, but it can be done. Just take it one step at a time and remember to give yourself credit for every step you take.

Best of luck to you.