Optic Neuritis and Vertigo?

[Nikki]

I was just wondering if anyone with optic neuritis also experienced vertigo. I was diagnosed with it about a month ago and since then I feel spinny from time to time. I was always dizzy, but I think it got worse since I've had the optic neuritis. Is that possible?

[cosake]

You may be on to something. I noticed that I seemed to have more frequent dizzy spells during my ON episode. I thought it was just happening because my vision was so messed up. After the ON, I have infrequent dizzy spells.

[JamCakes]

When I had optic neuritus, I had a raging headache that lasted 18 days. My vision would kaleidoscope, I would lay in bed watching the room colors swirl. I was blind in one eye for 7 or 8 months. I was often dizzy. I couldn't walk well, was very weak, and the upper half of my body was in constant pins and needles. I was so crushingly fatigued I'm surprised my lungs continued to operate.

So I don't know if I had official vertigo, my senses were so whacked out I often literally did not know which way was up. I did have vertigo without all this other noise about 5 years prior, so I know what that's like on its own.

(NOTE I know now that if your vision starts kaleidoscoping, that is a bad thing and you should tell someone!!)

It took a while for my body to recover from that terrible flare up. I really think it was 2 years before I felt somewhat strong again. If you have lost any vision do to optic neuritis, it will likely come back. It took mine a long time, I began preparing myself mentally and emotionally for being blind in one eye, with the unknown fear of the second eye getting involved. But it came back.

Here's the real kicker -- I have always had fairly poor eyesight, nearsighted with astigmatism, but when my vision returned to my right eye after ON -- it came back better than it had been before! Not 20/20 by a long shot, but the next time I went for an exam, they had to adjust my lens prescription! Now I thought this was pretty amazing.

[Redwings]

Optic neuritis can cause some dizziness because the two eyes are sending messages to the brain out of sync. But this dizziness happens only when the two eyes are open and the person is moving around or the objects being viewed are in motion. This isn't true vertigo because it happens only when the eyes are open.

Dizziness that continues when the eyes are closed or when there is no motion is from a problem in the vestibular (balance) system, not the optic nerve. Vision has some input into the vestibular system, but again, only when the eyes are open. You might be familiar with the test the neurologist does where the person extends their arms and closes their eyes to determine whether they can maintain their balance without visual input.

It's not uncommon for a flare to affect more than one area of the central nervous system at the same time. (As JamCakes mentioned, many areas were affected at the same time.) Dizziness/vertigo that's present when the eyes are closed must -- anatomically -- come from a problem in a different part of the brain.

So it's possible to have some dizziness along with optic neuritis. If the dizziness occurs (or worsens) only with the eyes open, it could be from the optic neuritis itself. It's also possible to have true vertigo along with optic neuritis, but it's due to two concurrent problems in different parts of the brain, not from optic neuritis alone.

[Bob698]

One of the things I learned is that ON also caused a slight "cast" in my bad eye (aka: a crossed eye). This kinda makes sense since the eye muscles could also be effected.