"Painting and Vertigo, anyone else with some insights?" Topic

Has anyone else experienced any episodes of Vertigo that might be related to painting miniatures or building models?

I've only had two episodes of it, one in 2020 and then another one just the other day. The first one was on and off for a couple days. The most recent one lasted only a few hours.

From the cursory research I did on the condition, I learned that it's possible to get Vertigo from having the head in the same position for a long period of time. But it can also happen from sudden or abrupt head movements. The first thing that came to mind was certainly painting minis, where you are not only keeping your head locked in a position, but your whole upper body at times (the elbows pressed to your side to steady the mini.)

But what's strange in my case is that neither episode happened when painting minis. They both happened when I was sitting on the couch doing crossword puzzles, lol.

From last September to just this past week I spent on average four hours a day painting over 500 AWI minis. One would think that if it was going to happen it would have happened during that intensive painting project period.

Luckily, mine resolved itself in both episodes which points to it being the inner-ear variety which is less serious than the variety that takes place deeper inside the head.

There is a well-established exercise you can find online which helps to resolve the symptoms if it's just the inner-ear variety. Basically it's getting the calcium crystals in your inner ear to "flow" back to the proper area so that your equilibrium is restored.

Any way, I wanted to see if anyone else has any experience with this as it was one of the most terrifying things I've ever been through. It's astonishing how fast it sets in and how fast it totally incapacitates you.

I have suffered from Vertigo for about 10 years.

The number 1 cause is BPPV which is manageable with the exercise you mention. BUT you need to know which ear canal is affected in order to know which exercise will correct it.

The number 2 cause is Meniere's disease. It was ruled out in my case:

link

After that you are in the weeds with me. No idea why I get the attacks. However, I now take medicine to treat it. I take a low dose anti-depressant and a low dose Rx for blood pressure. These two meds have it under control I have not had an attack in 3+ years (formerly suffered an attack every 2-3 months).

Consult a neurologist. Mine founded the Chicago Dizzyness clinic and I would highly recommend him, but he retired.

I sometimes feel woozy for a few seconds (after painting) after taking my glasses off and before my eyes can readjust their focus. Fortunately I'm not driving or operating heavy machinery at the time… ;-)

I am starting to get dizziness whenever I stand after sitting for a period of 1/2 hour +. MY doctor's response was"stand still till it goes away."

I've had "ocular migraines" which sound worse than they are. There's no actual pain involved— it's not a headache migraine— but the vision goes wonky, like looking through water, or at a highly pixelated image. It comes from doing close-in work (as miniatures painting) or using a device like a smart phone or tablet or computer. In more minor versions, I've lost all sense of depth perception.
Generally they clear in about an hour or less of resting the eyes.

The prevention solution is simple— stop work and look off in the distance for a bit, every 15 minutes or so.

Thank you for all the thoughtful feedback guys, much appreciated!

Indeed, I can relate to what you have all related to me. In addition to the Vertigo, every so often after painting/modeling for a while my eyes will get like this weird "tracking glitch" thing where when I move my head to look at something, for a split second it's as if the object I'm looking at has to "catch up" to what I'm seeing. It happens to fast it's almost instantaneous.

Another thing that happens after painting for a long time is that my eyes will get stressed and sort of like vibrate for a split second when I turn my head.

The "ocular migraines" thing that Parzival brought up is very interesting to me, because as he said there are many variations of migraines that don't actually include a "headache" or pain, but rather take the form of a visual anomaly or in my case some kind of queasiness or just a feeling of visual unease.

And it seems that the best remedy for much of this is to simply take breaks from what you're doing to let your eyes kind of recover.

If you think about it, when you're painting or doing any kind of closeup work, you're essentially freezing up your eye muscles and body muscles in order to hold yourself steady. It's like you're doing an extended hand stand or a single pull up where you try to hold up your weight for as long as possible. It puts stress on every muscle that's responsible for holding that position.

Also wanted to mention another thing Parzival brought up, which is the frequency of taking breaks. Whether it be painting/modeling, playing video games, or reading books, it's VERY, VERY important that you not only take breaks, but take them often.

This holds especially true if you happen to be like me where you do both miniature painting and play video games. It's a lot of continual stress on the eyes.

People often don't consider that their eyes need recovery time from doing work like any other part of the body.