Welcome to the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge brought together by WEGO Health – a social network for all health activists.  Again, I am participating in the annual Writer’s Month Challenge in which I will be writing about my health activism and health condition based upon prompts given.

Today’s prompt reads as follows:

Say WHAT?  What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve heard about health or your condition?  Where did you hear it and what did you think? 

I once heard, a few years ago, by a doctor, that the dizziness I was experiencing was simply in my imagination and couldn’t possibly be experiencing it as I was far too young!  Yes, dizziness is often discussed in relation as a symptoms often experienced later in life and sometimes referred to as “just another part of getting older.”

However, although dizziness is often seen in older adults, many of us, from experience, know that it can occur at any age, and can be as a result of a number of different factors.  Dizziness can be as a result of a head injury, degenerative diseases and other physical ailments.  And as I have read countless of times, during research, symptoms of dizziness are not normal at any age and are a sign that something is wrong, and therefore should be investigated.

Obviously been told this, and especially, someone in a position of power, like a doctor, and given that I was very young was distressing.  Distressing to think that although the dizziness was severe and affecting me so badly, that no-one believed me.  Telling me instead that it was all in my head also meant that the dizziness I was experiencing was not being investigated by doctors, and therefore further delayed me getting the correct diagnosis.

Obviously any symptoms that someone is experiencing which is out of the ordinary should be thoroughly investigated until all avenues have been exhausted, for peace of mind if anything.

What if the doctors that I visited took my dizziness more seriously?  Perhaps then I would have gotten a diagnosis more quickly.  Would it have made a difference in terms of treatment?  Would the dizziness be less severe if I had interventions sooner?  That I cannot answer but it would have meant that I wouldn’t have gone through so many years of believing that the dizziness was all in my head.