Inner ear disease felt like torture
The television presenter tells ELIZABETH ARCHER how work stress triggered problems with vertigo, hearing loss and tinnitus
WHEN Ben Hillman landed his dream TV job he was over the moon. But in the back of his mind he was worried that an old health concern would make the career move a short- lived one.
“I’d always dreamt of working as a presenter,” says Ben, who shares two daughters, Hope, five, and Honor, four with his wife Gaby.
For years, Ben, 42, had suffered from Meniere’s disease, which brings on sudden and severe attacks of vertigo and hearing loss, and he found it was usually triggered by pressure at work.
“I was so worried that it would rear its ugly head again with the stress of starting a new job,” he admits.
Ben started having attacks of dizziness when he was in his 20s.
“I used to work for The White Company, arranging photo shoots and styling,” he says.
“One day, I was sitting at my desk talking to a photographer and all of a sudden, it was like I’d been hit by 12 pints of beer.
“My head just span, the room just span, I couldn’t focus. I had to put the phone down. It was very frightening.”
Ben’s workmates helped him to a quiet room.
“My colleagues all helped me to walk and took me down the stairs, and I lay down in a dark room.
“They called NHS Direct and were told to take me to hospital, so they took me to A& E.”
Once there, Ben was given a barrage of tests.
“I hadn’t got a clue what was going on. When anything happens in your brain, you immediately think the worst.
“When I was taken to the hospital, I remember them doing oing a lot of tests on my sight and d my hearing. Then I ended up in the he MRI machine and that was when I really started becoming concerned.”
EVENTUALLY, at a follow- up appointment,
Ben was diagnosed with Meniere’s disease.
Meniere’s is a condition which affects the inner ear and causes attacks of vertigo, , tinnitus and hearing loss which ch can last hours or days.
It can affect people of any age, but is most common in those e aged between 20 and 60. Although h the cause of Meniere’s is unknown, poor fluid drainage in the ear and immune system disorders are thought to be risk factors.
“I’d never heard of Meniere’s and my initial feeling was one of worry, wondering what it meant for the future,” he says.
Ben is unsure what brought on his condition and was left with little information from doctors. “As soon as I found out I had it, I did what everyone does and jumped straight on the internet,” he says.
“It’s probably the worst thing you could possibly do. But having read the raft of stuff on the internet,
I did discover that it does burn out, so there was a glimmer of hope.”
After the initial attack, Ben experienced bouts of regular dizziness.
“They’d happen around once a month on average. When it happened, I’d experience it for two or three days, or sometimes up to two weeks. Initially it would come on stronger and then it would fade away.
“It would leave me with a floating sensation. The centre of gravity seems to come from the core of your brain, but after I’d had an attack, it would feel as if my centre of gravity was slightly off, like it w was raised about two inches fr from where it should be.
“I had this sensation of m my mind slightly floating ab above my head. It’s a very stra strange feeling, like being a bit spaced out.
“I a almost had to adapt my centre of gravity to accommodate that feel feeling. I walked a bit gingerly to comp compensate.”
He als also experienced tinnitus – a constan constant ringing in his ears – which is a common symptom of Meniere’s.
“For that period of time I had tinnitus. It’s a bit like torture, that constant drip, drip, drip. It’s usually when it’s quiet that it’s the most annoying but during the day when there are other sounds it fades it out a bit.”
Ben’s hearing was also affected. “I had so many trips to ear, nose and throat specialists and every time I had a hearing test my hearing had diminished a bit more in my left ear,” he says.
“So now I’m left with partial hearing, around 40 or 50 per cent, in my left ear. Even now, when I’m out with friends, I do find it hard to distinguish when there’s a lot of background noise. I really find it hard to tune into certain conversations.”
Over time, Ben altered his diet in an attempt to reduce the frequency of the dizzy spells.
“All the research suggests that alcohol and sugar can trigger the attacks, so I tried to eat a bit more healthily,” he says.
“I cut out caffeine completely for a few years but it didn’t seem to make a difference so eventually I reintroduced it.”
AFTER living with his condition for several months, Ben saw a pattern emerging. “It was definitely triggered by stress – when work pressures were piling up I could sense it coming, which was a really strange feeling.”
And as time wore on, he became concerned about the impact of the condition on his career.
“I’d just left university and was starting to think about forging a career. I thought: ‘ I’ve only just got out there into the working world and I’m already hitting a setback.’
“I was concerned because I knew stress could trigger more attacks, so I wondered what kind of job I would be able to handle.
“I did err away from stressful situations and probably still do.
“I don’t know if that stifled me for a while. Certainly it took me longer to find my feet than perhaps it would have done otherwise.” Eventually, after managing the condition for eight years, Ben’s symptoms disappeared.
“It must have been about 2010, I think, which is when I started to get into TV and I was ready to push myself a bit more,” he says,
“I started to realise I hadn’t had an attack in a while, and they just didn’t come back.”
Thankfully, he has been symptom- free ever since. Knowing stress was a trigger, when he accepted his job as a presenter on A Place In The Sun, he was concerned the condition would re- appear.
“It was obviously still at the back of my mind that it could come back,” he says. “It was my ultimate job, and I aimed towards it but when I started filming I could get the sensation again.
“I don’t know if it was psychosomatic in that I feared it so I felt it. But after a couple of episodes of filming, thankfully it just went. I found my feet and everything worked out, but it was a real worry.”
Now, Ben is keen to raise awareness of the condition.
“I know a lot of people suffer from more extreme symptoms than I did, and I can’t imagine how hard that is,” he says.
“But it’s important to stay positive and know that there is an end to it. All you can do is manage your symptoms and know that it won’t last forever.”
A Place In The Sun is on C4 at 4pm daily, except Saturdays.