“Don’t Believe Everything You Think.”
Dizziness And Anxiety-Dizziness is one of the most common and worst symptoms of anxiety. It is also important to note that besides anxiety, dizziness may also occur due to underlying issues like inner ear infections for example (have you gotten your ears checked?). Dizziness linked to anxiety is usually temporary and does not last very long. It may however occur in bouts with increased frequency during the midst of severe anxiety.
If anxiety induced dizziness is intense and tends to persist for a long time, then it is advisable for people to seek someone who can help alter the underlying core beliefs, cognitions, and somatic anxiety (symptoms).
The main causes of dizziness and anxiety are mentioned below:
Hyperventilation: Hyperventilation is usually the most common trigger of dizziness. It can occur during an episode of panic attack or anxiety, but may also be experienced by the sufferer whenever they feel anxious (which during my days with anxiety, was all day).
Breathing fast or rapidly is often the main cause of hyperventilation, but it can also be caused by poor breathing techniques which supply increased levels of oxygen to the body. The balance of carbon dioxide and oxide gets skewed due to hyperventilation and this is what causes dizziness associated with anxiety.
Dehydration: Dehydration may also trigger dizziness associated with anxiety. Dehydration may not necessarily be due to anxiety, but people prone to anxiety attacks are more susceptible to suffering from anxiety when they are dehydrated. It may also be noted that physical symptoms may appear to be worse than they actually are during periods of anxiousness. Hence, dehydration induced mild dizziness may seem to be more serious than it actually is.
Sight: Anxiety can trigger problems with vision. What you see gets interpreted by the mind and hence any kind of vision issues may lead to dizziness due to incorrect comprehension of the environment/surroundings.
Panic: Anxiety can be accompanied by panic. Panic episodes sometimes occur along with mild fainting or dizziness due to the abnormal effects/sensations triggered by panic in the body. The sudden increase in adrenaline can lead to light headedness and this may eventually trigger dizziness.
Treatments For Dizziness And Anxiety
Dizziness induced by anxiety is generally not a cause for worry. However, if it occurs when engaged in certain activities, like driving, then it can prove to be dangerous and bewildering.
Even though dizziness is not a great cause of concern, it can prove to be disruptive and bothersome. Follow the below listed steps as well as watching this video to being recovery from the dizziness sensation.
If the room appears to be spinning, then close the eyes. This will help prevent vision from contributing to the dizziness.
Take deep slow breaths. During anxiety bouts people may often feel as if they are not able to take a complete breath. As discussed above, the problem is not shallow breathing, but hyperventilation or breathing excessively. Slowing down breathing can help regain the balance of carbon dioxide and oxygen and help alleviate dizziness.
Find a spot in the distance and focus your attention on it. A mild level of dizziness may still be present around you, but the intensity of dizziness will gradually reduce. If anxiety induced dizziness is due to dehydration, then drink water. Also make sure to practice my favourite type of reaction to dizziness and anxiety:
MAPPING!
Mapping creates congruence with the non judgemental side of you by sitting, laying down, being stationary and connecting with your unconscious mind. You do this by slowing down and labelling what you are going through without judgement (the victim like story, or what it may lead to) for a set period of time.
Mapping will get you to become more neutral in the face of dizziness and anxiety. This is what we want. We don’t want to question our own skills and abilities, our identity etc, we want to accept fully, allow the feelings to run its course, and change the meaning of the dizziness.
Ready To Eliminate Your Dizziness And Anxiety All Together?
The End The Anxiety Program Is Your Road Map Towards Change.
Thank you so much for this Dennis! Really needed to read this one! 😊👍🏻
So very welcome Mehwish, a great insight into dizziness and anxiety 🙏
This is so much an insightful post here. Timely and helpful. It is just what I needed right now. I’m glad I saw this. Keep up the good work, Dennis, you have been a great blessing to many.
Grateful that I could help John.
I get hot flushes and dizziness. The heat goes up to my head on the boil and everything starts throbbing. Menopause is not helping my anxiety!!
Much love the content here will help.
When I wake up in the morning my dizziness is virtually gone, as the day progresses working I feel it creep up in meetings, then driving home is usually when its at its worse. I hold my breath a lot while talking to people or listening to people even, always find myself holding my breath. Is this contributing? its not exactly hyperventilating. Its also worse while walking and having a lot of visual stimuli.
This Monday’s podcast episode is on Dizziness and anxiety. I’m sure it will help so stay tuned. ❤️
What if the anxiety/panic and the dizziness are actually reversed? It is actually a balance problem/dizziness causing the anxiety/panic? In my case it was and I can’t the the only one on this planet of 7 billion people that it is true for. My panic attacks were stopped cold (within 45 minutes) after taking an inner ear medication called anti-vert (meclizine hcl). Haven’t had a panic attack in 25 or more years since finding the true cause. Bonus: I no longer take the meclizine. My brain eventually got used to my faulty vestibular (inner ear) system.
The leading cause of dizziness is a faulty vestibular system. Fact. Google dizziness and the first 4 pages will be on inner ear problems before you even get to other problems like orthostatic intolerance. Please inform anyone who has dizziness of this possible connection. Especially if they complain of any other ear related anomalies like tinitis or ear pressure and pain. To do anything less would IMO be unconscionable. There are at least 20 medical studies that I am personally aware of that make this connection between panic disorders and actual physical inner ear problems and my search was not exhaustive, I’ve even written an article on the subject and provide the links to those studies within it.
Paul.
Thanks for sharing Paul.