Stress, anxiety, vertigo and dizziness.
If you suffer from any sort of balance disorder, you’ve probably come to realize that stress plays a big part in how good (or bad) you feel. For me personally, it’s taken me quite a while to realize the intimate connection between these two forces, but once I came to recognize it, it allowed me to better control when and where I feel dizzy.
As I said in my last post, I took a great vacation, and was able to unwind for a few days. I felt tremendously better (I did have my usual daily dizziness, but it was actually much better than usual). The lack of work-related stress really seemed to have a positive impact on how I felt.
I find exercise has the same stress-relieving effect — and it usually lasts for several hours after I exercise. And alcohol, while it certainly relieves stress in the short term, actually makes me feel more stressed in the longer term.
So while alcohol may be a quick fix for stress, it has a negative cumulative effect, and can often leave you feeling more stressed later in the day or the next day. Not to mention that alcohol is usually a motivation-killer as well.
As I’ve told myself many times, I need to avoid alcohol more, eat better and exercise more regularly (good advice for anyone, balance disorder or not). But for me (and anyone else with balance issues), the effects of not doing these things are not just felt in 10 or 20 years, but instead almost immediately.
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
diana munzer
thanks for this. I was glad to read that you think you are able to relieve the dizziness with stress reduction. I am going to go to the country and veg out. Maybe it will help
thanks again
Jun 26th, 2009
Abby
HI Vertigo-guy,
I “bing”ed “how to help daily vertigo” or something along those lines and your blog came up. I am approaching 24, and I am suffering from severe anxiety about vertigo. It all started when I was 20 and going through big changes in my life, I got a bout of vertigo for the first time and it really shook me up. I healed and life went on. Then, 6 months later I got vertigo so bad, that I had to go to rehab. Since then I have been a nut case. I have such bad anxiety about the FEAR of getting vertigo again, that I always feel like I have vertigo (swaying, minor dizziness). It will hit me at target, at work some times, when I am sitting at a stoplight, etc. My doctor put me on Lexapro, and then later on, Prestique. They made me feel less anxious, but the side-effects of the medication were terrible, so I ended up going off of them. I am clean off any medication and want to remain that way, but no one seems to understand how scary and uncertain I feel 5 days out of the week. It will hit me out of nowhere. SO my thing is, do I really have vertigo spells every day, or is my anxiety making me think I am have a spell??????? This is the worst. I need help.
Aug 2nd, 2010
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