Anxiety can trigger a range of physical sensations/ feelings, such as swaying, or floating, or off-balance feeling, like the floor is shifting, or your body is moving. Disconnected, foggy, dreamlike or unreal feelings, making depth perception, stairs, uneven surfaces harder. Fast shallow breathing upsets O2/ CO2 balance, changing blood flow & making head feel light, causing tingling, or head pressure. Side vision can dim, or sparkle from shifts in blood flow. Unsteadiness from rubbery legs. Chest can pound, or flutter, heightening awareness of every feeling in the body. Racing thoughts make it hard to focus, amplifying off balance feeling, which quite often all starts with a feeling of unknown dizziness?
So Anxiety can cause dizziness & dizziness can cause anxiety & understanding why, as well as understanding the symptoms with anxiety, will give you more control over unsolicited fear to help you out of this cycle of anxiety & dizziness. Dizziness from anxiety can feel like lightheadedness, unsteadiness, or floating sensation, with possible woozy feeling, head pressure, brief vertigo or sense of imbalance & comes with the other symptoms of anxiety, e.g. racy heart, shortness of breath, sweating etc. it’s important to remember that these “symptoms” are all just feelings, with “scary” thoughts added to them, but are still usually normal & harmless & just need some understanding, to be able to control them.
So a quick normal, harmless, maybe even unfelt, dizziness, felt by the brain, can set off a normal, harmless, protective, stress hormone release e.g. an Adrenaline dump into the blood stream, which increases symptoms “feelings” & false thoughts of some unspecified “horrible” threat, which starts the normal, harmless, “scary feeling” fight/ flight response, while increasing uncomfortable feelings, fears, thoughts & dizziness, of which all can be controlled, with the proper understanding & tools.
Dizzy spells often follow daily routine, e.g. Morning wake up with stress hormone Cortisol spikes, afternoon energy decrease can worsen symptoms & nighttime anxiety & dizziness can spike, as your brain starts worrying about tomorrow, instead of relaxing like it should. Also situational triggers, such as certain places can make thoughts & fears run wild, making dizziness worse, e.g. crowded stores, bright fluorescent lights, or visually busy places. Noticing these triggers can help you to plan grounding & coping strategies, to get back to normal thoughts & feelings when visiting these situations.
Once the fight/ flight response kicks in, you will need to use breathing & grounding tech’s, to help the released calming hormones, to calm the nervous system, which usually takes 1-5 minutes to start calming & up to 20 for completion. For long term help, diet changes can help, e.g. eliminate caffeine & alcohol, also regular exercise, meditation, yoga & good sleep can help. If dizziness is too bad, or persists, you should get a medical checkup to rule out any possible medical issues.
The most important tool for these disruptions is controlled breathing, to calm the body & mind. Inhale slowly & deeply, through the nose, into the belly, not chest, for count of 4, hold for count of 4, exhale through pursed lips, to keep CO2 in the system to stop lightheadedness, for count of 6, wait for a count of four, repeat. Do often to make it normal breathing. Check breathing by placing a hand on your chest & on your belly, belly should rise?
Start grounding tasks to interrupt the anxious/ fear thoughts in your brain. e.g. 5-4-3-2-1 method uses the senses to ground you, e.g. name 5 things you can see, name & touch 4 things near you, listen for 3 things you can hear, what’s 2 you things smell & taste 1 thing, sour candy works best. Also can try progressive muscle relaxation, start at your toes, tighten & release paying attention to feeling & relaxing, moving upward, to ankles, lower legs, on up the body to the jaw, which helps release tension causing dizziness. For quick temporary fix, hold an ice cube, or splash cold water on the face, which slows your heart rate & breathing. Humming “MMMMMMMM” can help the Vagus nerve (by vibrating the throat muscle) in releasing calming hormones. Think about number games, like counting backwards from 100 by sevens etc. to shift the focus away from physical sensations. Stretching can give sensory input to help with lightheadedness. Calming games or apps to engage your attention can help. Position the body for stability, to help with dizzy spells, for sitting, keep feet firmly flat on the floor, with back supported. When lying down, elevate your legs slightly to improve blood flow to the brain. Avoid sudden movements, focus on a fixed point, which can help the vestibular system recalibrate for relief.
So Anxiety can cause physical changes in the body, that result in dizziness. Stress hormones, muscle tension, shallow breathing can all lead to lightheadedness, unsteady feelings. Anxiety can disrupt your body’s equilibrium by increasing the sensitivity of your nervous system, further enhancing the sensation of dizziness. Understanding the causes behind dizziness & anxiety is essential in addressing the cycle & taking some of the darkness & fear out of the basically normal, harmless feelings.
