Depression should not be overlooked or ignored, since it can contribute to dizziness, imbalance, and a reduced quality of life in general.
Psychiatric disorders including panic, anxiety or depression can have associated vestibular symptoms (vertigo, dizziness, unsteadiness).
Anxiety dizziness, lightheadedness, off-balance, vertigo-like, and woozy feelings are common symptoms of anxiety disorder.
You can experience these effects if you're feeling stressed, anxious or depressed. These emotions can trigger the symptoms of an underlying issue such as an inner ear condition, but they can also cause vertigo by themselves.
Common causes include inner ear problems, medicines, infections, and traumatic brain injury. These disorders can occur at any age. But they are most common as you get older. Treatment depends on the underlying cause and can include medicine, rehabilitation, and lifestyle changes.
There may be a feeling of motion or spinning inside rather than in the environment. Sometimes there is a sense of swaying even though you are standing still. Environments like grocery stores, crowded malls or wide-open spaces may cause a sense of imbalance and disequilibrium.
Causes of balance problems include medications, ear infection, a head injury, or anything else that affects the inner ear or brain. Low blood pressure can lead to dizziness when you stand up too quickly.
Muscle weakness and unstable joints can contribute to your loss of balance. Difficulties with eyesight also can lead to unsteadiness. Medications. Loss of balance or unsteadiness can be a side effect of medications.
But you should seek medical attention if imbalance isn't a fleeting sensation, if it's debilitating and disrupting your life or if it's putting your safety at risk. The signs you might have a balance disorder include: Prolonged or extreme dizziness. A spinning sensation when you're not actually moving (vertigo)
Many things can affect your sense of balance. Many people develop a balance issue as they grow older. But you can develop balance issues at any age. Inner ear disorders, head injuries and neurological conditions may affect your sense of balance.
Overview. Dizziness is a term used to describe a range of sensations, such as feeling faint, woozy, weak or unsteady. Dizziness that creates the false sense that you or your surroundings are spinning or moving is called vertigo.
A balance disorder makes you feel like you're moving when you're not. If you're standing, sitting or lying down, you might experience a spinning or floating sensation. If you're walking, you might feel like you're about to tip over.
Subjective sensations: Anxiety may make a person feel emotionally unsteady, which may cause the subjective feeling of dizziness. Hyperventilation: Some people may hyperventilate when anxious. This unnatural breathing deprives the brain of oxygen and can cause a person to feel dizzy or even faint.
Depersonalization symptoms
Symptoms of depersonalization include: Feelings that you're an outside observer of your thoughts, feelings, your body or parts of your body — for example, as if you were floating in air above yourself. Feeling like a robot or that you're not in control of your speech or movements.
Essentially, anxiety causes a feeling of vertigo based on the sum of its parts, rather than causing vertigo itself. Vertigo is one experience that causes its own symptoms, while anxiety is linked to multiple sensations that all resemble the experience of vertigo.
This unsteadiness symptom also may feel as though you are walking on a boat, or that the floor seems to move up and down and it's hard to balance. You may also have difficulty placing your feet on the ground or floor because you are unsure of your body's strength.
Common Descriptions Of The Brain Surge Anxiety Symptoms:
It feels like there is a sudden surge of “something” that makes the head and brain feel like they are being “flooded” and under pressure. This feeling can also be accompanied by a “dizzy” or “lightheaded” feeling.
Neurological Conditions
Illnesses like multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and cervical spondylosis slowly damage the way your nervous system talks to your brain, which can affect your balance. Physical therapy can help you manage the symptoms.
The Link Between Stress and Dizziness
When a person gets stressed, they experience a burst of cortisol – a hormone involved in flight-or-fight response – which affects the part of the brain that controls balance (vestibular system). In turn, the person feels off-kilter, as though they're on a boat.