Do you know the feeling when literally your head is spinning and the earth is floating away from under your feet? The reasons for this may be different, including those related to the state of our psyche. Psychotherapist Mintimer Missarov talks about some of them.
Svetlana was collecting the child for school in the morning. They were a little late for the first lesson, the woman already wanted to leave the house and … could not.
Probably, many have heard that our brain is capable of much. And now I’m not talking about rockets and not about creating symphonies, but about various psychological phenomena. For example, in conversion disorder (previously called hysteria), people lose their speech, their limbs are literally taken away, and the bodies of the patients themselves arch in arches.
With Svetlana, the psyche also played a cruel joke. She suddenly began to feel dizzy, so much so that she was afraid to fall right on the stairs of her own entrance and therefore could not leave the house. And the most amazing thing is that her brain itself caused this dizziness.
«Everything is spinning»
Dizziness is not the easiest symptom in medicine. Let us dwell on this definition: dizziness is a feeling of an imaginary rotation of space around oneself or oneself in space, or a feeling of an approaching loss of consciousness, uncertainty, unsteadiness.
The feeling of unsteadiness, dizziness can occur for three reasons.
- Due to damage to some structures — the brain, cerebellum, vestibular apparatus, nervous system.
- Due to a certain state of mind. For example, panic attacks and panic disorder can provoke dizziness.
- Due to functional disorders. Functional disorder is a cross between the previous two categories. That is, there are no anomalies in the body, but there is no psychiatric disease, but the symptom is still there.
Our attention today will be focused on the last two points, because it is with them that a psychotherapist or a psychiatrist works.
Mental disorders
Let’s start with those situations when dizziness is the result of some kind of psychiatric disorder, such as panic.
A panic attack usually begins with acute or chronic stress. Stress creates a safe, but not always pleasant, imbalance of the nervous system in the body. And at some point, a person may suddenly notice this imbalance in himself, for example, in the form of a rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath or dizziness.
In terms of cognitive behavioral therapy, if a person treats these symptoms with caution, he may experience additional stress. And this, in turn, will increase anxiety and the severity of symptoms. This set of symptoms is called hyperventilation syndrome.
If you experience prolonged or repeated dizziness, see your doctor
The condition begins to deteriorate rapidly and turns into a panic attack. A safe and short-term spasm of cerebral vessels occurs, which can cause a short-term feeling of dizziness, instability and unsteadiness of gait.
From this moment on, a person can consider that he is unwell and can fall at any moment. He begins to avoid certain situations, seek help and undergo multiple examinations, which only strengthens the belief in his illness in his head. This means that the symptoms of instability will continue to visit him or even turn into a constant fear of falling.
These feelings will go away once the panic disorder is treated. And the treatment of a psychiatric condition should be regulated by a psychotherapist or psychiatrist with drugs and / or psychotherapy.
Functional disorders
There are many functional disorders that cause a feeling of dizziness. In many ways, they differ precisely in the frequency of symptoms, which can manifest themselves constantly or in attacks.
What is the mechanism of functional vertigo? They usually begin if the person already has some kind of unpleasant experience associated with dizziness in the past. For example, he fainted or he had inflammation of the inner ear, which caused a state of instability for a while.
Further events can develop as follows:
- Based on this experience, in stressful situations, the level of anxiety increases in a person.
- Anxiety causes the brain to send impulses to excessive contraction of certain stabilizing muscles.
- Because of this, there is an imbalance in the interaction of stabilizing muscles.
- This causes a subjective feeling of instability, and the anxiety increases.
The circle has closed on anxiety, which means that similar cycles are ahead of us: increased anxiety maintains a feeling of instability, this feeling makes us anxious, and so on.
How to help yourself?
When vertigo has psychiatric and functional causes, we are usually helped by prescription drugs, physical therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy. There is also a technique with which you can independently try to overcome these types of dizziness.
The main thing to remember is that if you experience prolonged or repeated dizziness, a feeling of unsteadiness, consult a doctor (for example, a neurologist) in order to accurately diagnose and avoid dangerous, life-threatening causes of these symptoms.
So, here is a self-help technique for dizziness caused by panic attacks and functional disorders:
- Write down any situations in which you feel or may feel dizzy and/or unsteady.
- Start gradually placing yourself in these situations, starting with the easiest.
- With each situation, your brain will learn that it is NOT dangerous to be in such situations.
- This means that anxiety will decrease, which means that the vicious circle of “anxiety-dizziness” will be destroyed.
If you feel that you cannot cope on your own, do not hesitate to seek professional help!