Feeling off balance & dizzy

[maianixon]

Posting here again after a long time as I'm having a little health anxiety relapse. After feeling fine for a couple of years, I've started having weird physical symptoms again after a couple of months of pretty bad stress and anxiety. I got a bunch of visual symptoms and dizziness. Visual symptoms I'm used to - I was dealing with them when I had HA the first time and over the last few years they gradually went away. While it's super annoying they're back they don't scare me *too much*.

The off-balance feeling is terrible though.. It's not vertigo but it more feels like I'm swaying/rocking for most of the day and like I'm off-balance and unsteady (and no I don't have an ear infection). For some reason it's worse when I'm looking at screens which is super annoying and makes me think "but what if it's not just anxiety??? why would screens make it worse??". That being said I don't think my balance is *actually* off - I can walk in a straight line, still going to yoga classes just fine, etc. its just the sensation. I'm really trying to deal with this the best I can but it's starting to get the best of me. The unsteady, off-balance feeling combined with visual symptoms also pushes me into derealisation which is not fun.

When I first had HA, I got endless tests done, including an MRI. While I also had dizziness back then it didn't worry me as much as visual symptoms ironically so I didn't focus on it as much. This was 4 years ago, so there's a voice in my head saying "maybe i need to get retested!!!!" even though the symptoms are all pretty much the same. I did do a generic blood test and it's all good. i'm not even sure what exactly i'm afraid of, i'm just afraid. I really want to get through this without another round of unnecessary testing but it's getting harder and harder.

anyone else dealing with/familiar with the off-balance rocking feeling?

[Kuraimoar]

I get this pretty often. I think mine comes from tension in my neck and upper back. It's a hard symptom to deal with but if you ignore it and just tell yourself its anxiety, it helps.

[maianixon]

Thanks for sharing, it’s definitely my worst symptom this time and pretty much constant

[boy]

I’ve had this since August*. At its worst I feel like I’m in a lift, bobbing up and down.

You mention screens make it worse - my rational side thinks it’s eye strain from screen use. As symptoms started I found I was feeling dizzy looking at screens and could feel my eyes straining. I started pushing the monitor further and further away, everything felt too near for my eyes. It gets better if I zoom in on computer screens, giant text on phone and rest my eyes regularly, but I always have it to varying degrees. My optician said my eyes are fine.

My irrational side is why I’m here!

*Originally had January 2020, but actually stopped completely when I switched from lenses to glasses during the pandemic.

[maianixon]

Hi, sorry you’re dealing with this. I’ve been dealing with stress induced chronic dizziness for months. It’s actually super common for screens and visual stimuli to make dizziness worse - nothing unusual. Our brains rely on our eyes for balance and when your brain is confused, it’s really common to be visually triggered. Also the dizziness you describe is a super common anxiety symptom. Try to move as much as you can, go outside, exercise. Not just for your mental health but because it’s really good for your balance center to reset. Keep doing yoga too! Try to walk a lot and look at the horizon not on the ground, and don’t avoid things because of your dizziness.
It might take time, but also the most important thing is try to keep living your life and try not to focus on the dizzy symptoms - they can’t hurt you. The more you focus on the dizzy symptoms, the more you train your brain to notice it. I really really recommend books by Claire Weekes about health anxiety, they helped me so much and she even mentions dizziness too.
About screens - maybe try to avoid them as much as you can, or take a break when you feel like it’s becoming too much. There’s actually some exercises you can do that help some people if you look up VRT and gaze stabilization for visual induced dizziness. The main thing however that helped me though was time, working on my anxiety, moving on with my life, not obsessively researching, accepting my symptoms and gradually challenging myself. If you’re interested, you can also look up the steady coach on youtube - she has a really good free course and joining her community has helped me loads.
I’ve been dealing with this for 8 months now and it was super bad at some point and it does get better. In this time I’ve actually found out from doctors and people around it that it’s actually pretty common to have unexplained chronic dizziness and that it’s super closely connected with anxiety. It very rarely means anything sinister, especially with no other symptoms.

[boy]

Thank you so much for your reply! I did wonder how much of it could be anxiety-related, as it was always worse when my anxiety was up and I fixated on it. I’ll try all the things you suggested