We are here to discuss if there is a link between anxiety and dizziness or if either of these causes the other to happen or vice versa. This information will help you in answering questions like “Can anxiety cause dizziness?”, or “How to stop dizziness from anxiety?” while also discussing the various connections between dizziness and anxiety. So, let’s begin:
Can Anxiety Cause Dizziness? For That, We Need To Define Dizziness
Dizziness is a feeling of lightheadedness or that you are about to faint. It is characterized by being a symptom of some of the most major mental conditions such as different types of anxiety disorders, which can also come as a result of or is exacerbated by a physical health issue and is not mutually exclusive with anxiety.
Dizziness caused by anxiety (overthinking and stressing about something) can be identified by looking at the following:
If You Are Hyperventilating (Visible Changes In Your Breathing Patterns):
When you are anxious for any reason, you begin to take deeper breaths with quick intervals. This leads to reduced carbon dioxide levels in your blood, which in turn leads to dizziness as well as light-headedness, nausea, and some kind of tingling sensation in your hands and/or feet(2). It is often caused by excessive anxiety and panic attacks.
You Have Gone Through Vasovagal Syncope Episode At Least Once:
A common cause of fainting that takes place when the blood pressure suddenly drops, causing a person to feel dizzy and confused as a result. This is evidenced in a 2022 systematic review(1) that suggests there may be a link between vasovagal syncope and emotional distress, which often occurs in people with anxiety and depression.
If You Feel Subjective Sensations:
Anxiety has the ability to make a person feel emotionally unsteady, which may cause the subjective feeling of dizziness. It is also vice versa.
If You Are In Panic Mode:
Panic attacks are capable of inducing dizziness, making it henceforth a good answer to a question like, “Can Anxiety Cause Dizziness?”. Panic mode often causes hyperventilation, which as mentioned before, releases carbon dioxide found in the body and that is what makes the affected individual feel dizzy. Sometimes adrenaline also accompanies these panic attacks, which further exacerbates the dizziness part with extreme lightheadedness. This anxiety dizziness is often induced by panic attacks which come into existence due to an underlying physical issue or illness.
Read More: Have You Been Waking Up With Anxiety? Let’s Find Out!
If You Think Your Fight or Flight Response Is On
When you feel like you are anxious and anxiety is rolling in like quicksand, then that probably means you are going through a fight or flight response. This response plays a part in safeguarding your body’s preparedness to effectively respond to an impending danger. This can also lead to a rush of adrenaline, leaving you feeling dizzy and/or lightheaded in the process.
Dehydration
While dehydration itself does not cause dizziness but can be debilitating enough for anxiety to kick in, which is something that indeeds leads to dizziness. And the more dehydrated you will be the more anxious you are going to get. Additionally, dehydration also has a tendency to make its physical sensations look more distressing than they actually are. So… Can anxiety cause dizziness? That would be a yes!
Why Does Anxiety Cause Dizziness?
So, why does anxiety cause dizziness? There is a part of our body called the vestibular system, which is responsible for maintaining the balance of your body and is located in the inner ear of each side that also hosts specific areas of the brain, and the nerves that connect them. This system is responsible for the sense of dizziness when things go wrong.
Experts believe that this is the same part of the brain that is responsible for dizziness, which also interacts with the areas responsible for anxiety, and can therefore cause both symptoms. The dizziness that accompanies anxiety is often hosted by a number of other symptoms, which affected individuals feel as a feeling of motion or spinning inside rather than in the environment. Sometimes there is also a sense of swaying here and there even though one is standing still. Many often describe these feelings as lightheadedness or wooziness.
Does Anxiety Cause Dizziness or Is It Dizziness and Anxiety In Cahoots:
Both can do both. For starters, dizziness and anxiety are not mutually exclusive, as they can happen as a comorbidity. As mentioned above, anxiety does cause but when it comes to answering a question like, “Does anxiety cause dizziness?” or “Can anxiety cause dizziness?” Well, anxiety causes two different types of dizziness: acute and chronic(3). Acute dizziness is brief and usually happens during a panic attack or from standing upright too quickly. Chronic takes place when one experiences frequent and persistent bouts of dizziness
But what about dizziness? So, can dizziness also cause anxiety as you start to worry about it in general, or that it will never go away? An example of this would be vertigo(4). It can, on its own, lead to anxiety. Vertigo is a type of dizziness that can cause a person to have an experience where they feel as if they are moving or falling, even when standing still, increasing the risk of anxiety in the process. People with anxiety disorders have an increased risk of some types of vertigo.
Read More: Understanding the link between anxiety and migraine
How To Stop Dizziness From Anxiety?
If you are asking how to stop feeling faint from anxiety, then the only way to do it is to find treatment such as psychotherapy, medication, or make some lifestyle changes(5).
For psychotherapy (talk therapy), an expert may recommend cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which helps an affected person better understand their thoughts and feelings by helping them look inward and finding resolutions for their problems. Other forms of therapy such family therapy, exposure therapy, and
For anxiety, medications such as anti-anxiety medications such as benzodiazepines or beta blockers. Antidepressants such as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) can also work tremendously. All of these are able to alter biological processes in such a way that they help decrease the symptoms that relate to the questions of “Can Anxiety Cause Dizziness?”.
Read More: Does Anxiety Cause Nausea?
End Of The Line
We are at the end here but we hope you are much wiser to understand the answers to a question like, “Can Anxiety Cause Dizziness?”. If you want to jump into the treatment promptly, you can consult with Solid Foundation Psychiatry. We are able to treat anxiety and other conditions like depression, bipolar disorder, insomnia, PTSD, psychosis, or schizophrenia through treatment methods such as the ones suggested above and something like telepsychiatry.