Summary:
This article reviews the relationship between anxiety and dizziness, and how individuals can get treatment for anxiety to reduce symptoms like dizziness.
Can Anxiety Cause Dizziness?
Yes, anxiety can absolutely cause dizziness as it is one of the most common physical symptoms of things like panic disorders and anxiety disorders. When the body experiences anxiety, it activates the fight or flight response, which causes physiological changes, including shallow breathing and reduced carbon dioxide in the blood. These changes increase the feeling of unsteadiness and lightheadedness, leading to dizzying sensations.
However, research indicates that this relationship goes both ways, meaning that dizziness can cause anxiety, or an individual is constantly anxious about being unsteady on their feet or falling, just the same as anxiety can cause dizziness.
These are legitimate symptoms that can impact daily life. However, they are rooted in the way the body responds to stress and, as such, can be better managed with things like inpatient or outpatient therapy, including relaxation techniques, cognitive behavioral therapy, or anxiety medications.
Dual Diagnosis Anxiety Treatment with Sequoia Detox Centers
With our dual diagnosis programs, individuals who are struggling with anxiety and subsequent symptoms of dizziness can find treatment for co-occurring disorders. Many individuals who are struggling with anxiety disorders might be prescribed something like benzodiazepines, which can lead to secondary substance use disorders. Individuals who have not been diagnosed and are receiving no treatment for anxiety may be at a higher risk of self-medicating, leading to an equal risk of developing substance use disorders alongside anxiety.
With our programs, we help answer questions like “can anxiety cause dizziness” during individual and group therapy sessions. We provide multiple levels of care ranging from detox and residential treatment down to outpatient and aftercare so that each client can find the level of care most appropriate to their needs.
With our team, we aim to help each client prioritize self-care in recovery by improving symptoms of mental health conditions like anxiety.
Finding the Right Level of Care for Anxiety Treatment
Our team can help you understand how anxiety works, whether it is a disability, and how to manage symptoms through our continuum of care. By offering all levels of treatment from residential to traditional outpatient and aftercare, we make it possible for clients to move through a step-down approach to treatment, stepping down to reduced levels of participation and supervision as each client reaches new goals.
Our team can help you figure out the cause of your dizziness and start an anxiety treatment program now. Call us at 1-866-824-0709 to get started.
FAQ
Can Anxiety Cause Dizziness?
Yes, anxiety has been shown to cause dizziness. This dizziness is related to the fight or flight response from within the body, triggering feelings of increased heart rate and rapid breathing. With such fast changes to blood pressure and breathing, blood to the brain is slowed down, resulting in feelings of dizziness.
Does Breathing Help Anxiety-Caused Dizziness?
Breathing is both a key factor behind anxiety-related dizziness and something that can help reduce it. When many people struggle with anxiety and the body enters the fight or flight response, they start to breathe in a shallow fashion, called clavicular breathing. This comes from the clavicle, also known as shallow breathing or hyperventilation, and it lowers the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood, constricting the blood vessels, and reducing oxygen to the brain, leading to dizziness. That said, when struggling with anxiety, focusing on breathing techniques that can improve deep, belly breathing can help reduce these feelings of dizziness.
Can Anxiety Cause Chronic Dizziness?
Chronic anxiety can result in your body remaining in a state of high alert, which can cause persistent dizziness. This type of ongoing dizziness is not necessarily associated with a panic attack, but rather, persistent hypervigilance and muscle tension in the neck or shoulders.
Does Dizziness Cause Anxiety?
Dizziness can, for some people, cause anxiety in the sense that someone might become anxious about bouts of dizziness. This is often less an anxiety disorder and more a general fear about future symptoms. In these cases, dizziness might be the result of many things, ranging from dehydration to stress to medical conditions. Talking with a medical team about symptoms can help you find the right course of action.
Is Anxiety Dizziness Dangerous?
No, once you have been diagnosed with any underlying issues, dizziness caused by feelings of anxiety is typically not dangerous. The dizziness felt in the body is a manifestation of the nervous system working, not a sign of serious injury or damage. Still, if you are experiencing anxiety-caused dizziness, you might consider treatment through therapies and outpatient programs to help reduce symptoms, including dizziness.
Are There Specific Triggers for Anxiety Dizziness?
Triggers are different for each person, though many people find sensory overload to be a main cause. Sensory overload can often happen in crowded areas or large spaces where the brain struggles to process all of the sensory input and maintain balance. For others, anxiety-caused dizziness can happen when situations, people, emotions, or places might be particularly severe or related to trauma.
How Long Does Anxiety-Caused Dizziness Last?
The length of symptoms varies by person, often ranging from a few minutes to a few hours. This varies based on the type of anxiety. For example, an acute panic attack can last for just a few minutes or much longer, depending on the circumstances, leading to persistent feelings of dizziness during that time related to the fight or flight mechanism and the change in heart rate and breathing. However, general dizziness that’s not as severe but still leaves you off kilter might be associated with a generalized anxiety disorder, whereby you feel unbalanced most of the time.
What Can I Do to Stop Anxiety-Caused Dizziness?
Owing to the causes, there are many grounding exercises and techniques that individuals can use to calm the brain’s fight or flight system during anxiety. With our treatment programs, individuals can work through breathing techniques and grounding techniques to help restore carbon dioxide levels, signal safety, and overcome sudden drops in blood pressure.
