Can stress cause dizziness?

Stress is one of the most prevalent psychological problems worldwide. The vast majority of people will experience episodes of high stress and anxiety at some point in their lives, which, to a greater or lesser extent, will affect their mental and physical health.

Indeed, Stress and anxiety can cause changes on a physical level although, on many occasions, not even those affected know how to see the relationship. Your stress can manifest itself in all kinds of intestinal discomfort, pain, coronary problems...

All these problems are related to a high activity of our organism, with which a question occurs to us that goes exactly in the other direction, that is, the "deactivation" Can stress cause dizziness? And loss of consciousness? Let's see it next.

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Is it possible that high stress levels cause dizziness?

Stress is an emotion that puts us in tension, both physically and emotionally. This state arises when we perceive a threat which can endanger our physical and mental integrity. Our body prepares to face this potential danger, preparing to issue one of the following two responses: fight or flight. The problem is that if stress is sustained for a long time and progressively turns into anxiety, it can go from being an adaptive reaction to a dysfunctional problem.

Stress, if not properly reduced or treated, can give us many physical problems.. Indeed, stress not only tenses us emotionally, making us feel worry, fear or even sadness and despair. Stress can transform into intestinal discomfort, rapid heartbeat and breathing, spasms, sweating and tremors.

All these symptoms have an easily visible relationship with stress. Due to the great stress that we put on our body when we find ourselves in a stressful state, our body responds by “attacking”. However, as surprising as it may seem, it is this same stress that can cause us to emit a response well contrary to that of fight and flight, making us lose our ability to react and even consciousness: the dizziness.

We understand psychogenic dizziness or vertigo to be a psychosomatic phenomenon that appears very frequently, caused by subjecting the body to very high stress. When we are stressed our body invests a lot of energy in various structures, especially the heart, lungs and muscles., which means that with the passage of time and in case the stress has not been reduced, the person ends up depleting their energies and, as a result, they become dizzy and faint.

Despite the fact that the relationship between body and mind is widely known, on many occasions doctors do not consider anxiety as a possible cause to explain dizziness, focusing solely and exclusively on purely physiological aspects such as a disease in the vestibular system, drug use or an injury to the brain. All these causes should be the first to be looked at and treated if there are any. However, in the event that their cause is unknown, the possibility that there is a psychological problem behind them should be considered.

On other occasions, the possibility that these dizziness are due to stress does arise. However, far from going to a psychologist so that the patient learns ways to manage their problems, anxiolytics are prescribed to reduce the symptoms but not to end the real problem. This means that there is a risk that the patient will abuse the drugs and that, if the drug treatment has to end, these dizziness will reappear very intensely.

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How are they produced?

Unlike dizziness associated with drug use or neurological injury, stress dizziness can be caused by two factors: hyperventilation and vasovagal near syncope.

hyperventilation

One of the most obvious symptoms when we are stressed is hyperventilation. This It occurs when we breathe rapidly, which increases the oxygen in the blood. As a result it can give a choking sensation, combined with numbness in the extremities and eventually produces dizziness and vertigo.

When we are in the middle of a stress attack we can find ourselves very scared, which makes us breathe even faster. However, strange as it may seem, you do not need to be aware that you are stressed for hyperventilation to occur. It may happen that the person has been breathing fast for a long time since, being stressed almost always, this has become a habit. Because you don't realize it, you don't try to calm down, and you increase the chances of getting dizzy.

vasovagal presyncope

The presyncope is the sensation of attenuation of consciousness, although without losing it completely. This symptom not to be confused with fainting, in which there is a mild loss of consciousness.

A situation that causes hyperstimulation of the vagus nerve can cause a reduction in the heart rate and dilation of blood vessels by stimulation of the system parasympathetic. As the heart rate decreases, which is below 60 beats (normal is 60-100), less amount of blood to the brain which, in turn, means less oxygen to the brain and partial or partial loss of consciousness occurs total.

Treatment

By themselves dizziness due to stress or psychogenic vertigo are not dangerous, although they can be experienced in a particularly distressing and even traumatic way. They can precede a panic attack and make the person think they are dying. This is why it is so important that the person go to a psychologist to treat the underlying anxiety., learn techniques to manage it and strategies to achieve some control when these dizziness occur.

As we mentioned before, first of all it is necessary to confirm that these dizziness are not due to Medical problems, especially brain injuries, problems with the vestibular system, or drug use. Once it has been confirmed that there is no problem of this type, it is appropriate to go to psychological therapy, explaining to the psychologist what a normal day in the patient's life is like, what aspects worry you and what do you think about when you are suffering from dizziness and panic attacks.

You can also go to the psychiatrist if necessary and if the dizziness is still too frequent and intense. The pharmacological pathway to treat the anxiety behind these dizziness are SSRIs, sulpiride (antipsychotic), low-potency neuroleptics or some benzodiazepines with a short half-life. Even with these pharmacological options, it must be understood that anxiety is not a problem that appears simply because of dysregulation of neurotransmitters such as cortisol and histamine, but because the patient has an extremely stressful life.

For this reason, both with and without the help of pharmacological treatment, the patient will go to psychotherapy where will psychoeducate, preferably with cognitive-behavioral therapy and specialized treatments in addressing disorders of the anxiety. The patient may be suffering from generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, or even social phobia., diagnoses which among its symptoms are dizziness.

Bibliographic references:

• Balabán, C.D. and Thayer, J.F. (2001). Neurological Basis for Balance and Anxiety Links. J Anxiety Disorder, 15(1-2) p. 53-79.
• Girl, H. L. (2010). Relationship between anxiety disorders and inner ear disorders. Rev. Fac. Med. 58 (1): 60-70.
• Furman, J.M., Balaban C.D., and Jacob, R.G. (2001). Interface between vestibular dysfunction and anxiety: More than just psychogenicity. Otol Neurotol., 22(3): p. 426-7.
• Morris, L.O. (2010). Anxiety dizziness American Physical Therapy Association, Section of Neurology.
• Saman, Y. et. Al. (2012) Interactions between Stress and Vestibular Compensation – A Review. Front Neurol; 3: 116.