At one point or another we have all seen the high wire act during a circus performance or on a  t.v. show. The performer steps out onto the tightly stretched rope and slowly puts one foot in front of the other doing all they can to avoid a nasty spill. We all look at the performer and think “yea you’re gonna fall” but of course they usually don’t.

The high wire reminds me a lot of what its like to have an anxiety disorder. Feeling off balance, woozy, lightheaded, faint are all sensations I’m sure a performer might feel while hoisted 50 feet in the air, but should we be feeling the same way?

Some time ago a wrote an article about my top ten most hated anxiety symptoms. One of those on the list was the all encompassing term “dizziness”. Now I put the word in quotations not because its a metaphor but because its a lot more than just a feeling of hum drum dizziness.

Anxiety related dizziness can feel like you’re falling, about to faint, or the floor your standing on is moving. The falling sensation is not an exaggeration either. I have been standing firm and literally lost my balance to the point of half jogging to the relative safety of my bed. So in case you were wondering it is normal to feel dizzy when you have an anxiety disorder.

Maybe dizziness doesn’t cut it so let’s use a different word to describe this feeling – let’s go with vertigo. Vertigo is the sensation that either you or your surroundings are spinning or moving about when they actually are not moving. This I think sums up the feeling of imbalance produced by an anxiety disorder. O.K. so we named the feeling – what is going on?

The most clear answer I have found is nobody really knows. This explains the name that is given to this condition which is sometimes referred to as Chronic Subjective Dizziness or CSD. Now the word subjective is telling in this instance because subjective means “proceeding from or taking place in a person’s mind rather than in the external world”.

Although the cause is unknown studies have shown that treating your anxiety will stop the dizziness slash vertigo. Whether you use drugs, exercise, diet, breathing techniques or a mixture of all these the idea is that you treat your anxiety to help all your symptoms including this one.

So is it all in your head? I doubt it because feeling dizzy is real. You don’t kind of feel dizzy you just are. Don’t feel discouraged by the non reason for this symptom occurring. Again, just focus on dealing with the underlying issues that sustain your anxiety and you’ll go much further in solving this problem.

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