Dizziness is the feeling that you or your surroundings are moving when there is no movement. You may feel off balance and experience a spinning, whirling, tumbling, or tilting sensation. You may feel nauseous or vomit if your dizziness is severe, and you may have difficulty walking or standing, causing you to lose your balance and fall.
Strategies for Managing the Feeling of Dizziness
Here are five strategies that may help:
1. Listen to your body
Each attack of dizziness does not come as a complete surprise. There are subtle warning signs, such as a slight lightheadedness when standing up, a vague feeling of lightheadedness in the head, or a slight tingling in the back of the neck.
Listening to these subtle signals is the first step to proactively managing dizziness, because once you recognize that dizziness is developing, you have a chance to take action before it becomes severe.
When the feeling of dizziness starts to creep in, the most important thing is not to panic. Panic will make you breathe faster, your heart will beat faster and make the dizziness worse. Stop whatever you are doing, choose a safe place to sit or lie down on your side. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, breathe evenly, keep your head in a stable position, preferably tilted slightly back and avoid turning left or right suddenly. This is a simple but extremely effective way to help the body and vestibular system regain balance.
2. Adjust your posture properly
Body posture plays an important role in the onset or aggravation of dizziness, just a bow of the head or a turn of the head too quickly can make the whole space in front of the eyes sway. Therefore, the next control strategy lies in the way you move every day.
Get into the habit of moving slowly and in control. When you want to stand up, sit up slowly, hold that position for a few seconds and then slowly stand up. When you want to turn your body or look to the left or right, turn your whole body instead of just your head. This helps prevent the signals from the vestibular system to the brain from being suddenly disrupted, reducing the risk of vertigo.
If you have been diagnosed with benign positional vestibular disorder, practicing specialized exercises such as the Epley exercise or the head tilt-turn-hold exercise for a few seconds will be very helpful. These exercises not only help reposition the misplaced calcium crystals in the inner ear, but also retrain the vestibular system to adapt to movement.
3. Good nutrition and sleep
Another important strategy is to maintain a moderate lifestyle. Eat enough meals, avoid fasting, and drink enough water every day, especially on hot days or after a lot of exercise. Limit salty foods and caffeine if you have Meniere’s disease, as they can cause fluid to build up in the inner ear. In particular, give your body at least 7–8 hours of sleep each night, because only when the body is properly rested, the brain and vestibular system can function stably.
4. Control emotions
Stress and anxiety are the silent causes of dizziness. When you are under prolonged stress, the autonomic nervous system is overstimulated, blood pressure can fluctuate erratically, the body is always in a state of “high alert”, and this can trigger dizziness, especially in people with sensitive vestibular nerves.
You can learn to reduce stress every day, even if it is just 10–15 minutes of gentle relaxation. A leisurely walk, a deep breathing exercise, or simply listening to soft music in a quiet space is enough to help calm the nervous system. Meditation, yoga, or deep muscle relaxation exercises are also very good support tools for those who often suffer from dizziness accompanied by anxiety.
5. Regular medical check-ups and monitoring
The feeling of dizziness is not always a benign sign. It can be a manifestation of many underlying conditions such as small brain lesions, neuritis, cerebral ischemia, hypertension or vascular disease. Therefore, if you have experienced repeated attacks of dizziness, or if each attack lasts for hours accompanied by hearing loss, numbness in the limbs, slurred speech or blurred vision, it is imperative to see a specialist. Only when the cause of dizziness is correctly identified can you have an effective and safe control strategy. Your doctor may order some tests such as blood pressure measurement, blood test, hearing test, EEG or MRI to find the cause. Depending on the results, you will be instructed to use medication, exercise or make appropriate lifestyle changes.
