Ask the Doctor: Stress and vertigo

When I first started having these periods of dizziness, I was told it was stress. It seems that stress gets blamed for a lot of vertigo. Is that true? Mine still keeps coming back but I am about to use your method. Thank you so much.

Read more: Ask the Doctor: Stress and vertigo

Stress seems to make every symptom worse.  It’s rare to find a person who isn’t stressed in some way, but most of them don’t have vertigo. So is stress actually the cause, or is it something else? Why would stress make some people have vertigo, and others have pain, or rashes?

If you want to prove that stress causes a symptom like vertigo, you’d need to find a way to remove the stress and see if vertigo resolves.  That’s quite hard to pull off.  Most of us have no simple way to get rid of stress.  Are you better when on vacation? When I suffered from Meniere’s disease, I found that I’d get worse if I went on vacation to a beach, but better if I vacationed in the mountains.  The lack of stress while on vacation wasn’t the answer—it was the improvement in barometric pressure at high altitude that made the difference.

Usually when a provider blames a symptom on stress, it’s because they can’t figure out what is actually causing the problem. That’s why I think it’s helpful for you to learn about your vertigo and try to figure out the underlying cause yourself. Here are some examples:

Short vertigo bouts when lying down, arising or rolling over: BPPV

Vertigo that lasts for days but then gradually improves: vestibular neuritis

Vertigo with throbbing headaches on one side of the head: vestibular migraine

Vertigo spells for hours associated with hearing loss and tinnitus: Meniere’s disease

Vertigo spells and loud snoring or breathing pauses at night: sleep apnea

Each of these has a completely different cause and treatment, but they are all made a bit more agonizing with stress.  However, getting rid of stress won’t stop the spells.  For that you have to find the underlying problem and treat it. 

I’ve heard many times from patients who first developed BPPV on vacation.  Surely they weren’t stressed!  The reason this happens is that you change how you sleep. Sleeping flat on your back with a thin pillow can set off BPPV.  A big fluffy pillow helps prevent it, as does any method to slightly elevate your head.  Hotels often have lousy pillows and that’s why BPPV is set off while on vacation.

Don’t let stress make you give up your search for the cause of your vertigo–you CAN figure it out.