Milan Kundera said that vertigo was more than the fear of falling. Vertigo means that the depth that opens up before us attracts us, seduces us, awakens the desire to fall, that we defend ourselves, in wonder?
Starting the text with a phrase by Milan Kundera about vertigo can seem daring. However, today I want to focus the article on a psychological point of view. Although it is a physiological condition, it can have serious consequences on our psyche. And that will be the subject of what you read next.
- Dizziness is a condition that causes a feeling of movement or rotation.
- Many describe it as dizziness.
- But that is not a very accurate description.
- People who have this disease really feel that the world is moving around them.
The causes are varied. In the case of peripheral vertigo, in which the problem has its root in the inner ear, the condition may be caused by nerve inflammation, injuries with head trauma, drug use, etc. On the other hand, if you have the central type, whose problem is in the brain, the reasons may be a stroke, medications, vascular disease or tumors.
Anyway, both have similar symptoms, the most typical are dizziness, hearing loss, ringing in the ears, double vision, facial paralysis . . . other problems include speech problems, weakness, or eye movement problems.
Dizziness causes in the individual another set of problems in addition to the purely physiological, the person can also be affected psychologically, is what doctors such as MR Clark, L. McKenna, M. Dieterich or RG Jacob, whose studies we previously elaborated this list of possible consequences.
Insecurity, anxiety and depression are symptoms of psychogenic dizziness, these dizziness can cause or be caused by these situations, however, although this is not an important part of this condition, they may be associated, although studies in the region are not yet conclusive.
It is not always easy to differentiate panic from vertigo, although a panic attack can be caused by different social or personal situations, it can also occur under conditions related to vertigo.
In this case, the person experiences dizziness, weakness and anxiety, which may be associated with breathing difficulties, palpitations and excessive sweating, often thought to be a temporary situation, when in fact the patient was suffering dizziness.
Anxiety, both chronic and acute, can end up being part of the state of vertigo, in this sense having to make important decisions in case of illness can greatly worsen symptoms.
In this case it is not a psychological problem caused by vertigo, but a somatization syndrome, that is, in the patient you can find different symptoms of the disease, however, although the symptoms are somatized, the person does not actually suffer from the disease, but has dizziness, headaches, fatigue, etc.
Any chronic disease can lead to depression. In this case, unfortunately, vertigo is part of this family, so dizziness and other symptoms may indicate that there is a major problem in the form of dizziness.
Another condition of vertigo may be phobic postural vertigo. He received this designation from Dr. Brandt, who demonstrated that this condition could trigger patients’ fear of standing, walking, or performing a task.
Episodes of this problem can occur spontaneously, they can also generate avoidance attitudes that lead to fears, agoraphobia, hypochondria and other symptoms of great psychological component.
We can see that vertigo is much more than a disease, without proper psychological preparation this affects not only our movement, but also our brain; However, with a positive attitude we can overcome mental conditions that can lead to specific cases.