Dizzy Spell

So, I have been on high alert all week, as my hubby and mom and sister are all out of town this week. They are all my "safe" people and they are all gone:( The anxiety has been grueling, but my husband returns tonight, so I was feeling much better today.

Then, as I was getting my daughter dressed, I got a bout of dizziness. It only lasted about 5 seconds, but scared the crap out of me. Now I am super sensitive and thinking this is going to happen again at any moment.

I know dizziness is a symptoms of some peoples anxiety, but it has NEVER been one of mine. The only time I've been dizzy while anxious was due to hyperventilating. This was a whole different kind of dizzy.

So now I'm basically terrified. My hands and legs are still shaking and it happened like an hour ago. I know dizziness is such a broad symptom and can be linked with just about anything (which is why I'm staying off the internet), but why must I automatically assume I'm dying? Why can't I just believe myself when I tell myself it's probably just a random thing?

Crap.

Dizziness is my main annoying / scary anxiety symptom that I've had to learn to live with over the years. It's usually those quick intense jolts like you describe. All I can say is that yes it's very common and probably with your current situation of others being gone, your baseline anxiety is high to begin with. Try not to worry about the dizziness as it's likely nothing more than the anxiety breaking through.

Hang in there; we're all in the same boat together! :)

Yeah, health anxiety after feeling odd, in your face sensations is something that creeps into our worried minds, at least for a little while afterwards.

Just tell yourself it was anxiety and march forward.

Actually one of my proudest moments recently was about month ago when I woke up with bad anxiety-related dizziness. It was right after I had stopped drinking, for good this time darn it :), and it lasted almost 2 days. I just told myself I'm not going to let this get me down and it didn't...did my usual things. I was a little wobbly, but never fell down and by the third day it had gone away.

Maybe you can turn this into a positive experience by saying, hey look what anxiety threw at me and I didn't fall down, but rather kept going!

Texan, that IS a huge feat! Getting through that many days of dizziness! I felt it for 5 seconds...can't imagine days.

Thanks for the testimony Larry. I keep telling myself it's a common symptom. But when that health anxiety gets geared up, sometimes it's hard to stop it. Knowing that I'm not in it alone helps a lot. I'm extremely grateful for this forum and your responses.

Thanks Park! I appreciate you chiming in. I know you can relate to instantly thinking the worst case scenario when it comes to health anxiety. It's hard to shake it off sometimes! I know I was having some anticipatory anxiety, knowing that the hubs and my mom would be out of town at the same time, but I was hoping it wouldn't get too out of control. Looks like it got the better of me. Oh well! Time to start to recover.

Hi MGQ! I know how scary it is to have new symptoms! I've actually had this happen to me a couple of times recently. I realized it is linked to PMS for me. When I am about a week before my period and hormones drop and are out of whack, I've been having some weird symptoms. It might be something new as I get older and hormones are even more wacky!!

I hope you're feeling better and have a little relief now that your hubby is home.

Take Care-