Many people with long term conditions find self-management helpful to feel more in control of their health condition and symptoms.
Self-management can aid people to access information and develop the skills needed to help them cope day-to-day and make informed decisions about when and how to draw on different types of support. Your healthcare professional should support you with your self-management.
Some ideas to help you take control:
• get to know your condition and how it affects you
• accept you have a health condition - it may sometimes be limiting but you can take control
• understand how your condition makes you feel so you can identify the support you need
• recognise that you can get on with life but sometimes you may have to make some alterations
• set realistic goals
• keep a symptom diary
• talk to people in a similar situation for mutual support and to share experiences.
Self-Management for Dizziness
The symptoms of vestibular disorders can be frightening and debilitating but, over time, you may find there are ways to help manage your dizziness and associated symptoms day to day.
This could include:
• diet and/or lifestyle changes
• finding ways to keep active
• arranging for someone to be available to support you, if you have a severe attack
• resting or keeping to indoor activities on days when your symptoms are most prevalent.
• taking a stick or shopping trolley to lean on when you go out if you feel unsteady.
• letting family, friends and colleagues know about your condition and how they can assist.
Read further suggestions from others with a vestibular condition of their ‘top tips’ for managing symptoms day-to-day.
More about Self-Management (external links*)
• The Patients’ Association – Self-Management
• WHO - Self-Care for Health and Wellbeing
Anxiety and Stress
The unpredictable nature of vestibular disorders can leave people feeling isolated and worried, especially when newly diagnosed or experiencing severe symptoms. Many experience anxiety at the thought of having vertigo symptoms in public or at work. These high levels of anxiety can lead to panic attacks and may exacerbate vertigo or tinnitus symptoms.
Anxiety and the feeling of dizziness can be a vicious circle. When you feel anxious, stressed or fearful you are more likely to experience dizziness as your body’s natural reaction is the ‘fight or flight’ response. This response is controlled by hormones and is an alert state that allows the body to take instant action in the event of danger. Signs include sweating, fast breathing, increased heartbeat, wide eyes, dryness of the mouth, hair standing on end and a tight knot in the stomach. This response is designed to occur as needed and then dissipate, allowing the body to return to a normal level of stress in which it works most of the time. If this does not occur fully the body remains in a state of continual, heightened stress which can increase over time until undesirable symptoms of stress appear.
Coping with a chronic illness is made more difficult if you are excessively stressed. High levels of stress are often linked with the onset of a vertigo attack. It is therefore very important to manage stress and, if necessary, adjust your lifestyle to minimise stressful influences.
Anxiety and stress are very common and most people are able to overcome these without the need for professional help. For others they can become harmful if they begin to affect physical health and day-to-day life by preventing you from doing the things that you normally would. This is where self management comes in; helping yourself by indentifying what support you need and knowing what support is available to you.
Download the booklet: Controlling Your Symptoms
Read more about ‘Stress’ on the Counselling Directory website (external link*)
Further information and Support - For further information and to chat with a member of our team, please contact us.
Become a Member - If you have found our information helpful, why not become a member. As well as supporting our work, we'll keep you informed about the latest management/treatment options for vestibular disorders and what research is taking place. Find out about membership.
Donate - If membership isn’t for you, please consider making a donation towards our work so we can continue supporting people affected by vestibular disorders, as well as funding vital research into these conditions. Click 'Donate' in the blue bar below.
* Any information, views or opinions expressed in the external links are solely those of the author/organisation associated with them and do not necessarily represent those of the Meniere's Society. It is up to you to seek information and advice relating to your own health condition from a qualified medical professional/practitioner.