Visual Vertigo: Why is this happening??? The truth behind why this is happening to you and how it can be fixed without the use of medication.
Is your world is spinning out of control? Do you ever feel like being in a closed or crowded space makes you dizzy? Does going to the grocery store looking at rows of canned goods or looking up and down the aisle make you feel sick? Do you have motion sensitivity or motion sickness while driving or riding in a car or while watching cars go by in traffic? Often, patients with visual vertigo feel like patterns or things moving around them within their visual field makes them dizzy. Commonly symptoms can include light sensitivity and a feeling of fogginess or jumpy vision that won’t go away. If any of this sounds familiar, keep reading. We can help!
Vertigo can be caused by many things. A very common cause of dizziness is vision and it can make your world go whirling!
So what causes visual vertigo?
- Concussions
- Post concussion syndrome
- Whiplash or neck injuries
- Migraines related to vertigo
- Anxiety/panic attacks
- And sometimes the cause is unknown, but the symptoms are there!
One theory for why visual vertigo occurs is that your visual, vestibular, and somatosensory systems are not communicating appropriately. The mismatch between the systems confuses the brain and causes a visual dependency or visual discrepancy.
The good news: we can help! At the ENT Institute/physical therapy locations, we have specialized testing to get to the bottom of the problem. Our highly trained physical therapists use videonystagmography (video goggles to view the eyes), computerized dynamic posturography (balance testing for the visual, vestibular and somatosensory systems) and dynamic visual acuity and gaze stabilization testing (visual clarity with movement) to find out why you are dizzy and to develop the appropriate course of treatment to get you back to normal.
How we fix it: vestibular therapy. Each person has an individualized treatment, set of exercises, and plan of care designed to address the findings of the testing. Exercises retrain the brain so that the visual, vestibular and somatosensory systems communicate appropriately. As you start to feel better, exercises are adjusted to have you back to normal in no time at all!
Take back control of your life today. We can make your world stop spinning. Let our family take care of yours!