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  1. Symptoms of vestibular disorders

  2. Information and support

People with vestibular disorders may experience a number of symptoms, including dizziness, hearing loss, tinnitus or fullness in the ear.

What are the symptoms of vestibular conditions?

An overview of some of the common symptoms is provided below. Everyone is different, so you may not experience all of these symptoms with your vestibular condition. 

It is very important to find out the cause of any symptoms you are experiencing. If you have any questions or concerns you should speak with your GP/health professional for advice, treatment and referral to a specialist if necessary.

Symptoms can include:

Balance problems/imbalance

Many people experience imbalance and unsteadiness. This can make movement difficult and affect a person's confidence to go out and about. It's important to speak to your medical professional if you are experiencing any problems with your balance. Attacks of vertigo can cause residual imbalance for some people. Find out more about The Balance System

Balance retraining exercises, also known as vestibular rehabilitation, can be helpful between the attacks of vertigo to help compensate for difficulties with balance. The specific exercises initially need to be done under the supervision of a physiotherapist or hearing therapist. Balance retraining exercises are not suitable for everyone, or all conditions, so it is best for you to check with your doctor to ensure they are appropriate for you.

Brain Fog

Some people with a vestibular condition experience ‘brain fog’. 

What is brain fog?

A person experiencing brain fog may have difficulty concentrating or completing a task; feel ‘spaced out’; lose their train of thought; feel tired or ‘out of sorts’. 

What can help brain fog?

Rest and relaxation, using techniques like deep breathing, getting enough sleep, keeping hydrated and pacing yourself so you don’t overdo it, may be beneficial to help manage this symptom. Read more about managing your vestibular condition day to day.

Dizziness

What is dizziness?

Dizziness is a symptom rather than a condition. If you feel dizzy you may also descibe the feeling as imbalanced or off-balance, woozy, fuzzy or lightheaded. You may feel like you are spinning (also see 'vertigo').

Why do I get dizzy?

Dizziness can occur for many different reasons, so it's important to find out the cause of this symptom.

In vestibular disorders, the balance organ in the inner ear is affected. As the balance organ is faulty, the brain becomes more dependent on information coming from the eyes and sensors in your body. This makes you much more sensitive to situations which can cause dizziness, such as disorientating environments and times when you are under stress. Not all the symptoms of dizziness experienced will be due to the balance organ; some will be caused because the balance system cannot cope with the situation you are in. The balance system works by coordinating information in your brain from the three senses used for balance. If you feel dizzy, it means that your brain has not been able to coordinate the information from all the balance senses properly. 

Drop attacks (Tumarkin’s otholic crisis)

Drop attacks, known as Tumarkin’s otolithic crisis, are when a person falls to the ground with no warning. The person remains awake and does not lose consciousness. 

What happens when you have a drop attack?

A drop attack feels as if you are being pushed violently and suddenly, causing you to fall. Symptoms are usually gone as quickly as they appear, and you can get up straight away and carry on with whatever you were doing (unless you get a drop attack at the same time as an acute attack of vertigo).

Why do drop attacks happen?

During a drop attack, the hair cells on the otoliths in the inner ear are suddenly activated, causing your balance to be severely disrupted. Experts do not know how or why this happens.

Who gets drop attacks?

Drop attacks are sometimes experienced in the later stages of Ménière’s. They do not affect everyone and some people will not experience drop attacks. 

Eye symptoms

Some people experience eye symptoms that include the inability to focus, rapid eye movement and blurred vision. This can occur because the balance mechanism is linked with the control of the eye movement and stability. Therefore the balance mechanism enables us to keep our eyes fixed on some object while we are walking about moving our head. Any loss of this eye control by the balance mechanism can result in a completely uncontrolled eye movement. In the worst case, the eyes move rapidly from side to side (referred to by doctors as nystagmus) and this produces a sensation of rotation of the environment rather like being spun round rapidly on a swing or roundabout. Blurring of vision, although it may be due to other eye problems, can often be the result of a balance disturbance.

Fullness of the ear

Some people with a vestibular condition experience a sensation of fullness or aural pressure in the ear which can be incredibly uncomfortable. Different terms have been used to describe the sensation, such as a feeling of pressure or wooziness; feeling like they have cotton wool in their ears/head; walking on clouds, or maybe a loss of concentration or focus. The fullness can also fluctuate and may some cause considerable distress for some people. A noticeable change in the sensation of the ‘fullness’ can be an indication that the condition is starting again. For some this sensation may disappear completely however for others it can become chronic with a constant feeling of pressure. In patients with Ménière’s, this symptom can fluctuate with the acuteness of the condition. Unfortunately there is no specific treatment to alleviate the feeling of fullness and it generally subsides when the other symptoms lessen or diminish. 

Headaches and head pain

Another possible symptom is headache or pains over the scalp. As the balance is also involved with maintaining the correct position of the head, the muscles of the neck and scalp are constantly being brought into play to achieve this. Some abnormalities of balance will cause this reflex to be triggered at the wrong time, resulting in spasm often in small areas of the head and neck musculature. This can present a quite severe pain which may move about in its location and cause distress and concern to sufferers.

Hearing loss

Some people with a vestibular disorder experience hearing loss. The hearing loss may be mild in some cases or it may fluctuate. Living with hearing loss can affect people in a number of ways. 

What can help hearing loss?

There are many different options available to manage hearing loss, including counselling, communication tactics and hearing aids. 

Nystagmus

Nystagmus is a uncontrolled, involuntary, movement of the eyes, usually from side to side, but sometimes the eyes move up and down, or even in a circular movement. If you have nystagmus your vision may be affected.

Sensitivity to noise

Some people have especially sensitive hearing and are unable to tolerate ordinary levels of noise, this can occur in both people who have a hearing loss as well as those who don't. There are different components which can contribute to sensitive hearing such as hyperacusis, phonophobia and misophonia. 

Sickness and nausea

When experiencing vertigo (severe dizziness) some people feel nausea which can lead to vomiting.

What can help nausea?

There are many anti-emetic drugs which are effective against nausea. Prochloperazine (Stemetil/Buccastem) and cinnarizine (Stugeron) are commonly prescribed. For more information about medication please speak to your GP/health professional or pharmacist. Some people tell us that ginger is a good remedy for sickness, such as eating a ginger biscuit or sipping hot water with a lump of root ginger in it.

Tinnitus

Tinnitus comes from the Latin word meaning ‘to ring’. It is the perception of sound when no external sound exists but you hear it. Perception means the way you regard or interpret this sound.

What does tinnitus sound like?

People with tinnitus hear a wide variety of noises such as buzzing, humming, whistling, or even singing or music.

Tiredness and loss of concentration

Why does my vestibular condition make me feel tired?

Your balance can be affected when you are tired or doing things you have to think about. This is because your brain has limited capacity for what it can attend to at any one time. If you are concentrating on a mental task, your brain has less spare capacity for other tasks, such as maintaining your balance. It takes mental effort and capacity for your brain to cope with conflicting information about balance, so you may become more tired and unable to concentrate when you are dizzy and while your brain is adjusing after a vertigo attack.

Unsteadiness

See balance problems/imbalance.

Vertigo (severe dizziness)

What is vertigo?

Vertigo is defined as an illusion of movement and is a specific type of dizziness which causes the person to feel the sensation that they, or their surroundings, are moving even if they are standing completely still. Vertigo is a symptom rather than a condition.

Some people describe vertigo as feeling ‘wobbly’ or the sensation of spinning, swaying and dizziness. Episodes of vertigo can vary from seconds or minutes to a couple of hours, bouts of vertigo, however, can last for days.

What causes vertigo?

There are many causes of vertigo and it can be experienced by people of all ages. It's important to speak to your health professional to find out the cause if you are experiencing this symptom.

Where can I get further information and support?

  • Please contact us for more information - email us: info@meandve.org.uk or give us a ring: 01306 876883 to chat with a member of our team
  • See your GP for advice if you have any question or concerns about your symptoms. They may refer to a specialist if neccessary

Please note, Ménière's & Vestibular UK can provide general information, but is unable to provide specific medical advice. You should always check with your medical professional for information and advice relating to your symptoms/condition.

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