Feeling Unsteady

FEELING UNSTEADY

Feeling unsteady is such a common experience that it could be considered a staple of being older. Our balance is very tenuous in those moments when we experience disorientation or dizziness. The sensation too often causes us to have a fall. There are many potential causes. The major ones are described below. As with many things we have to deal with as we age, we can easily counteract most forms of dizziness with life saving tips that dramatically lower our fall risk. Nonetheless, you should always speak with your doctor as well.

Words we use to describe how we feel:
unstable, unsteady, lightheaded, rocky, wobbly, shaky, teetery, disoriented, loosing one's bearings, disconnected,
distracted, dizzy, vertigo, emotional,
out of sorts

The varying symptoms of unsteadiness:

Feeling like the world is spinning.
Standing up and feeling light headed.
Turning your head and getting dizzy.
Looking up and getting dizzy.
Significant distrust of your body's abilities to balance.
Loss of self confidence.
A feeling of tentativeness in your movements.
Feeling rocky because your feet/legs can't properly support you.

What brings on instability?

As we get older we become more vulnerable to a number of conditions that can cause unsteadiness.

Fear or anxiety: Intense emotion throws our balance abilities into a tizzy, especially fear, the most potent of all.
Loss of balance ability and coordination from inactivity: Nothing makes our balance deteriorate faster then being inactive. Basically, with inactivity comes much more unsteadiness.

BPPV (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo): Dizziness caused by inner ear disturbance. Symptoms include getting dizzy when turning your head, looking up, or turning over in bed.
Hypotension: Low blood pressure when changing position. The symptom is feeling light headed when moving from lying to sitting or sitting to standing.
Vertigo: The feeling that the world or room is spinning.

Eye or ear problems: A deficit in either influences stability.
Core weakness: We are at the mercy of the elements when our core is not in use, especially the abdominals.
Looking down at the ground as you walk instead of where you are going: This causes instability because it throws your weight forward and off its center.
Walking with your feet apart: If you have a wide stance while walking, your weight constantly shifts from side to side, requiring much more strength to maintain stability.

Medications can cause unsteadiness, particularly blood pressure drugs. But many others do as well. Here is a partial list that mention dizziness as a side effect: anti-convulsants, anesthetics, anti-depressants, analgesics, anti-diabetics, contraceptives, anti-inflammatory drugs, cardiovascular drugs, etc. If you suffer from instability because of medication it is imperative that you speak with your doctor about it. A change in dosage or medication can make a huge difference.

Feelings have a huge effect on our stability.

The powerful effect of emotion: Anyone who practices balance exercises regularly experiences some days when our balance is worse than others. One of the biggest contributing factors is strong emotion. Our balance suffers when we are upset. Even positive emotion fools with stability. And the more strongly we feel the more prominent the effect. Of these emotions, fear is the most potent by far. Fear causes major changes in human physical experience. Very debilitating, it usually results in us making the wrong choices in anything, whether it involves the stock market or fear of falling. Generally speaking, stress reduction exercises work well to disburse and counter the fear.

When we feel emotional it is especially important
to focus the mind to improve stability.

Why does emotion change our balance? In general, strong feelings have a distracting effect on our focus. And balance is heavily influenced by mental focus.

In addition, when we are afraid, we become tense in the upper part of our torso. We hike our shoulders up around our ears and hunch over. This displaces our body's center of gravity. It's normal center should be a bit bellow your belly button. Fear shifts our weight upward into our chest. The result is to throw us off balance. This can easily make us feel like we are losing our bearings. Because we actually are.

What to do when you feel wobbly:

Most Important First

Focus your eyes wherever you are facing: This is by far the best and fastest solution for steadying yourself. Stop moving. Focus your eyes wherever you are facing. Do not move your head. There are excellent exercises you can practice which help. (These will be the subject of a future Balance News article.)

Breathe: Breathing deeply will help in dispelling fear or anxiety. It is a great way to reconnect with your body to stabilize it.
Pull your belly in: This lowers the center of gravity of the torso, increasing stability. It also lifts the chest, counteracting the hunching over that fear and anxiety cause.
Relax your knees: Tightness in the knee joints makes our legs stiff and brittle, causing top heaviness and instability. Try to release the knees so they gently bend. This is especially helpful if we are standing in one spot for any length of time.
Restrict your head motion: Moving the head excessively, or at all for those sensitive, massively increases instability.
Stop moving: The first thing to do is always to stop doing whatever you are doing so you can use one of these strategies to improve your stability before continuing movement.
Sit down safely: At last resort simply sit down til you regain your bearings.
Check with your doctor about the cause of your instability and what might mitigate your symptoms.

The essence of unsteadiness:

In effect, when we feel unstable, we loose our sense of connection to the earth. Something interrupts it. We basically become ungrounded. The cause may vary but the essential solution is to reconnect to the earth. Therefore, anything that helps us get grounded is a good thing to practice to relieve unsteadiness. Some suggestions:

Breathe. Breathing more deeply makes every problem easier.
Do any and all foot exercises. "Paw" the ground with your toes like a cat does. "Stomp out a cigarette" with the ball of your foot to improve contact with the ground.
Walk on the ground barefoot.
When standing, place your feet apart, bending your knees. This is the most stabile and grounded way to stand.
You can use your voice to ground yourself. Singing is wonderful for our health and overall well being.

Strategies to improve stability long term:

Increase core strength.
Practice eye focus.
Learn to walk picking your feet up.
Practice where to look when you walk.
Practice stepping side to side.
Address any physical problems requiring medical assistance: BPPV, hypotension, vertigo, eye or ear weakness.
Use your sense of touch to give you an additional point of contact. This is especially helpful if you get disoriented walking down hallways. Use the back of your hand to lightly touch the wall as you walk.
EXERCISE MODERATELY DAILY.

Published September 25, 2023.