What is it? 

A chronic type of dizziness that is present for 3 months. It can develop after a vestibular condition, illness or a stressful life event. During the initial event, your body reacts and as symptoms begin to decrease, the initial reaction also decreases. In PPPD, the initial reaction doesn’t decrease and instead of recovering the brain stays on high alert and over reacts to stimulus. This can result in a feeling of swaying/ rocking in the head and being very reliant on visual information. This cycle leads to chronic symptoms that are there for most days and most of the time but it CAN be improved with treatment. 

Symptoms 

Symptoms are usually made worse with motion, busy or loud environments, screen use and visually complex surroundings. Symptoms can include but are not limited to:

-Dizziness
-Unsteadiness 
-Light headed 
-Feeling “off” 
-Fatigue 

Management

Vestibular physiotherapy focusing on eye, head and balance exercises can help to improve tolerance to movement and sensory information. Our goal is to train the vestibular system to improve its baseline in order to decrease daily symptoms.