Tai Chi for Dizziness and Balance Problems

I am very happy that our team at Aultman Tusc, in Canton, Ohio, is actively engaged in learning and teaching Tai Chi.  We have been certified to teach Tai Chi for Arthritis through Paul Lam's Tai Chi for Health Institute.  The Tai Chi for Arthritis program contains several movement forms that also stimulate the vestibular and other balance systems.  We are already seeing results in people who have multi-factoral dizziness and a variety of sensory processing disorders.  We have been practicing Vestibular Rehabilitation using video eye movement recording devices since 2000 and combine a variety of types of Physical Therapy techniques with vestibular testing and traditional vestibular rehab.  If you have questions, contact me- Andy Beltz, or our team at Aultman Tusc Therapy (330)-363-6215.

What do you mean by dizzy? Over 273 different possible words/phrases.

For years, I have heard people become frustrated when asked what "dizzy" means to them.  Often, many say, "dizzy means dizzy."  As a result of this statement, I thought it would be interesting to keep track of what people battling dizziness tell me when I ask them, "what do you mean by dizzy?"  Here are 273 words/phrases people have recently described to me (Andy Beltz, PT) while practicing vestibular rehabilitation in Canton, Ohio.  

1.     a back and forth thing

2.     a film over my eyes

3.     a wash- it comes

4.     a wash-it comes; shifted

5.     a wiggle

6.     a wooze

7.     abnormal feeling in head

8.     airy

9.     bed is continuing to roll

10. blip

11. blurred vision

12. bobbly thing/bobble head

13. body doesn’t want to go that way

14. bottom dropped out

15. brain doesn’t feel like it is working right

16. brain is cut in half (around circumference of head from eyes down I’m stationary- from eyebrows up it spins and rocks).

17. brain is floating

18. brain is like mush

19. brain is not right

20. brain is waving to the left side of my head

21. brain isn’t there anymore

22. buggy in my head

23. busy up here

24. buzzed; ½ buzzed

25. can’t shut peripheral vision off

26. can’t shut peripheral vision off

27. car lifted then floated (while driving)

28. car sick

29. cloudy/everything is in a cloud

30. cobwebs up there

31. confused

32. cooo cooo cooo cooo

33. could fall

34. could fall off the earth

35. could spin/could get dizzy/about to be dizzy

36. croggy

37. dancing

38. dark and weak

39. discombooberated

40. discomboobled

41. disconnected

42. disorientation

43. doddly

44. don’t know where I’m at

45. doppy

46. dopy

47. drunk

48. empty head

49. equilibrium is off

50. everything is leaving your head

51. everything shifted

52. everything went to the top

53. eyes are all over the place

54. eyes are jerking

55. eyes bobble

56. eyes can’t keep up with head

57. eyes don’t focus

58. eyes rolling around

59. fizzy-like poured 7 up into a glass

60. flighty

61. flipping

62. floatie/floating

63. floor came up at me

64. floor goes down then up

65. flutter in head

66. foggy/a fog

67. full of air up there/air headed

68. funky

69. funny in eyes

70. funny in head

71. fuzzy

72. giddy

73. goofy

74. groggy

75. half spin

76. half way drunk

77. hangover

78. hard to walk straight

79. hazy

80. head bobbing on water

81. head doesn’t know where my feet are

82. head feels like a snow globe

83. head is a bouncy ball

84. head is about to blow/explode

85. head is blowing up then going down

86. head is everywhere

87. head is filled with Jell-O

88. head is filling up

89. head is hard to hold up

90. head is in a drier

91. head is in a fish bowl

92. head is plugged up

93. head is swelled

94. head is tied to a string bouncing like a balloon

95. head movement didn’t match eye movement

96. head on a swivel

97. head rush

98. head wants to take off to the left

99. heavy head

100.        hollow (like it’s)

101.        I can’t focus

102.        I can’t trust myself

103.        I shake all over

104.        I want to take my eyes out and rest them

105.        I’m goofy

106.        I’m not me

107.        I’m not sharp

108.        I’m once removed from the hear and now

109.        I’m somewhere else

110.        I’m way back in here somewhere

111.        if you drink too much

112.        iffy

113.        in a barrel looking out

114.        in a whirlpool

115.        it comes up

116.        it just gets dark

117.        it moves then jumps back

118.        it’s going to flip me/flipping

119.        it’s in my eyes

120.        it’s in the back of my head

121.        jarring everything up and down

122.        jelly head

123.        jerky

124.        just got off tilt a whirl

125.        lightheaded in back of my head

126.        lightheaded: could pass out

127.        lightheaded: off balance

128.        like a beach ball/volleyball

129.        like a hat on my head

130.        like a liquid moving

131.        like a mush ball in there

132.        like a string puppet and somebody cut the strings.

133.        like a television rolling

134.        like a tight rubber band that ‘boing’ knocked me over

135.        like a tornado

136.        like a turd

137.        like a wave/like a wave came in

138.        like a zing

139.        like behind a mirror looking into the room

140.        like I was a liquid

141.        like I was shoved/pushed

142.        like I’m falling

143.        like I’m going to keel over

144.        like in a canister with lots of colors

145.        like in a car that wants to go forward, but wind is pushing it back

146.        like looking at objects far away through a magnifying glass

147.        like my soul was taken out of my body

148.        like on a bullet

149.        like on a tilt of whirl

150.        like on a waterbed

151.        like someone was pulling the hair off my head

152.        like something is crawling around up there

153.        like something is loose in my head

154.        like stop frame photography

155.        like tipped hour glass over and sand coming out

156.        like up 30 stories and could fall, but no loss of balance

157.        little mice in head

158.        looking around a pinwheel

159.        loopy

160.        motion sick

161.        movement in back of my head

162.        nausea

163.        not being myself

164.        not clear headed

165.        not here

166.        not in self

167.        not normal

168.        not right

169.        not spinning, but not stationary

170.        not straight

171.        not sure

172.        nothing is there

173.        numb head

174.        odd feelings

175.        odd sensation in head

176.        off

177.        off balance

178.        off center

179.        off kilter

180.        off my game

181.        on a boat

182.        on a dock

183.        on a string dangling

184.        on a tilt a whirl and unable to get off

185.        one side is lower than the other

186.        oozie

187.        out of it

188.        out of sorts with the world

189.        outside looking in

190.        perception looking at things way off

191.        perception looking at things way off

192.        pressure in ear

193.        pressure in eyes/behind eyes

194.        pressure in head

195.        pulling to the right/left

196.        quick flick

197.        rest of the world turns after me

198.        rolling down a hill

199.        room circles around

200.        room goes a different direction

201.        room is flashing around

202.        room is rolling

203.        room is shifting/moving

204.        scrolling

205.        sensation of movement

206.        shaking back and forth

207.        shhhh (small as it comes from my neck into my head it increases)

208.        shifty/shifting

209.        shut down in here

210.        slightest movement is magnified 40 times

211.        sloshing; glass of water swishing around

212.        someone grabbed my head and went ‘bam’ and shook it

213.        someone pushed me down/pushed down

214.        someone/something cracked my head then I spin

215.        something closed in on my head

216.        something running in my head

217.        spacy

218.        spinning: self, room, world, inside, outside

219.        squirrely

220.        staggery

221.        strange

222.        stuffy

223.        surge- body going forward then backward

224.        swimming in my head/swimmy

225.        swirling

226.        teeter tottering

227.        temptation to throw myself off the bed

228.        tend to go to the right/left

229.        that sensation

230.        there’s nothing there

231.        things jogging back and forth

232.        things spiral around

233.        tight band around my head

234.        tilt a whirl

235.        tipsy

236.        too much blood in my head

237.        top heavy

238.        topsy turvy

239.        tumbling

240.        tumbling-things tumble

241.        turning over

242.        twirly

243.        uneasiness

244.        uneven

245.        unsteady

246.        unsure

247.        vvvvvvvvv

248.        wacko

249.        waddling

250.        walking on a boat

251.        walking on clouds

252.        walking on egg shells

253.        walking on ice

254.        walls falling down/in on me

255.        wave passes over

256.        wavering

257.        waving/head waving

258.        weave back and forth

259.        weavy

260.        weightless in water

261.        weird things/just kinda weird

262.        wheezy

263.        whish

264.        whoa moments

265.        whoo: whoo hooo

266.        window on top of bed on top of me and curtains are on top of me

267.        wobbly

268.        wompy

269.        wonky

270.        woooosh

271.        wooze/woozy/a wooze

272.        world moving without me

273.        wrapped around a rocket in 2D and 3D spinning and going forward