Question from a member of our community:
It’s been 13 months and I have PPPD, but should I continue to do vestibular exercises? I don’t feel they’re helping and they may be even making it worse.
So PPPD is not a condition that generally thrives on or needs vestibular exercises. Most people with PPPD have incredible balance and normal balance function and the vestibular exercises can certainly be aggravating and not needed — not necessary. By all means, try them. But, if you’re not feeling benefit probably within about six weeks, I would happily encourage my clients to let that go.
But where PPPD can benefit from is quiet stillness and also the mental, emotional, spiritual exercises that are offered and the tools and supports that are offered in the Rock Steady program. So it’s not about repeating mechanical, physical, vestibular exercises anymore. It’s about teaching the brain how to find safety and how to self-regulate, how to co-regulate and how to repair any broken trust within the body. Because to a certain extent, the fight, flight, freeze nervous system dysregulation is happening when we feel the symptoms within our body. So the trigger can be coming from within us. So we have to repair that relationship within ourselves. So the mental, emotional, spiritual aspects will probably need a lot more attention and the vestibular exercises may be less so.
