🧠 Understanding Mal de Débarquement Syndrome (MdDS)
Have you ever stepped off a boat and still felt like the ground was moving?
🌊 Rocking
↔️ Swaying
🛟 Floating
⬆️⬇️ Bobbing
Usually, that strange feeling disappears within a few minutes or hours.
But for some people, it doesn’t stop.
It can continue for weeks, months, or even years.
This condition is called Mal de Débarquement Syndrome (MdDS), which roughly means “sickness of disembarkation.”
And here’s the fascinating part:
The problem may not be that the brain failed to adapt. It may be that the brain adapted TOO well and didn’t switch back.
🚢 What Happens to the Brain?
Imagine spending several days on a cruise ship.
Your brain is constantly receiving information about movement from:
👂 Your inner ear and vestibular system
👀 Your eyes
🦶 Your feet and joints
🧍 Your muscles and body position
🧠 Your brain’s balance and movement centers
At first, all that rocking can feel strange.
But your amazing brain starts learning:
“Okay. This movement is normal now.”
That’s neuroplasticity. 🧠✨
Your brain adapts so you can function without constantly feeling seasick.
Then you get off the boat.
For most people, the brain quickly learns:
“We’re back on solid ground!”
And it recalibrates.
But with MdDS, that reset may not happen correctly.
The brain can essentially remain programmed for movement.
🌊 What Does MdDS Feel Like?
People may describe feeling like they are:
🚢 Standing on a moving boat
🌊 Bobbing in ocean waves
🛟 Floating on water
↔️ Rocking back and forth
🤸 Standing on a trampoline
🚶 Walking on a floating dock
The person may actually be standing perfectly still.
The movement is being perceived by the brain.
And importantly, MdDS usually isn’t the classic sensation of the room spinning.
🚗 The Really Strange Part
Some people with MdDS actually feel BETTER when they are moving again.
For example:
🚗 Driving
🚆 Riding on a train
✈️ Flying
⛵ Getting back on a boat
That sounds completely backwards, but there’s a fascinating possible explanation.
The brain may still be expecting movement.
When actual movement returns, what the brain expects and what the body experiences suddenly match again.
🧠 EXPECTATION = 🌊 MOTION
🌎 REALITY = 🌊 MOTION
The conflict temporarily disappears.
When the person stops moving again:
🧠 EXPECTATION = 🌊 MOTION
🌎 REALITY = 🧍 STILL
The mismatch returns.
⚖️ Your Brain Is Constantly Choosing What to Trust
Your brain receives information from many places at once.
👀 Eyes: What am I seeing?
👂 Vestibular system: Am I moving?
🦶 Feet: Is the ground stable?
🧍 Muscles and joints: Where is my body?
🧠 Brain: What do I EXPECT to be happening?
Normally, your brain constantly adjusts which information deserves the most attention.
This is called sensory weighting.
In MdDS, researchers believe the brain may continue giving too much importance to an old prediction:
🌊 “We’re still moving.”
Even though your eyes, feet and body are saying:
🛑 “Nope. We’re standing still.”
The old prediction may continue winning.
🧠 When Neuroplasticity Gets Stuck
We usually talk about neuroplasticity as something wonderful.
And it IS wonderful. ❤️
It’s the brain’s ability to learn, change and adapt.
But sometimes the brain can learn something that is no longer helpful.
Think about it like this:
🚢 Brain learns boat movement.
⬇️
🧠 Brain adapts to boat movement.
⬇️
🏝️ Person returns to land.
⬇️
🔄 Brain should reset.
⬇️
⚠️ Reset doesn’t happen properly.
⬇️
🌊 Brain continues predicting movement.
MdDS may therefore be an example of maladaptive neuroplasticity.
The brain learned.
Now it needs help relearning.
✈️ What Can Trigger MdDS?
The classic version usually follows prolonged movement such as:
🚢 Cruises
⛵ Sailing
✈️ Long flights
🚆 Train travel
🚗 Long car trips
🚁 Helicopter travel
But MdDS-like symptoms can sometimes appear without prolonged travel.
Reported triggers can include:
🤕 Concussion
😰 Major stress
🦠 Viral illness
😴 Severe sleep deprivation
🏥 Surgery or anesthesia
🤯 Vestibular migraine
🌸 Hormonal changes
🤰 Pregnancy
🔥 Menopause
Researchers are still working to understand why certain brains become stuck in this pattern.
👩 Why Are Women Affected More Often?
One particularly interesting finding is that the large majority of diagnosed MdDS patients are women, with onset commonly occurring in middle age.
Researchers are studying whether hormonal changes may influence the vestibular system and the brain’s ability to adapt and recalibrate.
Migraine and motion sensitivity may also play a role.
There is still much we don’t know.
😰 Is MdDS Just Anxiety?
No.
Anxiety may make symptoms feel stronger, but that does not mean anxiety created the condition.
Imagine feeling like you’re standing on a moving dock all day.
That experience itself can understandably create anxiety.
Then anxiety can increase the brain’s attention to uncomfortable sensations.
It can become a frustrating loop:
🌊 Movement sensation
⬇️
😰 Anxiety
⬇️
🔎 More attention to sensations
⬇️
🌊 Movement feels stronger
Breaking that cycle can be one piece of recovery.
🩺 Can MdDS Be Treated?
There is currently no single treatment that works for everyone.
However, researchers are developing treatments aimed at helping the brain recalibrate.
One important approach was developed by researcher Dr. Mingjia Dai and colleagues at Mount Sinai.
The treatment combines specific head movements with moving visual stimulation.
The goal is essentially to help teach the brain:
🧠 “The movement has stopped. It’s time to recalibrate.”
Other approaches may include:
👀 Specialized vestibular rehabilitation
🧠 Treatment of overlapping vestibular migraine
😴 Improving sleep
🧘 Stress and nervous-system regulation
💊 Medication for selected patients
⚡ Experimental brain-stimulation techniques such as rTMS or tDCS
Treatment needs to be individualized because MdDS can overlap with other neurological and vestibular conditions.
💗 The Love Love Brain Takeaway
MdDS teaches us something incredibly important about the brain:
🧠 Our brains are prediction machines.
Your brain doesn’t simply report what is happening around you.
It combines what your senses are telling it with what it EXPECTS to happen.
Sometimes an old prediction can become stuck.
That doesn’t mean the experience isn’t real.
The person truly feels the movement.
The exciting part is that the same neuroplastic brain capable of learning an unwanted pattern may also have the ability to learn something new. 🌱
The brain adapted once.
Researchers are working on ways to help it adapt again.
❤️🧠❤️
Love Love Brain
Educational information only. Persistent dizziness, rocking, balance problems or neurological symptoms should be evaluated by an appropriate healthcare professional.
Inspired by the educational work of Dr. David Traster, DC, MS, DACNB, The Neurologic Wellness Institute, and research into Mal de Débarquement Syndrome and neuroplasticity.
Do you Love Love YOUR Brain?