Vertigo: Understanding the Symptom and a Self-Healing Perspective

In this article you’ll find practical information about vertigo, and toward the end, gentle tools for working with it through self-healing.

These are insights and tools I have found meaningful and useful over many years, both in my private practice and in my own life.

So what is vertigo?

Vertigo is a very common condition marked by a spinning sensation, as though you or the world around you is moving continuously.

The word vertigo refers to rotational movement.

What causes vertigo?

From a consciousness-based perspective, what gives rise to vertigo is also what awareness can help us understand and work with.

If you prefer, you can skip to the end of the article, where I share the core understanding I see as a powerful tool for self-healing work with vertigo.

What is the physical cause of vertigo?

Vertigo arises from a disruption in the body’s balance system. This system provides information about the body’s position in space and its movement. It includes, among other things, the inner ear, the middle ear, the vestibular nerve, and specific brain structures responsible for processing balance-related information.

When one part of this system is affected, the brain receives conflicting signals about the body’s position, and this can create the false sensation of spinning or motion.

So what are the causes of vertigo according to conventional medicine?

Common medical causes of vertigo

Vertigo can appear for different reasons.

Sometimes it is triggered by quick head movements or by a mismatch between what we see and what the body senses internally.

Other possible causes include:

• neurological conditions such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, or brain tumors
• ear-related problems such as inflammation or acoustic neuroma
• side effects of certain medications
• in some cases, alcohol or caffeine may also contribute

What are the symptoms of vertigo?

Vertigo may come with a range of accompanying symptoms, including:

• loss of balance
• nausea and vomiting
• difficulty walking
• sweating
• blurred vision
• ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
• headaches
• difficulty concentrating

What is important to know about vertigo?

Vertigo is a symptom, not a medical condition in itself. It can be evaluated and treated.

In many cases, vertigo improves over time even without treatment.

At the same time, some people experience recurrent episodes for years.

Vertigo can point to a range of medical conditions. Alongside the spinning sensation, there may also be additional symptoms such as hearing loss, fever, or involuntary eye movements (nystagmus).

In any case, if you experience persistent or recurring dizziness, it is important to consult a physician.

Vertigo is more intense than ordinary dizziness because it involves the balance system itself. That can make it much harder to move through space, and the experience may last longer than more general dizziness.

Dizziness and vertigo are both common complaints, and they can sound similar. They may appear suddenly or gradually. Because vertigo includes dizziness, it helps to distinguish between them:

The difference between dizziness and vertigo

Vertigo involves a subjective sense of motion, as if you or your surroundings are spinning.

Dizziness may involve lightheadedness or instability, but without a spinning sensation.

Types of dizziness

• Acute dizziness: sudden, severe dizziness lasting from several days to weeks
• Episodic dizziness: repeated episodes lasting from seconds to hours
• Chronic dizziness: ongoing dizziness that continues for months or years

Types of vertigo

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV)

This is the most common type of vertigo. It is generally linked to tiny calcium crystals moving into the fluid-filled canals of the inner ear. Sudden head movements can stimulate these crystals and create a strong spinning sensation, often accompanied by nystagmus and nausea. Episodes are usually brief and tend to happen when changing the position of the head.

Ménière’s disease

Ménière’s disease is characterized by recurring attacks of vertigo, tinnitus, and hearing loss. Episodes can last for hours and sometimes longer.

Acute peripheral vestibulopathy

This is a sudden attack of vertigo, often caused by injury or dysfunction in the balance organ of one ear. Symptoms may include intense vertigo, nausea, vomiting, and difficulty maintaining balance. An episode can last from several days to weeks.

Central vertigo

Central vertigo stems from a problem in the central nervous system, such as the brainstem or cerebellum. Symptoms can be more varied and may include persistent vertigo, nystagmus that changes direction, muscle weakness, altered sensation, difficulty speaking or swallowing, and double vision.

Diagnosing central vertigo requires a comprehensive neurological evaluation.

Key differences between peripheral and central vertigo:

• Length of episode: peripheral vertigo is usually shorter, while central vertigo may be ongoing or recurrent
• Nystagmus: in peripheral vertigo, the direction tends to remain fixed; in central vertigo, it may change
• Additional symptoms: central vertigo is more often accompanied by other neurological signs such as weakness, sensory disturbance, or difficulty speaking

Important to know about diagnosis and treatment in conventional medicine:

• identifying the type of vertigo requires a thorough medical assessment, including medical history, neurological examination, and sometimes additional balance testing
• treatment may include antihistamines, antibiotics, steroids, or physiotherapy, depending on the cause

At the same time, there is another way of working with vertigo—non-invasive, not in conflict with medical care, and based on understanding.

Self-healing work with vertigo

In self-healing work through consciousness, we begin from a basic premise: the body does not betray us. The biological system tries to create solutions when we cannot, and symptoms can sometimes be understood as part of the body’s attempt to respond to an emotional conflict.

At the same time, not every emotional conflict creates a physical disturbance or illness. In fact, many symptoms appear דווקא when the emotional conflict has already begun to resolve.

By listening to the body’s expression, we may begin to understand the emotional conflict it is trying to address.

In this view, the spinning of vertigo is itself a biological solution. When there is vertigo, it first of all prevents us from moving forward. In that sense, it may be responding to a conflict connected to direction—because when we do not know which direction to take, the safest solution is to stay where we are.

Vertigo creates a state of non-movement

It becomes hard to move. Hard to go forward.

So when we come to work with vertigo, it can help to widen the lens and look deeply at this question: what is making it feel safer to remain where I am?

Self-healing may begin in this understanding—in seeing what in my life made vertigo appear as a solution.

Vertigo may be telling us that we do not know how to move forward or where to go, that there is a kind of loss of direction.

It can be as if the system does not want to move, and would rather have things come to it.

It can also help to ask:

• Am I waiting for something or someone to come to me, instead of moving toward it myself?
• What, or whom, have I been waiting for?
• Have I been worried about the future?
• Was there a time when I felt I had to stay where I was?
• Did some part of me believe that staying in place might protect me or even save my life?

In healing work with this kind of conflict, it is worth looking at when the vertigo began and what was happening close to its onset.

This kind of inquiry does not replace medical evaluation. It offers another layer of listening—one that may help you understand the inner conditions surrounding the symptom, and gently support your process.