By Olaolu Fawole
Every day, some people wake up, turn in their beds, and find the world spinning without warning or explanation.
They are not imagining it. They are not under attack. But without anyone to tell them otherwise, many will spend months, sometimes years, misunderstanding what is happening to their own bodies.
The condition is vertigo. It has a name, a cause, and in most cases, a cure. Many who live with it know none of these things.
Vertigo is not ordinary dizziness. It is a false but overwhelming sensation of spinning or movement, the brain’s response to conflicting signals from a disturbed inner ear. It arrives suddenly, without pain or fever, and announces itself by tilting the world sideways.
The most common cause is Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, or BPPV, a condition in which tiny calcium crystals inside the inner ear become dislodged and interfere with the body’s balance signals. The result is an intense spinning sensation triggered by specific, everyday head movements: turning over in bed, bending forward, or tilting the head upward.
Other vestibular disorders present similarly but require different management. Vestibular neuritis, an inflammation of the inner ear nerve, typically following viral infection, produces prolonged dizziness and unsteadiness. Ménière’s disease, caused by abnormal fluid pressure in the inner ear, generates episodes of vertigo alongside hearing loss and persistent ringing in the ears.
None of these conditions are life threatening in themselves. All of them are treatable. Yet across Nigeria, many people who suffer from these conditions receive neither a correct diagnosis nor appropriate care.
Instead, the episodes are attributed to stress, exhaustion, or in a pattern that cuts across geography, religion, and social class, to spiritual attack. The result is the same in each case, a treatable medical condition left unaddressed, sometimes for years.
The clinical description, however accurate, does not fully capture what it feels like to live inside it.
The Human Cost
A trader in a crowded market suddenly loses her stamina while attending to customers. A teacher is forced to sit while teaching as the classroom appears to rotate around her. At home, a mother finds herself unable to stand after a simple turn in bed.
In most cases, the episode lasts seconds to minutes. But its effects outlast it, fear of the next attack, reduced confidence, and a gradual withdrawal from the ordinary activities of daily life.
The Consequences Accumulate
Repeated episodes significantly increase the risk of falls, particularly among older adults. For workers, vertigo translates to absenteeism and reduced productivity. For drivers and machine operators, it is a direct and serious safety hazard. In severe cases, people restructure their entire lives around the condition, moving carefully, avoiding certain positions, limiting activity, without ever understanding why.
Women bear a disproportionate share of this burden. Hormonal fluctuations, particularly involving oestrogen, influence inner ear fluid regulation and make women more susceptible to certain vestibular disorders. Migraine-associated vertigo is also significantly more prevalent among women. In a country where women already carry heavy responsibilities at home and in the workforce, a recurring, undiagnosed balance disorder adds an invisible weight to an already demanding load.
Many carry it without a word. Treatment is available, but the path to it is broken.
BPPV, the most common form, can be resolved without surgery or long-term medication.
The Epley manoeuvre, a precisely guided sequence of head movements performed by a trained physiotherapist or ENT specialist, physically repositions dislodged crystals in the inner ear and eliminates symptoms in a significant number of patients, sometimes within a single clinical session. Vestibular neuritis responds to medication and structured rehabilitation. Ménière’s disease is managed through dietary adjustments, medication, and in some cases, surgical intervention.
These treatments are established, effective, and available in well established medical centres.
Without adequate referral systems, general practitioners do not consistently direct patients to the neurologists and ENT specialists equipped to diagnose it. Without a single national public health campaign dedicated to vestibular disorders, the gap between condition and treatment remains as wide today as it was a decade ago.
Not every episode of dizziness is benign.
Vertigo accompanied by sudden severe headache, slurred speech, double vision, facial drooping, or one-sided weakness of the limbs is a medical emergency and may indicate stroke. These symptoms require immediate hospital attention and should not be waited out at home.
For recurring episodes without these features, the appropriate step is a consultation with a neurologist or ENT specialist. Patients should ask specifically about vestibular disorders and BPPV, knowing the clinical language is often the difference between a targeted diagnosis and a general prescription for rest.
The Real Gap
Nigeria’s public health communication has long concentrated its resources on high-mortality infectious diseases, malaria, tuberculosis, HIV. The prioritisation is understandable. However, it has left a wide corridor of chronic, quality-of-life-limiting conditions unaddressed in public discourse, and vertigo sits squarely in that corridor.
In some developed countries, organisations dedicated solely to vestibular disorders run national awareness campaigns, publish patient guides, and engage directly with health policy. Patient communities are many online. People arrive at clinics informed, knowing their diagnosis, and asking for specific treatments by name.
In Nigeria, the same patient turns to a place of worship.
That is not a failure of intelligence or faith. It is a failure of information, one that the medical community, public health institutions, and media have both the tools and the responsibility to correct.
For many Nigerians, what appears to be a passing spell of dizziness is a diagnosable, manageable medical condition. The difference between prolonged suffering and effective care is, in many cases, simply knowing that it has a name.
The spinning will not stop on its own. Neither should the silence.
Know The Signs
When spinning is more than dizziness. Spinning sensation, a sudden feeling that you or your surroundings are rotating when nothing is moving.
Triggered by head movement- episodes starting when you roll over in bed, look upward, or turn quickly are a hallmark of BPPV.
Nausea and vomiting- severe episodes almost always cause immediate nausea.
Involuntary eye movement- eyes flickering or darting rapidly during an episode, known as nystagmus.
Loss of balance- feeling pulled to one side, or sudden unsteadiness on the feet.
Ringing in the ears- common in Ménière’s disease, a vertigo variant involving inner ear fluid buildup.
When to seek emergency care immediately- if spinning is accompanied by severe headache, slurred speech, facial drooping, or weakness on one side of the body, go to a hospital at once. These may indicate stroke.
Anyone experiencing recurring episodes of spinning, sudden loss of balance, or unexplained dizziness is advised to consult a neurologist or ear, nose and throat specialist.
