Benign Positional Vertigo: What it is and How to Cope

Several years ago, I had a very unusual and unpleasant experience. I had a dizziness that was so severe that even with my eyes closed lying down, my head was swimming and I could feel my eyes moving back and forth and struggling to focus even though my eyelids were closed. I was nauseous even lying down, and I felt like I was falling or spinning. I had a series of dreams that were more like hallucinations and from which I could not awake from. I was in a kind of semi-conscious state and I had no idea what was going on around me. I could not communicate with my family because I was near to incoherent. When I tried to move I almost pitched headlong down the stairs with dizziness. I have never felt anything so bizarre before.

My husband called the nurse and was given no help. I had been on an antibiotic for a sinus infection and we wondered if I was having some kind of an allergic reaction to it. When I was able to move around a bit, we asked our local pharmacist about it and he said assured me that, no it was a reaction to the Keflex because "there were only a few cases of dizziness as a reaction." Apparently, it couldn't happen because it hadn't happened much before? Strange reasoning. I stopped taking the Keflex and the symptoms went away. Well, that seemed to explain it and I was just very thankful not to feel so awful.

About a year later, however, I had another 'attack' of this dizziness and nausea. This time my husband insisted that I see a doctor. He called the condition, Benign Positional Vertigo. Benign was a good word to hear, of course. Brain tumors or head injury lurk in the fears of dizziness sufferer. The doctor also said the attacks come at random and there is nothing I can do or not do to avoid them. He prescribed a motion sickness treatment, which I knew was basically an anti-histamine. I asked about Loratadine which I take normally. The doctor said that the treatments were similar and I could use either one. He said that Benign Positional Vertigo is not linked to any other systems and can strike at any time.

I'm not convinced that the BPS is not linked to other conditions because I also experience sinus and nasal allergies. I notice that my Benign Positional Vertigo comes on more frequently when my allergies are worse. I also stopped using an oral decongestant in favor of a natural flush system. And with the onset of that the BPS came back. My temporary hypothesis is that the nasal flush system is cleaning out my sinus cavities, not just medicating the condition and is so doing, may temporarily bring on some of my allergy-like symptoms. I am going to continue the flush system awhile and see what happens. Doctors and patients can be so quick to fault a natural remedy before it has time to work on the problem. I may cheat a little use a decongestant with the flush just to prevent the BPS.

If you experience extreme dizziness, especially that which cannot be controlled even by lying flat or closing your eyes, you might want to explore Benign Positional Vertigo with your health care provider.