The Day the Room Spun — and What Finally Helped Me Steady

I still remember the first time vertigo hit me. One second I was standing in the kitchen making tea, and the next the floor felt like it tilted under my feet. The walls spun. My stomach churned. I clung to the counter like a ship rail in a storm. It was scary, and it took me weeks to figure out what was really going on.

Like many, I went through a frustrating cycle — doctor visits, prescriptions, Google searches at 3 a.m. Eventually, I learned that vertigo isn’t just one thing. The causes can range from tiny crystals in your ear being out of place (BPPV) to inner ear infections or even migraines.

In India, there are plenty of medicines that help. Antihistamines like meclizine or cinnarizine, antiemetics for the nausea, and betahistine for longer-term balance issues all get prescribed depending on the diagnosis. I found a helpful resource that summed it up clearly here: https://askdocdoc.com/articles/802-best-medicine-for-vertigo-effective-treatments-and-remedies-in-india — from a site called AskDocDoc.

But I also learned something else: medicine isn’t the whole story.

A friend sent me a short video on X that changed my life — it showed how to do the Epley maneuver right in your living room. It’s here: https://x.com/1881713393369030656/status/1953456126814552217. The first time I tried it, the spinning stopped within minutes.

I started combining that with simple balance drills I saw in a Pinterest diagram: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/928445279436919997. They were easy, no equipment needed, just a few minutes a day.

Some folks swear by natural remedies. I read an Instagram post from someone who combined ginkgo biloba supplements with regular exercises — and tracked their progress over weeks: https://www.instagram.com/p/DNDm3e4N-Km/. That inspired me to keep at it even when results were slow.

Still, there’s a big warning I wish I’d heard sooner. A doctor I follow on Facebook wrote about how staying on vestibular suppressants for too long can actually slow recovery: https://www.facebook.com/122099392514743210/posts/122136186164743210. That matched my own experience — the more I relied on the meds, the more wobbly I felt once I stopped.

Hydration, standing up slowly, and keeping my head movements gentle for a while also made a huge difference. A Threads discussion I read recently summed it up perfectly: https://www.threads.com/@askdocdoc/post/DNDm3QsNu4o.

And for those who want a more structured recovery, I saw a thoughtful LinkedIn post about combining medication with physical therapy for better results: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/askdocdoc_vertigo-remains-a-challenge-for-many-but-activity-7359221916882149376-D4-m. That’s now my plan — use medicine for short-term relief, but keep working on retraining my balance system.

Vertigo still visits me sometimes, but I’m no longer terrified when it does. I have a plan, a set of moves that work, and a better understanding of what my body needs.