Is Your Vertigo All In Your Head?

One of the worst responses anyone gets from their doctor is being told, “it’s all in your head.”

And when it comes to vertigo, especially unexplainable vertigo, this is too often the response.

So, a recent study in The Journal of Surgery and Medicine has attempted to shed some more light on this issue by giving 51 vertigo sufferers a personality test.

Researchers recruited 51 patients who had experienced dizziness for three months and who had no history of peripheral vestibular disease. They also recruited 51 healthy people who experienced no dizziness for a comparison group.

The subjects were given three questionnaires to complete – the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire.

The only index that found no difference between the two groups was the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3.

On the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the vertigo group displayed more anxiety than their healthy peers; they also showed more depression on the Beck Depression Inventory.

Clear differences could also be seen on the personality test, which was categorized into four personality types – stable extroverts, unstable extroverts, stable introverts, and unstable introverts.

Neuroticism or stability refers to the tendency towards having/feeling negative emotions like depression, anxiety, fear, and feeling out of control. The participants displayed more neuroticism or emotional instability than their healthy peers did, regardless of whether they were introverts or extroverts.

The biggest difference is basically that unstable extroverts are restless, easily excitable, impulsive, and often irresponsible, while unstable introverts are moody, pessimistic, and quiet.

Since subjective vertigo is not caused by any physical disorder, it is almost certain that these psychological characteristics play a central role in the progression of the condition.

But the reality is, it’s easy to heal pretty much all types of vertigo using the easy vertigo exercises explained here…