Energy work and mental illness

[dan555]

I have read in various places about how things such as meditation can have undesirable effects for people with a mental illness. The thing is, whenever this is mentioned, they never say why.

I have been battling Schizophrenia for a number of years. Up until recently I have been perfectly fine due to the medication I am on - able to lead a normal life without being weighed down by 'the voices.'

I have recently taken up a martial art in which we have started doing energy work. For the past two days my I have been hearing my name repeated over and over on top of any background noise (such as people talking). Before this, everything was fine (due to my medication - which I am still taking).

Also, recently I have been feeling exhausted when I get up for work in the morning, even when I get the same amount of sleep as usual, whereas usually when I wake up I feel energized from getting a good night's sleep.

I also feel like I am walking around in a haze in a kind of dreamlike state.

What I am wondering is this - has energy work/meditation unlocked something in my mind causing the symptoms of my illness to return, and if so, why?

[ButterflyWoman]

I don't know if energy work makes mental illness worse or not. I suspect it has to do with the mental illness. I can well imagine that it might set of mania in a big way (yesterday and the day before I was so blissed out I had to do a checklist to make sure I was NOT manic, that's how "high" I felt!), but other illnesses, I can't say firsthand.

I think the only way to test this would be to stop the energy work and see if the voices settle down, then take it up again and see, etc.

I really need to recommend that you go to the doctor and say that you're being troubled again and see what they say.

It is possible that energy work is making you a bit more psychic and you're hearing astral communications or similar, but since you know for sure you have the issues with schizophrenia, I'd really start with the medication first. Sometimes adjustments are necessary for any of a zillion reasons or for no reason at all.

Speaking from personal experience (not of schizophrenia, but of some pretty horrid mood swings and a stint in the psych ward), I always went for the meds first when stuff got a little too weird. So long as my chemistry was in check, the spiritual stuff was much more predictable and I didn't worry that I was just deluding myself with what I thought I was real but which was just some odd manic thought or ideation.

I wish you health and peace. Blessings.

[dan555]

Well, I did get my medication reduced when I saw my psychiatrist a few weeks ago, but it was by a very small amount. I was perfectly fine for the first 4-5 days.

I have had reductions in my dosage in the past and everything has gone fine. I guess that could be the problem, but I think somehow it was the energy work that triggered it as well, though I don't know why - energy work should do good things for your general well-being, right?

Anyways, I'm going to go get the dosage put back up. I'll let you know how things go.

My whole interest in doing energy work was to strengthen my body and my mind to the point where perhaps one day I wouldn't need medication at all. I guess I was asking for too much

[Korpo]

Hello, dan555.

All that now follows is my opinion, and by no means medical advice, okay?

First of all, every change to dose will only show up days to weeks later, as your body starts to lower levels of whatever medication you have been taken. Chemistry will rebalance, and so dosage changes always carry a certain risk, so I think it is a good idea that you see your practitioner.

Now, energy work...

Let me tell you how energy work and meditation work for me and then let's look at how they might affect you:

I have chronic ills and pains of a minor degree that add up to giving me a constant set of troubles. Almost every moment I ache somewhere in my body. Stresses of a decade worked into the body. So I do energy work and meditation to remove them bit by bit, which works rather well. But how does it work?

I have become aware of all the pains and problems I was ignoring. I removed, bit by bit the lid I had put on the situation. This is actually necessary for this kind of physical, etheric, emotional and mental healing, IMO. Energy is awareness. Putting energy back into the system increases the awareness of the state of that system. For now that means for me that I have to face my chronic pains, worn-down muscles, emotional problems, bit by bit, be aware of them and then release them. This has given me many days where I was just exhausted, shedding toxins and needed time to heal up.

The bliss OW talked about is actually not a function of energy work itself AFAIK. It is a sign that some major things have been removed from the central nervous system. Bliss is the basic state of our nervous system, and pain occurs when we overload the nervous system. Pain is often enough only a massive onslaught of sensation - too much to bear so we give it the name pain instead. But if you have cleaned the nervous system and its associated energies enough at the lower levels, bliss returns to your life. First in glimpses, then more and more continuously.

This is what many meditation teachers often advertise - the bliss. The truth is that depending on your condition, energetic, physical, emotional, mental, you can either have a rather straight ride and little to do to get from discomfort to some bliss. Or you can have to face some very hard truths. Pain. Sometimes you can remove the residues of weeks of pain in the past in a day. But it takes time.

Now back to you:

It could very well be, though I don't know for sure, that the increased awareness makes you face down your illness. I know that meditation teachers don't recommend doing meditation together with mental illness, and one explained it rather clearly why:

Bruce Frantzis said that when you want to deal with what it is inside you, you must have a certain clarity of mind, clear judgement and a certain amount of control to keep focused and concentrated and not be overwhelmed by what you find. The mind has a capacity for dealing with things, and your illness might be too much to deal with.

In the East, he reports furthermore, actually mental illnesses are treated with meditation. But the big difference is that the person that gets treated is carefully monitored by experienced monks or ashram members that can support and correct and avoid that the person gets lost in delusion or mania. Also a person given this support is not guaranteed to be healed, but at least gets taken care of.

So, since in the West we usually don't have access to such resources or even to a single master who knows about mental illnesses, it may be advisable to not go down the energy work route.

My personal observation is that putting more energy into a balanced system raises the system to a new level and removes minor imbalances. Putting more energy in an imbalanced system at first increases imbalance. While the increased energy may even out and fix part of the problem, it may come with all kinds of side effects. It's like putting purposefully more water pressure on a pipe - normal pipes have extra capacity. They take it. A strong but clogged pipe flushes and becomes clean again - after building up some pressure. A brittle pipe breaks.

I'm sorry - I am not knowledgeable enough to recommend anything at this point which might help reach the point where you can take it. But in a certain sense many types of energy work are short-cuts. They ease attaining a change of body, mind and personality, but only if you can actually handle it. If your constitution does not allow this, other practices might be more helpful, like doing non-energetically enhanced sports and healthy balanced diet for the body, therapy for the emotions and mind. I don't say that this will heal your condition or even allow you to do energy work, but it will improve the quality of your life and will start healing of the problems that you have to face in your life.

Take good care,
Oliver

[ButterflyWoman]

Energy work (particularly meditation) does actually alter the brainwaves. This is medically documented. People who meditate regularly experience permanent positive changes to the brain.

It does occur to me, however, that a brain that has somewhat more atypical brainwave patterns and chemical signals might, indeed, react to meditation/energy work in atypical ways. Which is not to say that meditation/energy work is necessarily bad for you if you're mentally ill or prone to it (it's be very good for me, even with my history of Bipolar Disorder, Panic/Anxiety, and a few other unpleasant things). So an adjustment in the medication to keep it stable is probably not unreasonable to expect.

I believe that it certainly IS possible to transcend mental illness. It's a fairly long and slow process, however, at least for most people (miraculous healing is not that common, it would seem). I also believe that meditation/energy work is ultimately going to be a good thing and a positive one. It may well upset the balance of some things while changes are being made, though, which is why it's always good to keep with the doctor and all that boring and mundane stuff.

And as Oliver says, it's not medical advice, just general practical advice. And in my case, it's advice from someone who has also battled mental illness.

[journyman161]

This is strictly opinion & most definitely not medical advice nor is ti endorsed in any way by Robert Bruce.

If I get this right, you have had your medication progressively reduced over some time. This time you started doing energy work shortly after the last reduction. Then a little later you began to hear your name as a noise that didn't seem to be physical.

My first question is what did you feel as you heard the name? Did it scare you? Was it like hearing your own voice? Did the voice sound like someone you know?

My next question would be about your schizophrenia. From those I've met there seem to be two levels - some see/hear/experience something like another person in their lives. Some seem to experience a different world than do the rest of us.

For my opinion, if you are of the 2nd type, be very cautious. From reading around these forums, the confusion about reality seems to lead to neg activity of a variety of types. Whether the negs are attracted by, the cause of, or caused by the reality confusion, I don't know, but there seems to be a correspondence. If this is your level then learning self-awareness & finding your personal balance would seem to be more important than doing energy work & looking at astral advancement.

Those who experience 'another person' seem to have more options. Again, self awareness is key - how does the voice come to them? What emotional and/or physical reaction do the voices have? Sometimes voices are a distraction from life or astral realms, but sometimes it's like they are just trying to get attention.

Schizophrenia is a diagnosis from a world view that thinks humans can be defined by brain function. There is a lot of evidence that suggests this view is incorrect, including biology & their idea of how cells work. Being careful about your meds is one level, but don't let it exclude the possibility that those trying to use drugs to prevent something they see as abnormal are actually sup[pressing something you can use to achieve a better life.

Again, this is my opinion only, but if the psychiatric world actually knew what it was talking about, they'd have a much better success rate in a much shorter time. You know yourself. Trust yourself & find out who you are & what is happening. Don't go off the meds but don't let new experiences scare you back into drug-based suppression of self.

All the best & be well

[star]

I'd just like to give you an idea, something you could try later. Your going to have some experience in meditation due to your Martial Arts class. So I would suggest waiting for these voices during any time, meditation or even while eating a meal. (Just not while driving) and following the voices back to the source as if they were connected to something via a highway or a rope. Just keep going, and following it, even if you run into walls or if you end up inside of a sphere. Just keep going deeper until you find the source of the problem. One thing to keep in mind is at some times you can end up so deep inside your own psyche that you'll forget to breathe. Don't worry though, choke once or twice and you'll breath again.

At the point you feel that you've found something just attempt to fix it, if its too confusing and you don't know how to handle it; and once you've shown yourself you can get to that point I'll give you more things to try.

[dan555]

journyman161:

What I experience seems to be more of the 1st type - another person. I hear my name repeated over and over, and the one saying it sounds distressed and hurt - as if it is a part of my psyche that is crying out in pain. I also hear negative comments about myself which are the same comments I was subjected to day after day when I was bullied throughout school. The negative comments seem as if they are being said by the people around me. You know when lots of people are talking in a crowd and you can't really tell what they are saying because of the multitude of voices. Well when I am in a crowd like that I hear things as if they are all talking about me (when of course they are not).

At times I have thought that it could be some kind of neg attack - yet after reviewing all this it seems as if there is some part of my self that is asking for attention because it is hurting. Does this make any sense?

I guess by just giving people meds and not following it up with other methods it treats the symptoms, not the cause.

It looks like I have some work to do in regards to this part of my personality that is in pain. Maybe somehow make it feel better then reintegrate it into myself?

star:

I tried what you were saying about the rope to the source of the problem as I was reading your reply and as I did that I was met with silence - everything was as it should be (background noises, etc) without the "voices." I will definitely keep experimenting with that technique, because it is very helpful.


Thanks for your replies everyone.

[ButterflyWoman]

yet after reviewing all this it seems as if there is some part of my self that is asking for attention because it is hurting. Does this make any sense?

It makes sense to me. I've spent years dealing with those sub-parts of myself, healing them, working with them, etc.

I guess by just giving people meds and not following it up with other methods it treats the symptoms, not the cause.

I agree with that, too. In my opinion, therapy or counselling of some sort (even if it's just spirit-guided soul searching) MUST accompany the medical stuff. That's my direct experience.

[journyman161]

What I experience seems to be more of the 1st type - another person. I hear my name repeated over and over, and the one saying it sounds distressed and hurt - as if it is a part of my psyche that is crying out in pain. I also hear negative comments about myself which are the same comments I was subjected to day after day when I was bullied throughout school. The negative comments seem as if they are being said by the people around me. You know when lots of people are talking in a crowd and you can't really tell what they are saying because of the multitude of voices. Well when I am in a crowd like that I hear things as if they are all talking about me (when of course they are not).

At times I have thought that it could be some kind of neg attack - yet after reviewing all this it seems as if there is some part of my self that is asking for attention because it is hurting. Does this make any sense?

I guess by just giving people meds and not following it up with other methods it treats the symptoms, not the cause.

It looks like I have some work to do in regards to this part of my personality that is in pain. Maybe somehow make it feel better then reintegrate it into myself?

I've had some experience with something that may be what you're talking about.

From your descriptions, it seems to me that you have unresolved issues from the past, as you say. It sounds like there is a part of you coming forward, trying to get you to take a look at something, using memories & sounds to get your attention.

When intolerable things happen to those without the resilience or the resources to deal with it, when things occur that have no sane resolution, there can be a trauma, a rage & a pain that are too great to bear. For survival, the Being creates a Self to take the pain, to hide the anger, to allow survival. Then the Being can carry on with their life, as if the horrible thing never occurred.

It is a survival mechanism. Later, the Being needs to bring back the other self & integrate with it, to recover the energy, the resources & the memories. The Being can integrate & deal with the trauma with the increased abilities & resources available after living the intervening years. Perhaps also, the threat has abated due to those responsible having gone from the environment.

Now think of it from the standpoint of the other self. They have had a life(?) of fear, anger & pain. They have probably been aware of their prime self living & continuing on with the life that the Other should have been living. Maybe the Other even knows why it came into being & has some idea of its importance in allowing the Being to keep living. And it's been ignored, perhaps even rejected & hated.

The Shamans go looking for their other self, but in my experiences, I don't think this is quite the Other self they speak of. They talk of an other where all the opposites are embodied, where the choices made in forming who we are have the anti-choices stored. The trauma 'Others' are, I think, closer to us. They have a lot of our traits. In a sense, they are us but frozen at the time of the trauma.

The way I've dealt with them is to first make sure the Person is in a safe place, then I ask them to relax, to trust me & to speak to the other & bring them forward. Then I talk to them & to explain to them how they may find a new way, how they can share a life with the person 'up front' & I make sure I validate them. I congratulate them for the success of what they've done & I acknowledge their courage & their sacrifice in what they have done. Then I extend the invitation to come forward by allowing themselves to merge with the frontal person.

Now, in your situation, I don't know if you have someone like me. In mine I have been the outsider, the one to talk to both the frontal person AND the 'other' one. I'm unusual I guess, but if you can find someone who knows you, who cares about you & who is open-minded enough to accept there may be more than one of you inside there, and that maybe that other has a valid reason for being around at all, & who is resilient enough to face what comes forward without flinching, ask them to be there for you.

It will be hard - other selves are not created for trivial reasons. But the present-time Being is more than s/he once was & has learned many skills that can help to deal with pain that once seemed overwhelming. The Being has more strength, & more ability than it once had & it has the advantage of not actually being in the situation that caused the original trauma & pain.

If you have nobody to help, you can still achieve an integration. It means you need to be both Being & Outsider. It means talking to your other self & finding a way to bring them into your life. The memories will hurt & bring out emotions that can tear at you, but remember you are re-living, not living the moments. When it hurts, say to yourself - this is the past. I am strong & can deal with anything that comes. I made this situation so I could survive & I DID IT!

Find & read what you can of the Shaman ways of finding their Shadow Self - there are techniques there that can help you in your path. And always remember, this is a path that has been followed by others. It is a path that can be walked.