Help for mental illness?

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam!

 

In the summer of 2000 I was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. This

diagnosis was changed to schizoaffective disorder later that year. My illness

is characterized by "hallucinations/ delusional thinking" ( I hear voices, which

I have finally realized are just thoughts my subconscious is having. Similarly,

when there is "background conversation," such as in a restaurant or when a

television is on in the next room, my mind translates things other people are

thinking into things that relate to the thoughts I am having at that time.

Psychiatrists call this "referential thinking," but it sounds to me a lot like

what they called "Self-Referral" or "Unity consciousness" at Maharishi

University of Management. I know I have experienced Unity consciousness in this

way, at a restaurant once, but because it was a mostly new experience for me, it

was a little fuzzy, unclear. Usually, if I pay much attention to the voices I

end up confused, immobilized, anxious, or just downright scared. I take

medication for this that helps, but I still have to be vigilant, and I now feel

like I am ignoring parts of myself that maybe I should be paying more attention

to. Although a lot of it is worrisome, so maybe I am better off ignoring it.

But that one Unity experience was so pleasant, and I feel like I am destined to

live that way all the time (in Unity-- eventually.) In the meantime, I think I

have finally found some KY that helps some (especially with anxiety, which I

often have for no apparent reason, and which I also take medication for. My

counselor thinks a lot of my anxiety may come from repressed anger that I have

bottled up since childhood, which makes sense to me, and an Ayurvedic doctor

told me the root of my problems was a severe imbalance in my Pitta dosha.) I am

doing the Basic Breath Series and Sat Kriya, because both say they strengthen

the nervous system (psychiatrists call my condition a brain disorder), and also

because Sat Kriya says it helps maladjusted people. I am also doing Sitali

Pranayam to help cool Pitta dosha. I have been doing these three consistently

for just four days now, and I am already noticing a difference.

 

My illness also includes depression, for which I take medication. I tried the

Easy Yoga for depression at 3ho.org, but it made me feel worse. I have tried

the meditation given on the online training course, and five minutes seems to

help some, but three minutes didn't seem to do anything for me, and I find that

meditation difficult to do. I have also tried the Smiling Buddha or Jesus Kriya

for eleven minutes, which helps quite a bit (it always puts a smile on my face

while I am doing it,) but it tends to fade after a little while. The time I did

it twice in one day, morning and afternoon, I had a big outburst of anger (pitta

aggravation) in the evening. I also suffer from the occasional manic episode,

which is the opposite of depression, and is characterized by elation which turns

to anger, or just anger. I also take medication to get to sleep at night, which

is the same medication I take for anxiety.

 

I am pleased with the KY I am doing right now, but since I am still unable to

work, I have some more time and am considering doing more. But I am concerned

that I might overdo it, since it has been suggested by two people in the

Transcendental Meditation movement that I might be evolving too fast. (I

matriculated to MUM just a little over a year after I learned TM, and learned

the TM-Sidhi program including yogic flying at the end of my first semester,

while I was learning Sanskrit. The next semester I went on two tours giving

yogic flying demonstrations, but I only practice a little TM these days with my

KY, since any more of that stuff aggravates my condition. I do however try to

do ten minutes of Maharishi Yoga Asanas twice a day, which I think must be

considered Ashtanga Yoga-- they call them "light yoga postures" in the TM

movement. I am considering replacing this with KY, but the KY I have come

across so far is much more vigorous, so they're not really the same type of

thing even.)

 

So, I am considering adding Smiling Buddha, and/or Ra Ma Da Sa meditation, but I

definitely need something physical, whether it be KY, the Maharishi stuff, or

just regular exercise. I have seen the Easy Yoga for strengthening the nervous

system at 3ho.org, but have not tried it since part of it involves singing along

to a tape I don't yet have, and also since it says "To Activate the Central

Nervous System and Stimulate the Pituitary Gland," and I'm not sure whether that

would be helpful or harmful for me.

 

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Love, Peace, and Light to you all,

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

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You happy man.

 

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[Guest guest]

Sat Nam Mark,

Sat Kriya will be best for you and really good if you can build to

31 minutes. But do it slowly as it stresses the nervous system so make sure you

get a lot of rest and look after your nutrition. Eat well.

Ra Ma Da Sa will also be very good for you for self healing.

 

Much light and love.

 

Sincerely yours

Hari Sant Singh

 

Give up your sense of mine and yours and become the dust of the feet of all. God

resides in every heart.

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Sat Nam Mark,

First of all, I'm a complete neophyte at this stuff so take this with a

grain of salt. I am also not accustomed to thinking of mental illness in

such Eastern terms - that includes my own depression/anxiety disorder. I do

have some physical problems which, like you, have made me wonder how best to

apply KY to my life.

They say that Kundalini Yoga as taught by the Yogi Bhajan is 17 times

more powerful than other yogic forms. That also means that all your crap

gets dredged up 17 times faster! That's a helluva warning label in my book.

I've had to make peace with the notion of a slow start. I LIKE doing the

hard stuff. I CAN do the hard stuff. Hell, I could get into full lotus,

stand on my knees and cook ketcheri all day!

But the truth is I have THIS body and it's worth taking care of. That

means I start slow and work my way up. It's not a question of evolved vs.

unevolved, it's a question of how my body works TODAY. My physiology

doesn't process ANYTHING like it says it should in the medical books, why

should it process energy any better? No, it's my responsibility to go

slowly enough to figure out how it works in MY body. After that, then I can

jack up the power levels. Remember you talked about having a negative

effect when you did Smiling Buddha twice in one day? That's exactly what

I'm talking about! Don't do that anymore! Respect the limits your body has

TODAY, it truly will change with time.

Yes, you can over-amp and hurt yourself. Both you and KY deserve to be

treated with respect. There is no such thing as "going to the head of the

class". We're all gonna get there - and hey, we have forever

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam, everyone!

 

Gordon, Leo, and SatSangeet, thanks for all of the advice. I'm

taking it.

 

God Bless You All!

 

Love,

 

Mark