Fwd: Mania and schizophrenia

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

 

Here is something I was asked to

forward to the Satsangh.

 

It is from a passing back and forth of

posts b/n one member on the K-Gateway list

and myself, discussing psychiatric illness.

 

Hope it can be of use to somebody out there.

 

Love,

 

Amanda.

 

--------- Forwarded Message ---------

> Ville Vainio <vvainio

>Mania ?

>

>that the people who most probably become schizophrenic are drawn towards

>yoga, because yoga brings pleasure through the person himself, instead of

>relying on the external pleasures (ie. other people).

 

Well, so does masturbation and eating, LOL !

and a lot of ppl do that without having

schizoid personality disorder.

 

It's really difficult to tell what is

a symptom and what is a cause.

The logic does tend to get pretty circular

in these matters.

 

I have read that what psychiatry calls

the schizoid personality is one withdrawn

from other ppl, though, but where to put

the line b/n "normal" and "withdrawn" anyway ?

By the number of close friends a person has,

or the number of times the person goes out

each week, or by a personality test to

judge whether the person is "outgoing" or

"shy" ?

>The same applies to

>psychedelic drugs, philosophy and mental hobbies in general, which are

>also evident in schizoid personality disorder (perhaps that is what caused

>the author to present them as >schizophrenia-promoting personality traits,

 

I do see your point, that ppl with a

schizoid personality disorder often have an

above average interest in turning into

himself, philosophy, yoga, etc as you say,

mental activities in

general, but to say that these activities

may lead to schizophrenia in and of themselves

is a bit too simple.

 

Yes,

whereas psychiatrists may label a yogi in

closed eyes

samadhi as irrevocably mentally ill,

withdrawn schizoid etc, I personally hold that there is marked difference

between spiritual characteristics and mental disorder.

 

The spiritual awakening, including Kundalini

awakening may bring on symptoms and signs of

mental illness and may be labeled as such,

but there is something else going in that

matter.

 

As I see it, a mental illness left to itself,

i.e. untreated,

deteriorates the functions of the individual

by in the instances of severe mental disease

such as schiziophrenia to cause physical

damage of the brain, leading to an irrevocable

change, which can be demonstrated

anatomically and physiologically.

Same with epilepsy. Untreated, it may fry

off so many neurons so that it shows up on CT scans.

 

A spiritual process, on the other hand,

when left alone, will not lead to a permanent

and increasing loss of neurons, vacuolizations of the brain tissue, brain edema

etc and it does not leave the individual completely

unable to communicate with the surrounding

world.

It will on the other hand, often lead to

an individual able to take more mental

and physical strain, the mind and body

having become more flexible, less plagued

with anxiety and depression etc.

recapturing the balance of the transmitters

in the brain etc without the need for

medication, without the need for external

stimulation.

 

So in my view, Kundalini and the spiritual

process is /not/ without reservations

the same as psychiatric disease.

 

However, I do too think that

mainstream medicine

labels many different things as illness,

and most often measures illness after how

much or how little it affects function

of the individual. As most of us know,

the usual definitions of a functioning

individual is somewhat at ends with the

definitions spiritual traditions have.

 

A yogi in closed eyes samadhi is not

functional in the terms of main stream

psychiatry, whereas he most definitely

is in the terms of spiritual traditions.

 

In addition, mainstream psychiatry has as

goals to bring the individual back to

society to be able to function,

i.e. work etc.

It also aims at reintegrating the ego and

the views of the personality back to "normal".

The idea of giving up one's mental traits of

personality does not go under the label

of "normal" in psychiatric terms.

In many ways, psychiatry views spirituality

and religious emotions as delusion and

illness. There are many books devoted to

this view.

 

As one last comment,

I'd say that if you are overly interested

in psychedelic drugs and using it, yes, the

chances that you may develop some kind of

disorder is large indeed.

 

However,

if you are interested in philosophy

that does not automatically mean you're

prone to schizophrenia or schizoid

personality disorder (as I understand it,

the two things are not exactly the same).

 

Everyone judges information from the

surroundings based on their personal

experience, so I guess splitting hairs

about what is mental illness and what is not

is a somewhat futile exercise.

 

I did try, though.

 

Best regards,

 

Amanda.

 

--------- End Forwarded Message ---------

 

 

 

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