Panic Attacks - Curse Or Bliss

[Deleted member 19325]

Panic Attacks - Curse or Bliss

Panic attacks had been portrayed as kind of mental disease by the medical world. It definitely feels that way as it is totally a new experience that one cannot relate to and feels really scary the first time it hits you. Also the close ones of the individual cannot relate to the experience treats it as abnormality and the individual is made to believe he has a mental condition by the environment around him.

From my personal experience having gone through this for 4 years now it was really a shock to me during the initial phase. But looking back I now feel that I am one of those blessed ones who had this experience. Initial attacks do jolt your life and makes you seriously analyze what’s going on. In my case I slowed my life intentionally to understand what was going through me and once slowed my life, it was easier to handle.

First Phase: Scared/Confused
First attack definitely hits at a time when we are unprepared and it’s a totally a new experience. Majority of the people who experience it may consider they had some life threatening attack like heart attack or some part of the body is not working well. It definitely takes a while to understand what’s going on.

Second Phase: Not a temporary issue
After a few attacks the individual has to accept the fact these attacks are here to stay and it becomes very much part of the life. He cannot escape it or fight it out but try to integrate with his life. He starts to read about them and figures out what he has gone through is being experienced by many people and people do survive these attacks.

Third Phase: Search for a cure
This phase is when the individual tries all different ways to get rid of it. Looks for the medical cure, natural cure, exercise, fitness lessons to handle it. In the process tries to understand the whole process what’s going on and gains the strength to accept them.


Fourth Phase: Let’s integrate
This is the crucial and interesting phase. It’s opposite to what he had done all the time so far. He accepts the attack wholeheartedly and integrates to his life. Once he accepts the attack without fighting them it’s not an attack anymore. It now loses the pace and energy. Now after this you can feel the bliss of the process and joyfulness of it. You won’t be the same person anymore, all this had happened to get the best out of you.

Eastern world calls it Kundalini activation and even many in the western world who go through spiritual awakening go through these so called panic attacks before the reach the higher ground and life becomes a bliss/joy.So if you are getting so called Panic attacks, feel joyed that you are one of the lucky ones to have blessed with it and find your way to reach the state of bliss or joy that these attacks can lead you to.

I will continue writing here for the benefit of others to help them cross the bridge from pain to bliss...

 

[isaley]

This is interesting, and I feel compelled to express my thoughts on the matter.

I am afraid I am not equipped with the optimism and have not reached the “fourth phase”.
I recognize the feeling of bliss as very familiar, but I find the panic attack foregoing it a bit too high a price to pay, so instead of giving it a different name I just live with it, one panic attack or Kundalini activation or spell or episode or give it any name you want, at a time.

I apologize for my bitter and negative tone, but I just don't see the benefit of feeling lucky due to my panic attacks.

I feel more helped by recognizing them as a valid response to triggers, considering my personal history.

This way I also validate myself and I somehow feel I respect myself more by calling a panic attack a panic attack.

I would rather feel lucky for something that hasn't got a root in a trauma.

I would rather feel bliss as a result of something I choose.

Besides, I always thought the sensation of bliss and relaxation is just a part of the hormonal tailspin one’s body goes into after the adrenaline rush of the panic. This is only my layperson’s view, of course, and a Western one at that.

Perhaps one feels more helped by this optimistic viewpoint if panic attacks are inexplicable or seem to come out of the blue.

As mine aren’t inexplicable at all, I see no point and as stated above I’m quite opposed to it.

Hopefully my words are not found offensive as I merely express my personal opinion.

Sincerely,
Isaley

 

[Deleted member 19325]

Hello Isaley,

I am not offended by your views because I went through the same pain as yours and felt the same way.

If one went through this process they will understand how you feel.

My views are coming from that it can be healed if we work towards it.

Once you are healed and you have different perspective of life after healing, you will consider panic attack as lucky omen.

I am not saying this to make a point, this is my experience. I wish you will be there.

Please try meditation, diet and healthy choices in life...its not question of will I be....it will be question on when..
good luck...i will continue my views here, I want to pass on my experiences and results to others...

Its a switch and you will make the switch when you are ready...make yourself ready

 

[isaley]

I wish, as politely as I can, to ask you to refrain from your slightly patronizing attitude implying that I do not meditate, take a healthy diet or practice a healthy life in general.

This is not to attack you on a personal level, I only wish not to be given advice I did not ask for and especially if the advice given imply a lack I have not communicated.

I wrote my previous post in order to give another viewpoint, and nowhere in my text did I ask for your guidance.

There is a difference between guiding somebody who asked for your help and being patronizing.

This may seem a petty remark, but I feel it more important to me personally to set a boundary and communicate it than to ignore the reaction I had to your post.

Sincerely,
Isaley

 

[Deleted member 19325]

Hello Isaley,

I am sorry for miscommunication and apologies!

I should stay away from comments and response till I can communicate well.

Best wishes,
vivbala

 

[isaley]

Apology accepted!

All the best,
Isaley

 

[Hashi]

vivbala, could you clarify whether you're talking about panic attacks in people with PTSD specifically? You have shared this from your personal experience - is that with a diagnosis of PTSD that fits the DSM criteria?

I'd like to respond, and just want to check this first.

 

[Hashi]

Without an answer to my question above, I'm assuming that the original post was not specifically in relation to panic attacks experienced by people with PTSD. If it isn't, then it's misleading to post it in a forum for PTSD without clarifying that. If it is in the context of PTSD, why make no reference to the characteristics of panic attacks related to PTSD, or the issues associated with the condition?

Either way, I think what's suggested is completely inappropriate for people with PTSD and I hope no sufferer will think of following it.

vivbala, I believe that you have good intentions, but good intentions don't qualify you to give advice of the kind you have on a PTSD forum. Panic attacks in people with PTSD have a completely different cause and manifestation from panic attacks in non-traumatised people having a spiritual crisis/awakening. In my view, even if you meant well, it's irresponsible and - I'm afraid - ignorant (in the sense of lacking sufficient knowledge) to write what you've written on a PTSD forum with no reference to PTSD, which is a classified mental disorder.

 

[Barberian]

Panic attack... a blessing? I think not. I've gone through phase one, two and three, but Quote:

"Fourth Phase: Let’s integrate
This is the crucial and interesting phase. It’s opposite to what he had done all the time so far. He accepts the attack wholeheartedly and integrates to his life. Once he accepts the attack without fighting them it’s not an attack anymore. It now loses the pace and energy."

I agree. I accept that they will happen in the future. They don't own me like they used to. When I feel one coming on, I notify my wife to "let me be for a while", isolate myself and let what is going to happen, happen. Sometimes just by accepting that it's going to happen, that alone disarms the situation, and I'm either able to avoid a full blown panic attack, or at least I don't feel as such a victim having it happen to me. I understand it is a process my mind feels it must go through. Afterwards when I have full use of my mind I try to figure out what triggered it, and work on that/those issues.

As for: "Now after this you can feel the bliss of the process and joyfulness of it. You won’t be the same person anymore, all this had happened to get the best out of you". Bliss and joyfulness" after a panic attack is not the feeling I would assign to it.

As others have said, I believe the panic attack(s) you are describing are strictly related to spiritual awakening, NOT PTSD. I have some experience in both. I have PTSD, and I was experimenting with meditation, and other Eastern faiths beliefs in my youth.

Hashi said it well, so I won't repeat her post. If you feel I'm wrong or have come to the wrong conclusion of what you posted, please feel free to expand on your post, preferably with references so we know where your coming from.

 

[Red Feather]

I see both sides to this, and oddly enough agree with Hashi's perspective as well as vivbalas. What scares me, similar to the way Isaley describes it, is that it isn't good. Normally, being triggered isn't a good thing. But coming in contact with my feelings, the true feelings, is good. And when this happens, not only am I having a panic attack, but I am feeling very connected to what vivbalas describes.

Of course this is not always the case. I have had panic attacks which had no kundalini effect at all, and I seriously felt I would throw up or pass out. In that case, there was nothing nice about it. But there were other times, when I felt a loosening and releasing of anxiety and emotions. I even made a film about this kind of experience, but it is connected to trauma, which is the most frightening of all. So I feel confused, and can not find an answer.

I heard vivbalas perspective before from others, but I also distance myself from this way of thinking because of this unclarity. It has happened that the anxiety cames in afterwards much much stronger and this change or shift is very painful. I do not know, but I think it is best to take very small steps and recognize all triggers as such.

Also, if it is a very strong panic attack, I am drained and without energy, this can contribute to a depressive phase afterwards, which is also quite painful.

 

[Hashi]

What's being suggested pays no attention to the context in which panic attacks take place if the person has PTSD. This is the "spiritual" equivalent of telling someone with PTSD to do full exposure therapy without even thinking about resources, stability, grounding or safety. In fact, it's the equivalent of telling someone who you know to be unstable (because if they're having panic attacks they're symptomatic) to not pay attention to those things and instead to dive right in.

Doing psychological exposure therapy (or the kind of spiritual "exposure" being suggested here) without any precautions might sometimes be a release for some people, but that wouldn't make it generally recommended by any means. Also, it's worth bearing in mind that someone might happen to already have knowledge about PTSD, how symptoms manifest and ways of coping, which would help them, and they might be bringing those things in. However, not everyone has learnt about those things yet, and using those kinds of safety strategies are not what's being suggested here. Someone who didn't already have that kind of background of support, or who abandoned it, would be putting themselves at much more risk psychologically, let alone spiritually.

What's being suggested is to abandon the view that there is a psychological disturbance/mental condition and instead to make oneself spiritually open. The poster is assuming that being spiritually open is safe for everyone. I doubt this is the case for everyone generally, and I know this is not the case with PTSD. Firstly, because it means being psychologically vulnerable, an issue which has actually been dismissed by the poster's rejection of the psychological context. Secondly, because people with PTSD are spiritually vulnerable as a result of the extreme experiences and energies they have been exposed to. This is being ignored, which could be very dangerous.

It's dangerous for someone with PTSD to "accept" - in the sense of embrace - disturbances of the mind or spirit without working on psychological and psychical safety. Grounding and psychic/spiritual protection are not even mentioned. They're actually deliberately removed from this approach.

As someone whose fundamental approach to PTSD is what people would call spiritual, my opinion of the original post is:

- Discounting the psychological aspects and the fact that PTSD symptoms are a mental condition as much as a spiritual one is ill-advised and unhelpful

- Within any group of people, generalising that an experience that you had is the experience that everyone will have, is naive and unrealistic

- Recommending an approach that makes no consideration of PTSD, to people on a PTSD Forum, is misleading, inappropriate and irresponsible

- Doing any kind of spiritual work without thinking about spiritual/psychic protection is not something I'd ever advise even in a general population. To suggest it to people who have experienced trauma shows a lack of understanding and is irresponsible

- In general, spiritual meaning and awakening for someone with PTSD might be very different than for non-traumatised people. A spiritual journey involving trauma has its own elements and challenges

- There are more possible approaches than either fighting a panic attack or accepting a panic attack. I think it's over-simplifying and unhelpful to suggest there are only those two approaches.

I have to say I also feel patronised and preached at to be told I'm blessed and lucky to experience what I do. I think that's for me to decide about, not someone else.

 

[Red Feather]

Thank you Hashi, you formulated my concerns very well. As someone who has been spiritually abused, due to a belief system that caused me to stay with my abusive husband, this subject can be very triggering. As I had a very sudden flashback last night after posting on this thread, shows me the reason to stay concerned once more.