Could PTSD inhibit ecstatic conductivity?

[Empiricspirit]

I have borrowed the term 'ecstatic conductivity' since I read it on the forum. Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen and a few other authors have linked PTSD and other traumatic illnesses with very rigorous energy blockages and with the inability to experience any pleasure.

I wonder what would be your opinion on the fact that PTSD  and other forms of mental illness might inhibit ones spiritual development in serious ways. It seems congruent with the theory proposed by AYP.

[Etherfish]

Hi Empiricspirit,

Yes, I think it is quite possible that PTSD and other mental problems could seriously inhibit spiritual development. However, the good news is that everyone starts out with lots of problems that inhibit spiritual development. Once you follow whatever your psychiatrist recommends, you would do the meditation practices the same as everyone else. The whole purpose of meditation is to remove things that block spiritual development, so you would be on the right path. You may start out with the inability to experience pleasure, and that's OK; you will read in the lessons that pleasure is not a primary goal; removal of blockages is.
So, read the lessons, and do the easy practices regularly, and you are on your way. Best of luck!
Ether

[jonesboy]

Very interesting question. I have no idea if PTSD can block your spiritual development. What we are finding out is that meditation is helping people with PTSD.

Here are some links: Here

[ak33]

Hi Empiricspirit, this is a very intersting topic. i'd like to offer my two cents based on experience. I don't know about PTSD, but I already had severe anxiety disorder for 5 years when I started my yoga practices. As jonesboy has said, meditation has only helped me remove these energy blockages and try to instill equanimity into my life. But its interesting because I see people with rapid spiritual development and ecstatic conductivity in a few months. I've been doing yoga for 1 and half year now, and for me its still about emotional work. But yeah, my experience is always improving

- Atharva

[tamasaburo]

I think it is possible. I have been struggling with a similar problem the past few months, after giving myself what might be called a "chemical PTSD" by taking something that sent my anxiety through the roof.

Chemically, I think it has something to do with dopamine and norepinephrine. Dopamine is a "feel good" chemical, but it gets converted to the excitation chemicals norepinephrine and epinephrine (adrenaline), and I believe it does so at a higher rate in those with PTSD or other anxiety provoking experiences. This may be due to something called "dopamine beta hydroxylase," which converts dopamine to norepinephrine. Supposedly one can reduce the effects of this by eating celery seed, though I haven't tried it.

One thing that has helped me (though I strongly urge everyone to be SUPER SUPER CAREFUL about supplements, having had a few very bad experiences), and which apparently has helped other PTSD sufferers is an amino acid found in tea, called l-theanine. It is available in 100 mg caps and provides a very mild calming effect that also seems to help with the dysphoria of anxiety. Some people say it helps their anhedonia in stronger doses.

I have also had some success with supplements aimed at increasing acetylcholine, which is sort of an opposite kind of stimulation relative to dopamine, such as manganese and DMAE. But again, I'd only proceed with great caution.

The best cure, I think, for chronically elevated stress and anxiety, is regular meditation, lots of exercise, cutting down stress as much as possible, and time, time, time. I have sometimes made myself worse in a rush to get better, underestimating the healing power of time.

[Kahlia]

My own experience of PTSD has made me hyper sensitive. This increases my sensitivity to spiritual or energetic shifts, not impedes it.

[BlueRaincoat]

Yes, some forms of mental illness can be serious obstacles to practising yoga. PTSD is not very bad in that respect - as Jonesboy says, meditation is in fact a recommended treatment for this condition (as it is for depression and panic/anxiety disorders).

The really bad obstacles are psychiatric symptoms like hallucinations and to some extent delusions. Prescribing deep meditation in these cases is not considered a good idea - getting patients to turn their attention towards their inner world will just send them into the midst of their halucinations. That will make the problem worse (at least at an initual stage, but that is enough to preclude any scientific research on this issue, since no responsible psychiatrist/psychologist would run such an experiment). I have come across one small study where promising results have been obtained with guided meditations for patients with hallucinations, but that of course is not deep meditation.