Posted by HoldenYosarian on February 26, 2005, at 23:48:55
In reply to Please help me..meditation CD caused bad reaction, posted by jasmineneroli on February 20, 2005, at 18:33:10
> Hi Everyone:
> I don't usually come here, I'm usually on the med board or alternative and have not visited those very often recently. I was hoping someone here could help.
> I have GAD with some OCD. Right now my anxiety has suddenly peaked. My Pdoc has advised against theraapy for me, doesn't think it will help, just give me more to worry about. I take tryptophan and Klonopin daily, usually to good effect.
> Last week, someone I just met socially (a therapist) gave me a meditation CD to try. Saying it was excellent for anxiety and if I listened to it for 30 mins a day (with headphones) for 2 weeks I would start to feel better. Then after that to listen to it daily without headphones for a further 5 1/2 months. She predicted that I would come to a crisis point at 6 months and feel "bad" for a while, then I would be able to "heal".
> Well, day One listening, made me so agitated I had to stop after about 10 mins. (Kept thinking of things I should be doing, was forgetting and felt the urge to do these things instead).
>
> Day Two, tried again, and listened for the whole time (under a blanket). After about 6 mins, I began to feel all the worst physical aspects of my anxiety rise, then I started a headache. After about 12 mins or so, I began to mentally feel very angry, frustrated and resentful. These feelings died down as the 30 mins ran out.
>
> However my anxiety is now higher.(There are other stress things happening as of the past 2 days).
>
> I tried again today for 30 mins, even though I was having an high anxiety day with a lot of akathisia. This was part 2 of the CD, a different soundtrack. I felt like something was trying to penetrate my brain and read my mind or program me...it was so weird, but I didn't get the headache or anger this time. Just a lot of stomach butterflies and trembling.
>
> Can anyone tell me what's going on here? Should I continue or not? I really don't feel like discussing it with the person who loaned me the CD, cuz I barely know her.
> Thank you.
> JasHi jaz,
I'm new to this board, but certainly not the issues, all of which,so far, are right down my ally. I'll keep it brief: It's hard to guess at the origin of your reaction to the CD...if you had some particularly distressing or simply stressfull circumstances surrounding the period during which you listened that alone could be responsible (we all have denial mechanisms to keep us from being aware of too much at once, much having to do with diverting internal awareness toward external awareness--thus the lack of external stimuli while you weren't exposed to the "input" of the world as you normally are, but were instead left without these distractions to suddenly be overwhelmed by your immediate stressors while sequestered and listening to the CD. Another, and probably, (but it's just a guess) more likely scenario is that the same is true, but on a much larger scale. To put it simply, that you have a lot of "issues" of which you are totally, or at least only peripherally aware, the mere ackowledgment of which, combined with the natural obligation of analyzing and resolving such "issues" overwhelms you while listening to the CD. of course, the main question is:what's on the CD? My question to you would be: do you find that you have similar panicky responses to simply being at rest, without distraction and alone? If so, I'd say it's not the CD, but the deeper "Issues" (I hate that word) that are causing your reaction.
Please post back, I'm curious.HY
poster:HoldenYosarian
thread:460970
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050225/msgs/463905.html