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The spiritual path: Fear of dying and/or going insane. Part 2

By Marcus Knudsen

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This is the second part of this article. You will find part 1 in the same article directory that you found this one.

I will now go deeper into a very good way to deal with anxiety and the fear of dying or going insane. The technique I’m going to describe is used in CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy).

Spiritual pressure

Many people on a spiritual path will say that they don’t have any problems with anxiety because they are not depressed. They feel happy and strong. You can have a happy life and be in a good mood most of the time and still get anxiety attacks that you might think are “spiritual experiences”. Spiritual people often feel very happy if their meditation goes well and get in a bad mood if they had a bad meditation session, struggling with calming down the thoughts. This is one of the most stressful things although you may not feel that. Check if any sensations in this list applies to you:

Symptoms

Thumping heart.
Sweating and trembling.
Hot flushes or chills.
Feeling short of breath, sometimes with choking sensations.
Chest pains or pressure.
Feeling sick (nauseous).
Feeling dizzy or faint.
Fear of dying or going crazy.
Feelings of unreality, or being detached from yourself like life is a dream.

Exaggerated interpretations lead to fear and panic

These sensations are a sign of anxiety.You might think that the thumping heart is a sign that something is wrong with it, that the pressure you feel over your chest is a sign that you are choking or that the chest pain is a heart attack . You might have a feeling of unreality and fear that you are going insane. Of course you should first check with a doctor, but almost always the fact is that your fear of the symptoms you are experiencing amplifies it even more. Fear increases the blood pressure and the adrenaline level. The body goes into the “fight or flight” mode.

The fight or flight mode is a biological response to moments of danger or acute stress. What happens when you feel the symptoms and you get so scared you think you’re actually dying or going insane is that the body will think so too! Death is the biggest danger to the physical body so to fight this “life threatening” situation it starts pumping out adrenaline, increase the blood flow to the muscles and pretty much get you ready to fight for your life. This is called the “fight or flight” mode.

Use your logics

After you have checked with a doctor and know there is nothing wrong with you, you will start to see that your reactions are greatly exaggerated. You are NOT about to die. You are NOT about to go insane. Many spiritual seekers use their emotions and feelings a lot, but here you need to use your logical thinking.

CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy)

In CBT you will first learn that the fear, anxiety or panic you feel are natural reactions to the defense mechanism triggered by your body in these situations because of fear. Next you will learn to recognize these bodily reactions so that the next time you feel for example that your heart starts thumping, you know this is the first sign of anxiety. You know there is nothing wrong with you, and that this is normal. You will also know that the next step in the chain of reactions is your fear of the thumping. The fear comes like you expected and you know that now your adrenaline will increase. You feel the adrenaline increase just like you have been taught that it will. You will know what is happening in the body and gain a slight sense of control. You will also learn that after a while the nervous system will start dealing with this fight and flight mode that you are in and calm you down again, so you will be aware that the scary state you are in will soon go away.

The psychologist will give you some “homework” to do. He or she will tell you to plan a time of day, and a place when you will do something that you know will trigger your fear (anxiety), like in my case I couldn’t watch doctor series on TV when they operated on people. So that was my homework. I was aware of what would happen and subjected myself to it time after time. What will happen is that you gain a feeling that you know what will happen, gain a sense of control and learn that nothing dangerous is going to happen. After a while the fear of the anxiety itself will decrease. It will feel incredibly rewarding after facing these situations and getting through them. You will feel brave, proud and happy afterwards. The anxiety attacks now starts getting shorter and less dramatic. You keep practice and keep experiencing less and less anxiety.

After a point you almost WANT the anxiety to happen so that you can feel that rewarding feeling of being in control of the situation and the joy it brings afterwards. This is the greatest enemy to the anxiety. As soon as you feel the anxiety coming you will think “oh yes finally!” and it will go away immediately. You will be no fun for the anxiety anymore.

When fear starts to let go of you, an incredible sense of freedom will start growing and you will realize how fear is the cause of holding you back in your life. For me this was life changing on a deep level and it got reflected in the external level. You will start making decisions that you wouldn’t dare before, you may start acting differently to other people by not being afraid of being honest and your heart will thank you. You may get a completely different life. I did.

/Marcus Knudsen. Inventor of Bliss coded sound - www.xphirience.com

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