Spiritual Healing

[ishaqamina]

This is a post I've been meaning to write a while now but have put off due to its controversial nature.I discovered this site a few years ago at the start of my POTS journey but haven't posted In years.

A brief history. I obviously have POTS and like others have been on an endless journey trying to figure out why. The docs have exhausted all possibilities and have come to the conclusion that I have POTS and they don't know why. They looked into many medical avenues and each led to a dead end. My hearts fine, my heads fine, my hormones are fine as is my pituitary and my adrenal glands. I don't have MCAD or EDS yet I feel far from fine.

At the lowest point of my illness I felt helpless and hopeless. Broken with no means of getting fixed.My illness made no sense. How was it possible to feel so sick and debilitated yet be so normal on paper. For every reaction there has to be an action, a cause yet here I was, broken in every way imaginable but nothing to indicate a medical cause for my deterioration.

My heart rate was the easiest symptom to detect in my long list and there were many obvious symptoms which were a consequence of a fast HR but this list of mine seemed to be ever expanding and some of the symptoms were just plain weird, like the smell of ammonia that only I could smell, and the white smokey thing I would see or the black shadowy smoke which sometimes looked like something I could only describe as a shadow person...... The strange sleep/awake situations. The OBE and sleep paralysis.Feelings of fear and uneasiness as though I was being watched andI just feeling like I needed to get out of the house and run. All things which had me believing that I was losing my mind. I also felt like I developed a jekyl and hyde personality as my symptoms worsened.

I had a 24 hour adrenaline/catchelomine test to rule out adrenal tumour (pheochromacytoma) and to look at my adrenaline levels and these were normal so I didn't have an adrenaline component to my POTS so the flight fight response couldn't be causing these feelings of fear and this extreme anger/irritation/change of behaviour. I also wasn't having seizures even though I sensed strange smells and had severe shaking episodes. It was like there was electricity running through my body and whenever I had this shaky feeling my mood changed and I learned to control my feelings but inside I felt like screaming and just being mean and nasty. I didn't recognise this personality. I felt like I was 2 people. I was the external me that was nice and the other was evil and nasty and this was the me that lived under the surface, rearing its ugly head when my symptoms were at their worst.

I seriously considered the possibility of being clinically insane. Maybe I was schizo or had a dual personality disorder but these mental illnesses wouldn't explain my physical deterioration and the mental conditions didn't fit their profiles either, having Schizophrenia doesn't cause POTS . I was ill, I knew that but some of my symptoms seemed crazy I didn't know what could be breaking me down both mentally and physically.

I Wasn't having seizures so that being a cause has been ruled out , normal adrenaline levels, normal bloods, hormones, everything normal. I didn't consider anything other than a medical cause for my illness. I have always been a practical person, not at all open to alternative theories until it hit me in the face full force.

So here comes the controversial part....Most will probably think me crazy and if you do I would appreciate it if you could try to avoid calling me that. Just ignore this post and my opinion as that is all it is, my opinion. However there may be a minority who would consider the possibility of POTS being a symptom of a spiritual illness. I'm not talking about those who have POTS with an identifiable cause like EDS or MCAD but rather those who have POTS with no known cause and have strange unexplainable symptoms that they don't dare discusss to anyone for fear of sounding crazy. If you have these you'll know what i'm talking about. I feel very hesitant to write the next sentence as I know how ridiculous it sounds to people who are not strong in their religious belief. Those of strong Christian Jewish or Islamic faith may consider the possibility of what i'm talking about but am scared to say. I know it sounds stupid and if I hadn't experienced what I have I would have been the one who laughed the hardest but I cant deny what happened to me and therefore cant deny the fact that my POTS is the consequence of a spiritual illness which has improved through prayer and seeking spiritual treatment

Faith healing for me resulted in the most unexpected of all things. It was scary to see and hear what was causing me so many problems in my life but it was brought into plain sight and the process has given me my life back and strengthened my spiritual wellbeing.

Before, I had all the symptoms mentioned on here.The weight and pressure on my chest was unbelievable. I went to A and E numerous times for fear of having a heart attack. Now I feel like the weight in my body, on my chest, my shoulders has been lifted. My arms and legs no longer feel heavy and weighed down and my head is light and no longer has that feeling of there being something in there, that heaviness and pressure . The tingling and numbness in my arms is significantly reduced. I used to have severe left sided migraines every day. They would make me cry but now I get them only rarely, say once every 2-3 months.That crawling feeling that I used to get under the skin is less too. I used to have a standing HR of upto 170 and higher if I added stress into the mix and near fainting episodes. My heart rate is still high as my body cant miraculously heal when so much dmage has been done to it but it stays around 130 and I don't feel as symptomatic. I wouldn't say i'm cured, I still have POTS but my Symptoms are manageable. Its POTS on a good day and i'm completely med free.

I think i'll leave it there. If anyone is interested in learning more about the details of my journey please feel free to ask. You can pm me if you want. To everyone who thinks i'm crazy, I don't blame you for thinking that. I probably would have felt the same 3 years ago. I ask that you respect my beliefs. As I said, I have exhausted all medical tests appropriate for the dx of POTS and tried many meds and nothing helped and no abnormalities were found in my medical testing. It was only at this point that faith healing was even considered.

I don't advocate anyone jumping to conclusions about their own illness before extensive medical testing and conventional therapy has been carried out.

I'm not writing this to get a reaction or to cause controversy. I'vebeen reading some posts on here where people are feeling so desperate with their symptoms and are looking for answers and they are scared and don't understand whats happening to them,especially the weird unexplainable symptoms, and medical testing just isn't providing them with any answers or solutions .

I've been there and its a scary place to be. I reached a point where I felt so hopeless and scared and my answers provided me with hope and an understanding to my situation. This helped improve my symptoms and I feel so much better after my method of treatment. I wasn't going to post anything about this alternative method of treatment but I just couldn't not say or do anything. This forum is dedicated to helping others through personal experiences, sharing whats worked for them and what hasn't.

If even 1 person benefits from reading this and is able to get relief from seeking an alternative route having exhausted all other possibilities then it worth me posting a crazy sounding post.

[MomtoGiuliana]

Just to clarify, DINET disallows discussion of religion on the forum:
http://forums.dinet.org/index.php?app=forums&module=extras&section=boardrules

Because spiritual healing is considered a branch of alternative medicine, we are allowing this topic to be discussed. Please keep discussion focused on healing. Arguments or discussion about specific religious beliefs, or solicitation regarding religion, are not permitted on our forum.

DINET always encourages members to utilize research-based interventions.

[ramakentesh]

Its weird I often read about people with POTS doubting their sanity and stuff. I guess because I go it at the age of 26 and everyone who knew me noticed the dramatic change I never really had any doubts and when docs tried to naysay me I just swapped docs.

Im not judging or anything I just hear that comment quite often.

[Kkb1216]

It has been very difficult to hear from doctors that I must be so stressed out my body is exhausted, or I have an emotional problem. To me, it invalidates my disease, and I find it makes me quite angry...followed by shame.

I've found meditation has helped calm and center me when I get too overwhelmed by the curve balls in a day. So I can see the benefits in "spiritual healing." While I don't condone discussions about Dysautonomia being "all in the head", I do think learning to center one's self while in an episode can help speed recovery. Belief in the healing power inside each one of us is powerful stuff. On my worst days, I find it very hard not to fling that platitide back out to the universe.

It's a terrible disease. Whatever helps, helps. The only constant in the universe is change. I'm just counting on the next set of changes being positive!!!

Good Luck, and thanks for the food for thought.

-K

[shan1212]

I recently decided not to be sick any more. That's what I told my doctor. I went to a naturopath and started taking a B Complex and fish oil (though the tincture and homeopathic medication she gave me didn't seem to do much). I started exercising 5 times a week. I played around with my diet. Mostly I think it was just that decision that "I'm not going to be sick any more" that made a difference for me. And no, I'm not miraculously cured, but I am thinking about myself differently. I'm no longer thinking that I can't do things, or assuming that I always have to stay home and rest. I'm pushing myself more, but still resting and trying not to overdo it (and, of course, sometimes still overdoing it). It's a balance.

All this is to say that while I don't consider myself to have experienced anything like "faith healing," I do think that our minds are incredibly powerful, and that believing that we are better, or can be better, can go a long way. It's all part of the puzzle. It helps you get the ball rolling to try new things. When you let yourself believe that it's possible to feel better than you do right this second, then you can take a risk on trying something new or expending a lot of energy in the hope that it'll energize you instead of depleting you. It becomes a virtuous cycle. It can be very hard to turn a vicious cycle into a virtuous one -- faith and hope that it's possible are definitely key. I'm not particularly interested in where others find or place their faith and hope; I just recognize that it's very easy to lose hope when you feel terrible day after day, and I hope that everyone here can find a way to reclaim that hope when they need it.

[Arez2row]

Couldn't have said it better shan1212. Have you ever read the book called "The Secret"? It talks about shifting your mind set and thought patterns. It emphasizes the importance of positive thinking and it's effects on our lives. I love the book and have read it several times. Just thought I'd share!

[Seraphina]

Could you please tell me what you did!!! Shan1212