Too good to be true?

[Webimpulse]

Namaste HDF,

This topic might sound weird, but I need some help trying to figure out recent events in my life.

You all know of the depression and anxiety I suffer from, if some of my posts are any indication. But recently I started a new medicine, and...after just a couple of days on this new medicine...these seem to have gone away. Perhaps not completely, but enough for me to realize life is worth living again! I have even restarted my meditation practice.

Part of me is wondering if this phenomenon is too good to be true, though. I mean, following the Sanatana Dharma has helped me, but it didn't lift these conditions. Then suddenly I take this one pill and I become a different person by virtue of being happy for once.

It has been said on these forums that mental illness is all karma, like any other bad thing thathappens to us. So it just seems curious to me that my mental health can improve with a simple change in medication. Again, it seems too good to be true.

Should I be questioning this newfound happiness?

[c.smith]

Hari Om!

Can only share from my personal experience where medications virtually save my life in the same areas that you speak of and more as I've posted elsewhere in the forum. I see them as gifts, vehicles if you will, from Sri Ganesha and others that enable me to stay the path of my personal sadhana.

Yes, finding the right medication whether it be allopathic or other will lead to other "medications", the meditations, pranayama, asana, yama and niyamas all. Again, my opinion through intimate experience.

Remember too that hope is a potent remedy. So are trust, prayer and following your daily practices.

Happiness makes the road less rocky but remember that there will still be difficulties to encounter, mental or other.

Please allow Sanatana Dharm to work its magic, remembering that some karmas can be more difficult to exhaust than others. But when it comes down to the bottom line, like Guru can only lead sisha to water and cannot make him drink, you too must do your part medication or not.

All the best to now and always.

Om

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~
namasté

It has been said on these forums that mental illness is all karma, like any other bad thing thathappens to us.

... and all the good things that happen too.

iti śivaṁ

[Mana]

Namaste Webimpulse,

Should I be questioning this newfound happiness?

In short yes, to my mind you should be; not so much that you scare it away, just enough to attempt to peer under the veil of happiness/sadness; so as to better understand your self.

If in your happiness you forget that you were sad, you are setting your self up to fall again, I do not mean that you shouldn't be happy, only that you should be mindful of your state of mind; Your predominating state.

If you do not perceive this, which you clearly do; then you may be upsetting others balance rather than feeling your own, think how terrible this would be for your karmic record!
Strange as this will sound; You can be grateful that you do perceive your own karma to such a deep extent and that you are this aware of this already, however good or bad that may seem!

So keep in mind your meditation and remember that brahmamuhurta is the best time of day for this ...

Warm regards, I am glad to hear that you have found some peace.

[govind_das]

I too suffer from mental illness (schizoaffective disorder and anxiety) and following Sanatana Dharma has helped me immensely (in addition to my meds of course).
As to the karma question, I've always suspected that maybe God allowed me to be like this so I'd learn patience.

[Avyaydya]

Namaste HDF,

This topic might sound weird, but I need some help trying to figure out recent events in my life.

You all know of the depression and anxiety I suffer from, if some of my posts are any indication. But recently I started a new medicine, and...after just a couple of days on this new medicine...these seem to have gone away. Perhaps not completely, but enough for me to realize life is worth living again! I have even restarted my meditation practice.

Part of me is wondering if this phenomenon is too good to be true, though. I mean, following the Sanatana Dharma has helped me, but it didn't lift these conditions. Then suddenly I take this one pill and I become a different person by virtue of being happy for once.

It has been said on these forums that mental illness is all karma, like any other bad thing thathappens to us. So it just seems curious to me that my mental health can improve with a simple change in medication. Again, it seems too good to be true.

Should I be questioning this newfound happiness?

Namaste Webimpulse,

I am glad this works for you, you can see that as karma as well. What I understand about this, you should use it cautiously. Why? Because the substances that help you, help you because they are either substances the body makes, or mimic these. That is what all drugs do. So if these substances help that means that your body is not producing them in sufficient quantities. The harmony in your body is disturbed. This can be caused for instance by dwelling in strong emotions for a long time. Then the body becomes less sensitive to these substances. At the same time the cells develop more receptors that ask for these substances.

The same effect we see with drugs abuse, it creates good feelings but the other effect is that the bodies itself stops producing these substances. So then we have a double effect, increased demand from the cells, and less production from the body. That is what causes the dependency on drugs. The same happens when we let our emotions run free all the time, we can no longer stop being emotional. We are creating a dependency, that can lead to depression. We should be very cautious with powerful drugs, because they can further disturb the balance in the body. Drugs generally do that. For instance pain killers are known to only worsen migraine in the long term because they not only alleviate the pain, but also lower the threshold for pain. We have to understand our body is a system. A system will react immediately, but will also adapt to constant outer and inner influences.

So now you are trying to restore a short term balance in an artificial way to get rid of symptoms, but it does not help to restore a deeper permanent natural balance. Because the natural balance would be that your body produces the substances when needed. A good example is diabetes. Diabetes is caused because we eat to much sugar and especially carbohydrates which are basically chains of sugar molecules. This increases blood sugar level rapidly (A slice of bread has the same drastic effect as eating a few lumps of sugar). But our organs can not tolerate that, so the body produces insulin to lower it. As we go on over-consuming carbohydrates, the body gets less and less sensitive to insulin, as it is produced in great quantities. So at some point the body can no longer keep up producing enough insulin and we need to take insulin shots.

But that way you do not take the cause of the imbalance away, but further enhance the imbalance. The essence of Nature religion is to protect harmony and create balance both in inner and other nature. That is the true wisdom of the Vedas, protect harmony. Especially we westerners we create big imbalances, both in our mind, body, environment. We do not love our bodies, we just use them until they start to protest. Then we use drugs to suppress the symptoms of the imbalance and say that is the disease.

So how to deal when your balance is truly disturbed? Then you may need artificial substances to function, like a diabetic needs insulin. But even a diabetic can try to restore balance by reducing sugar and carbohydrate intake. If one can keep the sugar levels just right, one has less need for insulin and when one uses less the body can become more sensitive to it again. Yes the sensitivity of the body can restore. In your case I would advice the same thing. Only use the drug if there is an immediate need, but at the same time try to live in such a way that the need to use it does not arrive very often or drastically reduce the dose when there is no need. It is wrong to always use the same dose because then the body will learn to adapt much faster.

This is an example how karma is caused by abuse in the past. We may not be aware of the abuse we do, but that does not mean we do not do it. In the west we are totally out of balance. We created a competition system that is constantly putting one-sided mental and physical strain on people. We even made it into a fake value to constantly strive for the best. At the same time we try to release our frustration through (over)consumption and looking for kicks. Both create imbalances. This constant way to interact with mind, body and environment becomes part of our nature. We become imbalanced or easily disturbed. That is how this karma is formed. But we only notice it when the system starts to malfunction. Then we see the malfunctioning as the problem. We have had many small warnings before, but we did not notice them or brushed them aside, because we do not seek harmony, we are driven by desire. Than the problem becomes much deeper. We destroyed the balancing mechanisms by long term abuse.

Let us also understand that hurt, harm, abuse is not only done to others, we can also hurt, harm, abuse ourselves, our mind, our body, that produces karma as well. Yes we have an obligation to our own mind and body too. We should respect our mind and body in the same way as those of others.

So my advice is, use it (or increase the dose) when you really need it, but preferably not all the time. If you use it all the time, it blankets out the feedback from the body. You want to keep working on restoring balance in a natural way. This way you will know you are moving in the right direction, when you need the substance less and less. By varying the dose you are mimicking the bodies natural reaction, because the body also only produces substances when needed. Using the same dose all the time will make the body insensitive to it rapidly. In the same way the beneficial effects of sport go down quickly when it is done in the same pattern. The body simply "gets used to it" and stops reacting.

On a personal note: I like to warn against some practices that make moksha into an ultimate goal and do very rigid exercises, like very long japa, meditation, physical exercises. It is known that hippies discovered meditation as a substitute to drug use because it can deliver the same powerful effects. It is mistake to think that this is natural. The same way heavy physical exercise produces endorphin that give people a high. Again this is not healthy because we do not use drugs but force out bodies to produce these substances. We are still disturbing inner harmony. There is no happiness in life without harmony. In Hinduism these exercises are an integral part of religion developed to create harmony in mind and body, but not as an intensive training to produce artificial happiness. Whenever people seek extremes they are not promoting good health. Harmony is always the middle road, it can not be found in extremes. Seeking moksha in one life where others need tens of thousands of lives is overambitious. This kind of greed will produce only suffering as a result.

Good luck!

[Nirvaasit]

Haha brother! I must disagree with you there, all mental illness is not Karma, I mean atleast not yours exclusively, could be someone else's also. And there are a lot of other factors also. That being said, healing is to be holistic if it is actual healing at all.

If this pill works, it's a wonder drug man! Use it but don't abuse it

I was using Modafinil myself and still have a pretty big stash of it lying around, don't know where it's gone now. But I am always suspicious of all these pharmaceutical drugs and you should be too as they are created by people who were experimenting on things they did not understand, and when they end up creating a pill they just apply it here and there if the effects are marketable, it is released as a "Medicine".

Do remember the only thing that will carry you into light in the long term is y
our Sadhana and your Tapas. Please do see to it that you do it everyday, that is how you can break the cycle of the negative Karma that binds you.

Best of luck, and I hope you read my other post on your diplomatic fiasco topic as well. If you want me to help you further with how to enact those 5 steps then I will reply to you on that topic and will do just that.

[silence_speaks]

Dear Webimpulse,
I have read your posts on depression and anxiety.
Felt that I could suggest something. I am not a medical professional ... and the very fact that your depression is getting cured with the use of medication means that its a physical condition and needs to be handled by a doctor.

So from spiritual front what can be done ?
1. Have an Ishta Devata ... A God , whom you believe in. One form of God.
2. Light a small Deepam before a pratima of God [A small lamp before the God's idol ]
3. Have a mantra and repeat that a few times every day before the God.
You can go to a guru for mantra ! Ramakrishna Mission is a good place. Or you can chant something like : OM <Name of your God> NAmah... Namah means my salutations to you.
ex OM Namah Sivaya ... my salutations to lord Siva.
OM Namo narayanaya etc'
4. Do some breathing exercises : Learn some good pranayama techniques.

Do this every day, after taking bath ... in the morning and evening.


That's my part of suggestion.

Love!
Silence

[devotee]

Namaste Webimpulse,

I am happy to see your posts exuding confidence and joyfulness. It is all God's grace that the drug you are taking is working wonderfully. However, I feel you can try this technique which would help you :

Everything we suffer or enjoy in this life or even afterwards is due to impressions in our own mind. The fact that you are meditating is really good. But there are many different types of meditations and I am not sure what you are practising. You can meditate to make the mind learn to be happy and joyful. In fact, the body is the factory of all medicines we need but we must practise to make it work to our advantage. In my opinion, you can try this visualisation technique :

Sit silently in a comfiortable position. Think of God as your loving father/mother. Think deeply and try to feel the love of God within. Keep thinking the love of God permeating whole of your body and mind like diffusing soothing light. Feel yourself merging into that light of love. Feel that you have become one with the light of love. Feel that the love of light that you are is slowly expanding and breaking the limitations of your body. Feel that it is filling the entire room, then your house, then your city and then the entire country and then the entire world. Everything is becoming just that love of light. Feel that the clouds, the planets and the stars are all engulfed by the love of the Infinite light of love that your are. Feel the Infinite love you are ... one with God, your very own father/mother which is just LOVE.

Be in that state for 5-10 minutes every day and feel the difference it makes in your life. Slowly, it would erase all grooves of depressions and anxiety from your mind and replace those with new grooves of joy and cheerfulness.

May God bless you ...

OM

[Ashwin]

Namaste Webimpulse,

Go to your guru/pundit and ask about The Ghanta Karan Puja and also enquire about Kateri Ma.


Ohm Namah Shivaya...