[job007]

Hi, just decided to write to this forum on the spur of the moment. I have had a diagnosis of schizophrenia for 16 years but have been stable on meds for 4 years.

I have had 4 episodes of psychosis leading to hospitalisation. During these times I had hallucinations but didn't hear voices, only tunes, irritating repetitive tunes like phone tones.

Most of my problems derived from my distorted interpretations of the world. Everything had a symbolic meaning for me, words, objects, everything. My mind was all over the place!

I learnt a new word "sychronicity". When unconnected coincidences seem to be telling me something magical was happening.

I had the illusion that people could read my thoughts because they'd start talking about something I had just been thinking of.

Eventually I was so paranoid I thought everything was about me. It was both frightening and thrilling.

Now I am thinking straight again and everything seems boring in comparison. I find it difficult to be enthusiastic about anything, even things I used to find enjoyable, music, books and TV.

I also think coming through an experience like this leaves people with symptoms of post traumatic stress syndrome.

What I really want to say is, where can I find help with the after effects of a psychotic experience and making sence of the world now.

Thanks for reading this.

John.

[Perna]

Hi, John. Welcome to PsychCentral. Do you have a therapist or counselor since your episode that you can talk with? I would talk over your concerns with your doctor or join a support group of others who have had an experience similar to yours, etc.

[spiritual_emergency]

Hello job007
"Synchronicity" was a term developed by psychiatrist, Carl Jung. It is often referred to as a "meaningful coincidence".

Synchronicity A phenomenon where an event in the outside world coincides meaningfully with a psychological state of mind.

Synchronicity . . . consists of two factors: a) An unconscious image comes into consciousness either directly (i.e., literally) or indirectly (symbolized or suggested) in the form of a dream, idea, or premonition. b) An objective situation coincides with this content. The one is as puzzling as the other.["Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle," ibid., par. 858.]

Jung associated synchronistic experiences with the relativity of space and time and a degree of unconsciousness.

The very diverse and confusing aspects of these phenomena are, so far as I can see at present, completely explicable on the assumption of a psychically relative space-time continuum. As soon as a psychic content crosses the threshold of consciousness, the synchronistic marginal phenomena disappear, time and space resume their accustomed sway, and consciousness is once more isolated in its subjectivity. . . . Conversely, synchronistic phenomena can be evoked by putting the subject into an unconscious state.["On the Nature of the Psyche," CW 8, par. 440.]

Synchronicity was defined by Jung as an "acausal connecting principle," an essentially mysterious connection between the personal psyche and the material world, based on the fact that at bottom they are only different forms of energy.

It is not only possible but fairly probable, even, that psyche and matter are two different aspects of one and the same thing. The synchronicity phenomena point, it seems to me, in this direction, for they show that the nonpsychic can behave like the psychic, and vice versa, without there being any causal connection between them.[Ibid., par. 418.]

Source: The Jung Lexicon: Synchronicity

In his later life, Carl Jung developed a personal friendship with physicist, Wolfgang Pauli. In the course of that friendship, much of it captured in a series of letters between them, they both looked at the subject of synchronicity and its affect on the space-time continuum. Both men felt there was a connection in place between quantum mechanics and depth psychology. I think it's a very fascinating potential myself.

Meantime, you may be interested to know that Carl Jung had a number of personal experiences that some suggest were the equivalent of psychosis and/or schizophrenia. Many of his theories related to the collective unconscious were based on his work with his patients and his own personal experiences.

See also: Carl Jung's Encounter With Schizophrenia/Psychosis

[spiritual_emergency]

job007: I also think coming through an experience like this leaves people with symptoms of post traumatic stress syndrome.

My preferred terms for my own experience are "ego collapse" or "a fragmentation crisis". I attribute what we call psychosis in this culture to be a result of the structure of the ego collapsing, splitting, shattering, fragmentation, etc.

I agree, these kind of experiences can be very frightening, painful, overwhelming, challenging and traumatic for many people. I've also found that if you have any unresolved trauma within you at the point you "crack" those are bound to come up since they are no longer held back by the boundary of the ego.

Individuals who have experienced ego collapse/a fragmentation crisis may find it beneficial to seek out some form of trauma-based therapy. Judith Herman's book, Trauma and Recovery was helpful to me in this regard.

What I have found most helpful (and interesting too!) have been Jungian based insights. These helped me to understand, interpret and draw meaning from my own experiences of "a confrontation with the collective unconscious".

Should you be interested in learning more, I have a link in my signature area to one of my blogs: A Jungian Approach to Psychosis. Feel free to wander through and to read whatever you want, as many times over as you want.

~ Namaste