Where's the "Search for the Cure" for Psychosis? Exploring Psychosis on the Awakening Path - by Meli G

What causes psychosis?

Why is it so prevalent in humans?

Why is there no cure? Or talk of a cure?

What could be the evolutionary basis for psychosis? (Since an estimated 415 million people across the world will experience psychosis in their lifetime)

These questions arose in the months that followed my last psychotic break.

Technically I’ve had three manic episodes, although they all followed traumatic experiences, so initially it was hard to pinpoint:

>>> Did I have PTSD? PTSD-induced psychosis?

>>> Was it because recreational drugs were involved?

>>> Is my brain defective or do I have imbalanced brain chemistry?

>>> Are psychotic disorders genetic? No one in my family ever experienced psychosis.

I was at a loss.

In my heart, I believed my psychosis was ultimately part of my spiritual awakening process, which has been ongoing since 2017. But not everyone on the spiritual path has manic episodes. So naturally I figured other factors were at play.

Thus I was very open to learning about the medical explanation for bipolar disorder 1, which became my diagnosis. I love science (good science). I also wanted to learn about the medical community’s recommendations for the best treatment.

I must admit that I’ve been skeptical of the trillion dollar pharmaceutical industry for many years, but I also know that many drugs help people. I was open to learning more because of my desperation to get better - and to heal the wounds I’d caused my family and the people around me. And hopefully prevent it from ever happening again.

I figured my research would unearth some concrete answers for the reasons behind bipolar disorder. But answers were surprisingly sparse. I would gather nuggets about neurotransmitters and brain waves and other factors that contributed to psychosis. But stress and trauma could essentially explain away such effects, so what was different about psychosis and its hallmark symptoms: delusions and hallucinations?

According to the Cleveland Clinic:

Delusions are defined as: “Unshakable beliefs in something untrue.” I’m not sure who defines what’s true, especially regarding someone’s lived experience. But that’s just like, my opinion man (nod to the movie the Big Lebowsky ;)

Hallucinations are defined as: “False perceptions of sensory experiences.” (this sounds like an oxymoron). They further explain: "A hallucination is a false perception of objects or events involving your senses: sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. Hallucinations seem real, but they’re not. Chemical reactions and/or abnormalities in your brain cause hallucinations.”

Meanwhile humans have had delusions and hallucinations for time immemorial. They can be very destabilizing and sometimes horrific, but they can also be blissful. It’s a spectrum.

Many people (esp outside mainstream/corporate science) believe that during a psychotic break, the veil between the unconscious mind and the conscious mind becomes very thin. And the veil between our inner and outer worlds are thin, and some would say between dimensions as well. Mania in particular often involves heightened sensitivity to one’s surroundings.

However, the lived experience of psychosis is rarely described with any accuracy by “experts,” and with very little compassion. Even though there are many people with big hearts, who are trying to help people within crumbling systems.

During and after an episode, patients are usually drugged and essentially silenced. I understand that meds can be helpful to stabilize someone (my life was out of control). But throughout the treatment process, we’re told that everything we just experienced was false and disordered. It’s emotionally crippling to many people. It was to me in the initial months after my hospitalization.

The psychotic experience is as profound as any mystical experience in my opinion (I’ve had both), with most people experiencing delusions and hallucinations that are spiritual in nature. I’ll explore this further in future posts.

To completely deny the experiences/insights/fears etc that arose during a psychotic experience, is inhumane and does a disservice to some of the most amazing people in our society. These people are often sensitive, creative, deep and awake souls. And many of them have lived through significant trauma in their lives.

In fact, for people who've had PTSD, their risk of developing delusions is 6.5X greater than the general population. For rape victims, their risk is a staggering 18X greater. Thus trauma is absolutely a factor, particularly in a person's first years of life, but psychosis can also be triggered after highly stressful/traumatic events in adulthood.

The psychologist Dr. Andrew Moskowitz explains that psychotic symptoms are ways of coping with overwhelming trauma and the emotions that underpin them, by preventing actual memories of trauma from entering into conscious awareness. Dissociative disorders like dissociative identity disorder are trauma-related as well, in which a person can develop a fragmented self with split parts or "alters," each with distinct voices and personalities.

At the same time, these “breaks in reality” - within an empowering framework - can actually reveal a tremendous amount of unconscious material that when analyzed/integrated, can be deeply healing on many levels. Carl Jung is masterful in this arena.

“Madmen” are also often connected to the pain/feelings/energy that are present in our collective human experience. This was absolutely my reality.

If mystics, quantum physicists, or science fiction writers - or even intelligence agents - read stories of those who’ve experienced psychosis, they’d probably be like “they’re onto something” ;) Yes, a “madman’s” insights can be cloaked in metaphor and symbols etc (the language of the unconscious). They can also be exaggerated and overly personalized, no doubt.

Their thoughts and ideas may seem absolutely absurd to a “normal” person. But not so much for anyone who’s experienced the unseen/spirit realm, a state of altered consciousness, an LSD trip, a mystical experience, or being haunted by ghosts (the list goes on).

Speaking of ghosts, some people believe that psychosis is primarily caused by dark spiritual forces. I can't argue with this, although I believe the contributing factors are multi-factorial. Many also believe that spiritual warfare is real, and that dark entities easily and commonly invade/influence our thoughts, behaviors, and actions (if we're not aware, which most Westerners aren't).

It may sound off-the-wall, but the notion of good/evil/light/dark/demons/angels etc has been around since humans have existed. This is a huge topic of course. I delve into this topic a bit further in my post "The Unconscious Mind, Mysticism and Madness."

There's an additional similarity that exists between psychosis and altered/mystical/psychedelic states. It's called the Default Mode Network in the brain (DMN), which is thought to be dysregulated during psychosis. The DMN is crucial for functions like: emotional processing, self-reflection, creativity, social interaction, daydreaming, mental exploration, empathy, and sensing boundaries between oneself and the outside world.

According to a study published by the National Institutes of Health, “Both clinical psychosis and temporary altered states like deep meditation or psychedelic experiences share a common thread: the desynchronization or over-activation of the DMN.”

Other symptoms on the diagnostic psychosis checklist are things like “disordered thinking.” However, they’re so vague and aren’t always separated apart from the effects of medication.

Plus, you only need a few of the symptoms to catch a diagnostic label. The threshold is low in this era of commodified medicine.

One leading psychiatrist, Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring, explained that there are actually zero biomarkers for psychiatric conditions. Other psychiatrists echo this. There are no blood tests - or physiological tests of any kind - that determine if a person has bipolar disorder or schizophrenia or depression.

In terms of heritability, I’ve discovered mixed findings. It definitely seems to run in families, but there’s always the “nature vs nurture” duality. I’ve read both findings: that no single gene is connected to psychosis and that there are many genes that underpin it. Or that people have “genetic vulnerability” and then environmental factors trigger it.

Factors like living in a city, being an immigrant, and using drugs have been shown to increase the odds. But this begs the question, if a person uses drugs and experiences drug-induced psychosis (very common) - then has a child who grows up and experiences psychosis, how would we distinguish this cause in terms of heritability?

Psychosis seems to be impacted by both genetics and environment, although reading about genetics can make your head spin. I was unable to find clear answers.

What I do know, is that any discoveries into genetic links hasn’t produced any viable treatment. We have to ask at some point: what good has the research from previous decades done for us?

Hopefully progress is made. At this point, the go-to “solutions” are drugs. And these drugs are highly problematic. The side effects are too much to bear for many. Personally I experienced severely debilitating symptoms after being injected with a month-long dose of an antipsychotic drug.

Frankly I can’t imagine how month-long injectables are a humane option, given the potential life-threatening side effects of these drugs (it’s on the labels and is well-documented).

Yes, there are other meds that can help counteract some of the side effects. But A) Not everyone has health insurance, and B) Not everyone has access to a doctor, especially those who are homeless. Some of these antipsychotics have proven deadly for the elderly. There are black box warnings.

Scientists and doctors have been studying psychosis for decades and beyond, and mental health outcomes are as bad as ever.

I believe at the heart of it, is that the scientific materialism paradigm (which teaches us a lot, no doubt) often ignores one crucial element in the trifecta of our human existence: the body + mind + spirit. It's like a 2-legged stool.

Just because we can't easily measure or quantify aspects of "spirit," doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And there are actually many scientists who've been studying spirituality and phenomena that can't be explained by current scientific understanding. Near death experiences is just one of many examples.

Sometimes it's a matter of science having the ability/tools to explain what mystics and indegenous cultures have intuited for centuries. Our reality far exceeds what the mind can fathom; just ask a quantum physicist. I used to be agnostic, so I totally understand the skepticism. But I couldn't ignore the countless accounts of people's encounters with the realm of spirit (and then I had my own experiences that solidified my belief).

Furthermore, humans can only perceive a slice of the electromagnetic spectrum. Thus there's an entire world that's beyond our five primary senses. People with enhanced psychic senses can perceive beyond these limits (which is possible for all of us), along with people who've lost loved ones, who can feel their loved one's presence in their lives. The examples go on.

Unfortunately, most modern treatments focus only on the mind and body.

Psych drugs primarily work on neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin. However, I heard one prominent psychiatrist say that when you adjust neurotransmitters in healthy patients by giving them psych meds, it has the same effects that it would on someone who’s depressed etc. Thus these drugs will change the dopamine and serotonin levels regardless of the patient's history or physiology.

Additionally, neurotransmitters are vitally important to many systems in our bodies. Any drugs that alter these essential neurotransmitters (this includes GLP1s) can create a cascade of health issues - that many don’t connect to these oft-prescribed drugs (20% of Americans are on psych meds).

The “chemical imbalance” hypothesis - it turns out - has been debunked for decades. They haven’t proved that someone with bipolar and schizophrenia has higher or lower baseline neurotransmitter levels. There’s no baseline normal value for these levels either. When was the last time someone tested your dopamine or serotonin levels?

Dopamine and neurotransmitter levels do play a role with psychotic symptoms like delusions and hallucinations, but numerous environmental factors affect dopamine levels. Food and medicines do too. Factors that impact sleep disruptions and melatonin are involved too. But on the whole, we don’t have “normal healthy levels” of these neurotransmitters to use it as a diagnostic tool.

The chemical imbalance narrative has ultimately been perpetuated by the drug industry, which is heavily invested in numerous fields, particularly academia, medical research, doctor’s offices and practices, regulatory agencies like the FDA which it helps fund, and the media (which it helps fund through advertising) and so on and so forth. Several books cover this subject. So people don’t have to take my word for it ;)

To make a diagnosis, psychiatric professionals use a checklist from the DSM manual, which is a highly controversial book (in many people’s opinions) that’s largely used for insurance/bill coding. Essentially a psychiatrist or therapist identifies symptoms and subjectively diagnoses the person.

This hasty and subjective approach wouldn’t be so bad if the implications weren’t so dire.

When I was hospitalized, I was initially diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, which is a combination of schizophrenia and a mood disorder like bipolar, but a different psychiatrist later diagnosed me with bipolar 1.

The symptoms for these disorders often intersect and are sometimes vague. Psychiatric medications can also cause the effects that are on these checklists.

There are so many accounts of people experiencing mania as a side effect of an SSRI antidepressant (it’s a listed side effect), after which the patient is doubly diagnosed as now having bipolar disorder, on top of their depression or anxiety.

Or a person is hospitalized for marijuana-induced psychosis, and now they’re forever stamped as having schizophrenia, and therefore need a lifetime of psych drugs just to endure the awful nature of this horrible “disorder.”

It’s important to note that the THC levels of modern marijuana have soared to as high as 90-100% vs only 3% in decades prior. CBD levels are also lower nowadays, which would otherwise help mitigate these effects.

Cannabis is therefore causing a surge in psychotic episodes and subsequent BP and schizophrenia diagnoses. More lifelong patients secured - based on possibly 1 overly-potent dose of pot. It may sound dramatic, but it’s happening.

All the while, none of these medicinal psych treatments come anywhere close to healing any condition. At best they numb or mask symptoms (which can be helpful in some cases), at worst, they can cause permanent impairments to people’s minds and bodies.

This med-focused approach doesn’t address the cause of a person’s sadness, depression, anxiety, delusions or hallucinations. In some cases, even psychosis can be caused by a simple nutritional deficiency, which is easily fixed.

Many times it’s more complicated, but most docs don’t check for any physiological causes (some pioneering psychiatrists are though).

Unfortunately most docs are under enormous time pressures because of the structure of modern western medicine.

They’ve also been hounded and worn down by the pharmaceutical industry since they began medical school. I don’t envy doctors - and I deeply appreciate the docs that go the extra mile for their patients. Those who dig for root causes. Those who practice functional medicine. And so on.

There’s also the issue of patients’ withdrawal from psych meds, which depending on the drug, can take up to 2 years of tapering to safely de-prescribe a patient. This is a topic unto itself and I encourage people to research and find out more. It can be dangerous to stop meds abruptly and people need to seek medical advice they trust to undergo this.

Diagnostic labels like schizophrenia - albeit sometimes helpful for understanding symptoms - can be very detrimental to a person and their life. Some people are able to embrace/own the diagnosis or label, to which I say more power to them :)

However, a consequence of these diagnostic labels is that most people are persuaded/convinced/coerced to take psychiatric medications for the rest of their lives. These drugs have never been studied for longer than a year at a time - and never in combination with other drugs. The side effects can be extremely debilitating (I’ve experienced this directly) and lifelong.

There’s also the stigma, hopelessness, shame etc that often accompanies such a diagnosis in the West. In some places in Africa, the same person may later become the community’s shaman with the right guidance. In another place/time, another “schizophrenic” might become a mystic or artist or healer. We can still do this in the West, but it’s much harder. In the land where “corporate science” reigns, we’re considered forever broken and defective.

Almost no professional ever asks about our delusions or hallucinations or what our experiences meant for us, some of which were profoundly spiritual. Psychotic episodes can also hold enormous psychoanalytical value if you take the time to explore them. Or listen to what people's voices have told them.

Many people also believe they receive "psychic or cosmic or multi-dimensional downloads" during their episodes, which the mind can't initially grasp or define or even describe (but it may make sense later). This is often said about mystical/spiritual experiences as well.

I had insights during my mania that sounded completely implausible to others at the time, that I realized later were true. Meanwhile other delusions were far out there, but I still believe they contain some kernels of truth (or represented a deep-seated fear or trauma). Plus, scientists are constantly making new discoveries about our Universe. Knowledge certainly isn't fixed - nor is the truth of our reality.

Not to mention that so much of our government's actions are non-transparent and classified, which has chipped away at the public's trust. The National Archives states that, "Agencies perform millions of classification actions (creating "confidential," "secret," or "top secret" documents) each year." It may take decades before we find out truths about destructive programs that have affected each and every one of us. But our intuition can sometimes sense when something feels off, even if we don't know the extent of it.

There's also the proliferation of people's direct experiences online, which is one of the advantages of social media and sites like Reddit, which thankfully can validate our experiences sometimes. Many people think they're going crazy, but they're actually onto something. Yes, our views can sometimes be "unhinged," but many times there's at least something there.

However, some people who voice their anger over abusive government or corporate actions - or abuse from individuals in their lives - can be diagnosed with bipolar because of their "anger issues." I know several people personally for whom this occured, including children.

We all know that trust has been severely eroded, especially in the U.S. On so many levels. And some people intuit this more than others. When people awaken to the darkness and corruption that's present in our institutions, governments, industries, and many corporations (and ourselves), it can be shattering. It takes a lot of courage to even begin to come to awareness about these issues. It's heartbreaking though. And it takes a lot of strength to integrate this awareness - and still be open to love.

But instead of listening to people's legitimate fears and insights, the sentiment feels more like “shut up, take your meds, don’t question the meds, and just accept that you’ll be sick forever.”

What happened to neuroplasticity? How can experts have made no progress in improving or healing these disorders?

Mental health outcomes have been significantly declining in recent decades, despite a barrage of new “wonder” drugs. It makes you wonder alright.

>>> 20% of Americans are on psychiatric drugs. That’s ⅕ of our population.

>>> There’s been a 500% increase in antidepressant use since the 1990s.

>>> Since 2000, suicide rates in the U.S. have risen by 32% - to almost 50,000 per year. This is tragic.

>>> Suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth and young adults.

>>> Half of the people in the West will meet the criteria for a mental disorder at some point in their life.

How can half the people in the West be “disordered?" Is it that so many individuals are disordered or does it reflect our society’s functioning? And who/what decides what’s normal anyway? Human emotions have been pathologized - for profit (and control). So have many spiritual experiences. It’s more complicated than that, but it’s part and parcel. And with all this “progress,” people aren’t getting better.

Meanwhile there are countless cases of people who’ve healed from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia without meds, who’ve gone decades without another episode.

I also believe that medication is a very personal issue - and I respect and honor each person’s right to make that decision, especially when they’re given full medical consent and information about side effects.

As my research into psychosis progressed, I also learned more about the similarities between psychosis and mystical states and altered states of consciousness.

People taking “hallucinogenic” drugs can also experience delusions and hallucinations. So do shamans, and mediums, and psychics and so on. One person recently said the Bible was written by schizophrenics. Even artists talk about channeling their best works of art from a source beyond themselves.

Anyone who’s peered into the unseen realm or spirit realm or seen ghosts or had visions can relate. People taking DMT experience these effects. Mushrooms. Ayahuasca. Even certain medical conditions can induce hallucinations. Like I said, the list is long :)

Why is this overlap with the mystical/hypnotic/spiritual states never (or almost never) mentioned in the fields of psychiatry or psychology?

There is also an overlap with spiritual awakenings, kundalini awakenings, and mental illness, partly because these experiences can be so powerful and profound - and can therefore confound the mind and overwhelm the nervous system, among other things.

These experiences can also be blissful. They’ve also led to instant enlightenment for the lucky few. But for many people, the initial stages following a “spontaneous kundalini awakening” can shake someone to their core. I can personally attest.

Thank heavens for people who pioneered the study of “spiritual emergencies” and “spiritual crises,” like the legendary Dr. Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof.

Understanding these concepts was a lifeboat for me after my first manic/psychotic episode, which followed my spontaneous kundalini awakening in 2017 (I also had a spiritual awakening a few months prior to this).

Some people prepare and meditate for years or decades before a kundalini awakening is unfurled. I only found out about this phenomenon years afterward. It explained a lot though.

In countries like India, these post-awakening symptoms are well-understood. They also have much better mental health outcomes than the U.S., interestingly enough.

And in countries like Finland (using the program "Open Dialogue"), and especially in indigenous cultures and “less developed” nations, where meds are sparsely used, outcomes for psychosis are also far better than in the U.S. and the West in general.

There are also far fewer rates of depression following episodes of mania in some African countries (aka unipolar mania). I suspect this is because psych meds can actually cause or exacerbate/prolong post-manic depression.

If manic experiences can be integrated in a supportive environment, they have the potential to be incredibly healing. I’ve experienced this firsthand.

There’s also less stigma and less “permanent” labeling of such conditions in many other countries. Someone can have a psychotic episode and never have that experience again. Some people have multiple episodes, but it still doesn’t mean a person’s brain is forever defective.

Unfortunately in this country, patients (with any condition) truly have to do their own research and advocate for themselves and their families. The profit incentives - among other things - are just too prevalent and are deeply affecting the medical field, as many of us know intimately.

There have been several studies that show better outcomes in general for patients who've stopped taking medications. Yes, meds can help people sometimes, more so in the acute phase. But they were never designed for people to take them for years.

And there are better mental health treatments available. You just won’t hear about them on the news anytime soon. Those slots are reserved for pharma ads. What's noteworthy is that the U.S. and New Zealand are the only two countries in the world that allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly to the public.

And yes, I realize there are numerous well-meaning people in all of these professions. These are systemic issues that go well beyond any one person or industry. And in my opinion, the most powerful advocates for mental health have actually worked for the pharmaceutical industry or for regulatory bodies or psychiatry. We can all become powerful advocates.

I’ve certainly worked for organizations and causes that I thought were helping people - but were possibly harming people (both really). I’ve been wrong about many things and also duped about many things. Plenty of times. It hasn’t always been easy, but I’ve made peace with myself. We’re all doing our best given our level of consciousness.

For several decades, many brave psychiatrists, academics, journalists, and researchers have been shining a spotlight on this issue. Many of them have been mocked, shunned, and fired from universities and medical institutions. The tide has been turning though. Even psychiatrists from Ivy League universities like Harvard are voicing these findings.

Many millions of patients are also telling their stories online these days. Once you dive into this issue, and learn more about people’s experiences with the mental health field and psychiatric meds, it’s actually heartbreaking.

My own experience with psych wards and psych meds has been harrowing. Wards and meds were helpful on one level when I was acutely manic - but also very traumatic, especially since I was involuntarily committed (even though some of the staff were so kind and helpful to me). Involuntary commitments are also on the rise, including for children.

I also know there aren’t always easy answers to complex problems. But we have to begin somewhere: with an honest assessment of the truth, even if it’s dark sometimes. It’s the only way to solve problems in any sustainable way.

I’m also not one to shy away from the darkness. Those on the spiritual awakening path, in particular, become accustomed to facing the darkness - within themselves and the world around them.

The stories of those who’ve endured severe mental illness are also heartwarming - when you witness the outpouring of support and relatability from others.

People who’ve endured psychosis are some of the most amazing people around. They are often creatives, artists, mystics, shamans, visionaries, inventors, scientists and the like. I believe it's so important for them to be seen & heard & empowered & uplifted.

There is hope. There is a better way.

Thank you for reading and much love & blessings to you & us all! :) - Meli

For a list of tips that have helped on my healing path, check out my post titled "The Overlapping Realms of Spirituality and Mental Health"

Photos in order of appearance: Soner Arkan, Oloruntoba, Entero, Vinur, Ananya Singh, Marek Piwnicki, Wr Heustis, Kubra Elmas, Julia Fuchs, Mahdi Bafande, Matt Liatkouski, Emir Bozkurt, Najmul Hoque, Mikhail Nilov (2 mystical/meditation photos), Pooli Wattano, Jonas F, Francesco Ungaro and Ryan Lans