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.Some phenomenological differences have also been identified in termsof more benign types of PLE; however, counterexamples within the UD groupindicate that distinctions cannot be made on phenomenological grounds alone.Participants were asked about things that had helped them cope with experiences.Some involved reducing general emotional distress and maintaining a good level ofself-care.Other factors provided a helpful frame of reference within which tointerpret the experiences, or supported self-esteem and social inclusion throughnormalisation.Social Support.Social support was a predominant theme.People talked about thevalue of trusted friends who could just be with them and do normal things.Ofparticular importance were like-minded others who could relate to the experiencesthe person was having.These were a specific source of help through the normalisingeffect, which protects self-esteem and may maintain social integration.The oppor-tunity to talk about things with others may be containing and enhance the acceptanceof experiences by the person.It’s crucial to actually talk.That alone, to talk to someone who isn’t going to be heavy.judgemental stuff.It’s so difficult to walk around with this stuff in your head.When Iwas so confused, and lost my perception of who I was, it really relieved me to have thatgirl talk to me and confirm that I was on a spiritual trip (45 years, UD).At points of intense altered states, some participants reported being aware that othersaround them were not in the same state, which got in the way of taking on boardothers’ input.However, very often ‘others’ input’ consists of concern aboutthe individual and their behaviour, which, though well-intentioned, may not helpTransformative Crises169a person who is not in control of the experiences they are having.Those people in theUD group who had been through extended episodes of intense crisis had all been incircumstances where other people looked after their basic needs for sometimesmonths at a time, or where they had been able to live alone in nature with the meansto manage their basic needs.For example, one person had lived in Wales in a tipi,whereas another had lived in a caravan in a field for several months.Anotherparticipant had been looked after in a shared house, whereas another was lookedafter for three months by his parents.In time, these individuals had felt able to beginto either start to take over their own cooking and cleaning, or to start to integrate with others again.Some individuals, only in the UD group, described finding help from people ableto offer specific informed guidance: including teachers or gurus, elders who had hadtheir own experiences of a similar nature, spiritual healers, and anthroposophicaldoctors.One participant talked about finding a healer with particular experience ofaltered states:I went to see this spiritual healer, and he confirmed that I had opened my third eye, and I was perceiving lots of different energies.I asked him about the darker energies andwhat to do about them.He took me through something to help close down the third eyeto a manageable level – he did something as well, and showed me how to visualise thethird eye closing down, and told me that when I feel the dark energy there, to send loads of love to it, to whatever was in and around my being.So I started working with thesetechniques and it did help, the telepathic experiences were less disorientating and after about 3 months I was back to normal (21 years, UD).Another talked about the support he found within his own family:So the fact that I had that family and that cultural support whereby there were otherpeople in my life, of the older generation, or the generation above that, who I cameacross, who told me, ‘Yes, this is normal, this is normal human evolution; great thinkers go through this.They will be told they’re crazy and lots of people won’t understand you, and don’t worry about it.’ So that’s helped a lot (27 years, UD).Integration of Experiences into a Changed Framework of Understanding.Partici-pants talked about how frameworks to understand their experiences, which some-times developed years after the initial onset of the experiences, helped to contain theexperiences, and allowed an integration with ‘everyday’ life.Some found thesethrough social networks, others through more formal involvement in schools ofyoga, xi gong or other energy systems, Wicca, Tarot, Reiki, religious groups, etc.Themedical model offered by psychiatric services was reported to be helpful by a pr-oportion of the D group: this framework offers a way of explaining experiences thatdoes not entail any shift in the person’s perspective on the world.However, it mayentail a shift in perspective towards the self (e.g.as being vulnerable or abnormal),perhaps despite an emphasis on the role of stress in causing experiences, coupledwith a strong normalising approach.170Psychosis and SpiritualityI think, knowing that, anybody could get sick, that I am not the only one that this hashappened to, has helped me a little bit, in forgetting this issue (24 years, D).Personal Insight.Some participants spoke about the way that they had found theirown meaning in experiences, often facilitated by diary-keeping, reading around thearea or just an ongoing personal process of reflection
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