Soreness, numbness, crackling in head brought on by meditation.

[fantomas94]

Hi,
I've been suffering with some horrible symptoms for the past 7 months, and nobody can tell me what's wrong or how to treat them.  This is very bizarre so bear with me.  I am a 35 year old male, otherwise very healthy.  I always ate well and exercised regularly.  On November 18 2007, I tried meditating for the first time.  I downloaded a program off the internet which described how to perform a mantra meditation, where you close your eyes for 15 minutes, and think of a syllable in your head over and over.  It was supposed to be relaxing.  So anyways, I do this, and as soon as I opened my eyes when finishing, I felt electric-like explosions all over the side of my face and my entire head went numb.  It became very sore all over, and starting making horrible crackling and crunching sounds in my ears, on the crown of my head, and in my neck.  I went to the doctors and had a ct scan done, as well as an MRI, an MRV and bloodwork.  Apparently this showed nothing irregular, so according to all the docs (2 primary doctors and 3 neurologists) I was fine.  I also went to see an acupuncturist, 2 chiropractors, a hypnotherapist, and an all natural pharmacist who does energy healing and works with homeopathy.  I always get the same story, either there's nothing wrong with me, or that they can fix me up pretty easily, yet here I am suffering immensely with no relief at all in 7 months.  These symptoms are 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with absolutely no relief.  I was hoping that it would eventually work itself out or go away, but that has not happened yet and I am getting very concerned.  Especially with the bizarre circumstances in which this all started, its very hard to get any doctor to think outside the box, and take it seriously.  They just say "oh meditating couldn't do that."  Yet it clearly did as it was like flipping a switch as I opened my eyes.  I went from feeling great to this.  Clearly it is not a headache, it is something very different, I just wish I knew what it was, and how to treat it.  Life has become pretty miserable more or less.  I try to stay positive, but its just time for this to end...  I just found this site, and thought I'd put my story on here to see if anyone had any thoughts.  

Thanks so much,
Rob

[fantomas94]

Yeah I'm not saying I buy their explanations about kundalini.  But what I am saying is there is a known phenomenon that when some people meditate, they can get really screwed up and there are a certain set of symptoms, where usually people will suffer from some of them.  The more mystical explanations are just people's attempt to explain what is happening, and to put it in a spiritual frame of reference... I would say the person Summerfox, who posted above in this thread is a perfect example of this.  He/she thought the cracking in their head was messages from god... maybe that helps them deal, but personally not something I buy into.  But the bottom line is this type of practice has really screwed people up, and it usually falls into one of these categories, you and myself included.  The thing that the kundalini term is useful for, is finding stories of other people suffering, not for explaining what is actually causing the problem.  Once again, there are tons of these stories online, so I really have a problem believing anyone who has been involved in these practices for 20 years (especially selling it to people)  claiming no knowledge of any possible side effects.

I"m going to another doctor today (I truly can't even begin to count how many I've seen) and I'll let you know if any good comes out of it.  I hear ya about almost wishing for a medical explanation, no matter what it is because the unknown has been driving me crazy for 10 1/2 months... its very frustrating too because once the docs run their standard tests and find nothing, then all of a sudden you're imagining it, and at least in my case they got very condescending.  But I just try and remain positive, and keep pressing on, trying new things... even though nothing has helped yet.  It's either that or crawl up and die which is not gonna happen.

[mtflyfish]

I did look up kundalini and freaked myslef out after reading all about it.  The company I bought my cd's from, Brain-sync, has been around for 20 years and said they had never heard anything like this.  I can't imagine that is true given the severity of my symptoms.  I've also talked to the director of Holosync, the "leader" in brain wave entrainment cd's and he said my symptoms were perplexing, because Brain Sync is in fact a reputable company and said their product isn't very potent.  I don't know how much weight to give to the whole kundalini discussion, but there are people I guess that might be able to help you with it, such as kundalini yoga teachers.  I have always been a very practical person, never considered myself spiritual in the sense, but I am open to anything right now.  I have been exchanging emails with a "Core Synchronism" healer.  Core synch, in theory, has to do with cerebrospinal fluid and balancing all the body's systems.   I am revisiting my doctor, who is going to schedule a brain scan for me.  She says my symptoms, which now include nausea and ringing in my ears, are leading her to think that it is possibly a brain tumor.  I'd almost rather have a brain tumor than to feel as messed up as I do now.  At least I would know what was bothering me.  

[fantomas94]

Wow.  I don't know what to say... Honestly, I do think it is criminal that they sell this stuff online to an unsuspecting public.  Like I said above, I've been suffering for 10 1/2 months, and I'm still not better.  If you google "kundalini symptoms" or "kundalini problems" you'll find tons of stuff about people getting really screwed up from meditating.  I've read lots of horror stories which unfortunately now I have found to be all too true.  I haven't given up yet, but I've tried so many different things with no success.  It's so frustrating.  And yes what KILLS me is this stuff is still out there.  I told the owner of the company about my situation, and yet he still sells it.  I tried to write a testimonial for his page, yet he wouldn't post it.  Meanwhile, people still try this stuff and in my opinion are in extreme danger.... it makes me sick to the stomach.  That's why I've told everyone I know about what happened.  I've been posting comments online about what happened.  Anything I can do to try and spread the word.  Unfortunately, it seems like such a harmless technique to an outsider (myself included) that I would say nobody comes across this info until it's too late.

[mtflyfish]

I have been searnhing the internet for the past few weeks becasue I am having similar symptoms.  I bought some high quality meditation cd's that brought me down into the theta brain wave state.  I used them every night for 2 weeks.  They were great: very relaxing and helped me go to sleep.  On the next Monday morning and for the last 2 weeks things have pretty much gone to hell.  I have an ever-present dull headache with frequent intermittent "bursts" of crushing pain throughout my head, mostly in the back of my head.  Also, there are often sustained periods where I feel out-of-body.  I went to my doctor and everything checked out fine.  But this is really freaking me out.  I know it is from those meditation cd's.  The cd's have binaural beats, which sync both hemispheres of the brain, and I'm wondering whether the increased blood flow that results from such activity is responsible for what I have been going through.  Nevertheless, if this persists nd I cannot pinpoint the problem, I am suing the company that produces the cd's as well as Amazon.com, where I purchased them.  If anyone has any assurances they can offer, it would be very appreciative.

[fantomas94]

Hi,

The meditation technique was something that I accidentally came across on the web one evening, and I just tried it on a whim.  I had read articles which had stated that meditating was a very healthy practice, and so I figured I would give it a try... I try to live a healthy lifestyle, and I thought maybe this was something else that I could do that was good for me.  

I feel no shame in seeing a psychiatrist, but at the same time I don't really like being experimented on with mood changing drugs... what are the meds that you are taking?  Are they still providing relief?  

When this first started happening to me, my pcp gave me xanax, which helped me sleep, but really didn't curb the symptoms.  Then the first neurologist that I saw said there is no way that meditating could do this, so I must have an anxiety problem so he gave me antidepressants... It didn't make any sense to me, but I was desperate and figured since he was the doctor, he knew what he was talking about.  So I took them and had a really bad reaction.  He had me on Paxil and then Effexor... after my experiences with those, and feeling much worse than I did before... adding anxiety attacks, really bad insomnia, night sweats, dry mouth etc to the symptoms I already had was like jumping from the frying pan into the fire....  So I stopped taking those in late December, and it took about a month and a half before I could sleep normally again.

I am curious as to what you are taking though.  Also, if I may ask, how did your symptoms develop?  Was it over time or very sudden?  Were you doing anything specific when they first onset?

When this first happened to me, I had just moved into a new apartment which I love, in an area of town that I had wanted to move to for years... I had just gotten a new job really close to home that I was very excited about, so I was in great spirits.  Everything was going so well for me.  Then that one night I did that meditation, and then all of this came upon me like a ton of bricks.  And here we are 10 months later and I don't feel any better.

[Sarhas]

Were you trying out the meditation because you were under unusually high stress?  And also my guess is that the symptoms didn't occur from some enlightened state per se, but perhaps do to heavy breathing.
Either way, I ask about the stress because, I was referred to a psychiatrist and put on two anxiety medications and now I feel normal again.  Remember, I had suffered my symptoms for 6 months, and the relief occured in days.  It is very difficult for me to believe that I can have such a severe response to stress, especially due to my healthy lifestyle, but you've got to deal with the cards you've been given.  So please, visit a psychiratrist as another option, you seem to have done everything else.

Also to be thorough, I began to feel better 1 and a half days before beginning the medication.  I'm not sure if this was due to the natural variation in my condition (there had been other times where I felt ok but then quickly went back to the same conditions) or if it was due to two other things I had recently begun.

1.  I have always been naturally creative (right brain type stuff), but for the last several years I have been really testing the left side of the brain, (I am an undergraduate physics major and working in a neurobiology lab).  So I thought that my symptoms were the result of straining my brains natural functions, so I deliberately began to engage in right brain activities to allow the left side of the brain to rest and to exersize the right brain.  (Again I was desperate so anything that made the least bit of sense I tried).  I think this is related to my memory problems, which are fine now, and probably doesn't apply to you.

2.  I was taking cinnamon every morning because it makes my nose runny.  I thought that perhaps the pressure on the top of my head was due to the inability for the mucus to drain.  On the top of the head is the superior sagittal sinus.  And this might have explained the cracking sensation, because perhaps air bubbles could get into that?   So I figured spiced make my nose runny, and maybe this would offer some relief.  (Many cultures use many spices in their foods).  Hey it can't hurt.  But this theory doesn't explain the crackling in you neck.  That's still a mystery to me.

The theory that I believe is most likely at work, is that stress causes the veins to dilate, perhaps the sinuses too, and the crackling sensation is a result of this.  The bottom line, at least try anxiety medicine, and then see a psychologist to try to find the underlying source of your stress (that is of course if you have it).  At this point you just want to feel better so you should not feel the least bit embarrassed about seeing a psychiatrist or psychologist.  In fact I think it's becoming a fad. j/k.

I don't know the name of the medication off hand, but I'll let you know.

Let me know how it works out for you?

Best,
Sarhas