What is a psychospiritual crisis?

Definition of psychospiritual crisis

Psychospiritual crisis in general

The psychospiritual crisis is still a new concept in the field of mental health. It is not included as a diagnostic unit in the ICD-10 (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th revision) diagnostic manual, which is mandatory for Europe. Our reframing into "a set of symptoms that occur across the spectrum of psychiatric diagnoses, including its pure form", makes this diagnostic category closer to reality and thus more acceptable to the professional community.

It is a difficult period in the life of an individual, manifested by episodes of unusual experiences that involve changes in consciousness, perception, emotion, and thought. In these experiences, there is a marked overlap of the previously usual boundaries of experiencing oneself with frequent occurrence of transpersonal (beyond the normal boundaries of self-perception) or spiritual experiences. A psychospiritual crisis occurs when the intensity of the experience is too much for the inner space for the emotions of the experiencing person. It is influenced by the power of the starter, and also by the history of the individual. According to Grof's original nomenclature, we recognize spiritual emergence - spiritual experiences or spiritual emergency - when the situation is perceived as a crisis. The original English terms emergence or emergency are based on the Latin emergere - "emerging to the surface", "emerging", or "going forward". Spiritual experiences are often enough to re-frame as a "normal" manifestation. The crisis requires deeper psychotherapeutic support because the course and manifestations are too intense for an individual and they cease to manage their experiences in parallel with the current functioning.

Psychospiritual crisis contains:

1. Unusual experiences like

• energetic manifestations - vibrations, twitches;
• channeling,
• incarnation memories,
• OOBE (out-of-body experience),
• voices;
• physical experiences similar to serious medical conditions such as heart attack,
• sensory perceptions that other people do not perceive (sounds, shapes, colors, lights),
• intense premonitions;
• experiences of connection with mythological and archetypal phenomena;
• and other experiences of a parapsychological and mystical character.
• topics: death, conflict of good and evil, purification, messianic experiences

2. Ability to reflect + ex-post positive evaluation

3. Reliving experience as an internal process

4. Historical context-personal development before the crisis, trigger, acute start, etc.

5. Capacity for cooperation

6. Low risk of dangerous or suicidal behavior

7. Ability to integrate into aftercare

8. So-called "higher health" as a result

What triggers the psychospiritual crisis?

• Extreme experiences (life threat, extreme physical or psychological stress, etc.);
• Strong emotional experiences (eg loss of loved one, traumatization, falling in love);
• Intense meditation or other spiritual practice;
• Use of psychedelic substances in inappropriate circumstances. See "Integration of psychedelic experience".
• A series of life failures;
• Sudden loss of normal life structure and the impossibility of replacing it with something else;
• And other marginal experiences.

Who is affected by the psychospiritual crisis?

• May occur in persons of all ages;
• More depends on internal factors;
• The percentage of people with a psychospiritual crisis in the population is not known, but it is estimated that approximately 15% of patients hospitalized in psychiatric hospitals diagnosed with psychosis are going through a psychospiritual crisis.
• Clinical areas:
  • Psychospiritual crisis as a standalone unit with no connection to other problems
  • Spiritual and religious issues in persons treated for psychotic disorder
  • Affective or anxiety disorders
  • Dissociative, conversion states
  • Personality disorders
  • Processes induced by a sect
  • Bad trip and consequences: flashback etc. See a separate section of this site.

What happens in a psychospiritual crisis?

• Manifestations are very individual;
• Energy experiences in the body;
• Physical experiences similar to serious medical conditions such as heart attack,
• Sensory perceptions that other people do not perceive (sounds, shapes, colors, lights),
• Premonitions;
• Experiences of connection with mythological and archetypal phenomena;
• And other experiences of a parapsychological and mystical character.

The psychospiritual crisis can take the form of psychosis

• A professional diagnosis is important for further decisions in directing a person with psychospiritual experiences;
• A person in a psychospiritual crisis can experience the experience, no matter how self-dramatic, as a psychological process (in contrast, a person suffering from psychosis perceives his experiences as a valid reality);
• Even in an acute psychospiritual crisis, a person is able to establish cooperation and a therapeutic relationship with a helping professional (in contrast, a person in the acute phase of psychosis has difficulty establishing cooperation).

Psychospiritual crisis or psychosis?

• A professional diagnosis is important for further decisions in directing a person with psychospiritual experiences;
• A person in a psychospiritual crisis can experience the experience, no matter how self-dramatic, as a psychological process (in contrast, a person suffering from psychosis perceives his experiences as a valid reality);
• Even in an acute psychospiritual crisis, a person is able to establish cooperation and a therapeutic relationship with a helping professional (in contrast, a person in the acute phase of psychosis has difficulty establishing cooperation).

Treatment of psychospiritual crisis

At the beginning, it is necessary to pay attention to differential diagnosis (see above).

Regarding the psychospiritual crisis, the professional psychotherapeutic accompaniment will support the transformative and self-healing potential of this experience and the associated internal processes that have not been completed in the individual's history. Therapeutic methods vary according to the approach of individual therapists in the Diabasis network. Our goal is that a therapeutically managed psychospiritual crisis should lead to greater personality integration, "higher health". We recognize psychospiritual crisis symptoms with psychotic manifestations and psychosis with psychospiritual symptoms. Distinguishing is difficult, but important for choosing the ideal therapeutic approach. We do not exclude conscious pharmacotherapy. We strive to use all possibilities of the therapeutic accompaniment of the patient, including pharmacotherapy, to achieve integration of experience as part of their personality development.

We seek to prove the hypothesis that the therapeutic treatment of this set of symptoms is an important factor in a good prognosis.