Page 570 - Total War on PTSD

When Tashi Delek Lobsang, a thirty-one-year-old monk, came to the clinic during our rLung study, I recognized him immediately. He was the warmly-smiling man I passed daily in the narrow, muddy streets of Dharamsala. He always remembers everyone’s name and greets them as they pass by. He is tall, angular in build, and strong. He is fit, and his body shows the health and vigor of a monk who wakes up early. His days are filled with the simple, physical labors of maintaining a fully operational monastery. He is generous, very reliable, and a true scholar of Tibetan Buddhism. Many people respect him for his impressive debating skills. Lobsang tells us that he cannot fall asleep easily and startles awake often during the night. He has ominous feelings of dread and fear, especially around dawn and dusk, which is the circadian rhythm of rLung. He says he feels anxious when embarking upon simple tasks. These tasks could include meeting a new person, buying food at the market, or even tutoring his students at the monastery.
Transitions are difficult for him starting a conversation, walking into a room, going into the sleep world, etc. This is typical of rLung Imbalance. The anxiety makes transitions difficult. His anxiety manifests with severe heart palpitations, breathlessness, and thoughts of bad things happening that he knows to be unrealistic or untrue. He cannot control his thoughts at these acute times, in spite of his intense meditation training, and this frustrates him even more. He talks to us about his feelings of dread for the future, and although he knows they have no ground, they possess him, and limit his lifestyle as a monk. He doesn’t know what to do. We cannot fully understand Lobsang’s case without also knowing his history. Upon
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