Dark Night Of The Soul - Realization And Escape

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The dark night of the soul is often used as a metaphor for mental, psychological, emotional, and spiritual challenges or traumas that any person can face at any time in their life. 

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The most preeminent feeling associated with a dark night of the soul experience is being completely alone or feeling terribly lonely. One feels completely abandoned and destitute. One feels total and complete abandonment by man, beast, and any god he/she believes in. All sense of contact with anything and self is lost. 

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The dark night of the soul is really more of a feeling or a way of thinking than anything else. There is no physical reality to the dark night of the soul phenomenon but physical symptoms often accompany the various emotions that are produced during a dark night.

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Common and uncommon life events can lead to a dark night of the soul and in the soul. The loss of a life partner or a dear friend is very common. Being overcome by drugs, alcohol, or physical abuse produce the effect in millions of people. Suffering through a disease that is certain to end in death often causes the feeling of a dark night of the soul.

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The loss of a cherished and lifelong belief in a deity, a person, or a cause is perhaps the most common cause of the physical and emotional symptoms of a dark night of the soul. One of the most common causes is the betrayal of trust in a marriage or relationship whether it be sexual or emotional.

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Hopelessness dominates a dark night of the soul experience. The normal human behavior of finding a way out is suspended completely. The sufferer absolutely refuses to seek a new path. No way out can be conceived of or pursued by the victim.

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The desire to give up or become depressed is common. Suicidal thoughts and tendencies seem to be a much easier solution than anything else. All joy in life and living is gone. Former pleasures and amusements seem meaningless, empty of meaning, vain and childish. There is simply no motivation and no light at the end of the tunnel anymore.

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Anxiety, panic attacks, depression, and a heightened sense of fear are all too common. Anger, accusing others, projecting oneself onto others, self-pity and self-absorption, unjustified feelings of guilt, unreasonable fears, and a terror of the future are all frequent during the dark night of the soul.

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Physical symptoms of the dark night of the soul vary among those who have experienced it. Lethargy and physical fatigue, a sense of wasting away through eating food high in calories (ie chocolate, ice cream), drinking alcohol, smoking, are very common. The person just cannot summon up the will or strength to go about their daily activities. Your emotions seem to be telling you that your daily grind is useless.

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Exaggeration of the symptoms of any ailment or disease can be perpetuated by a dark night of the soul.

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Escape is simple. The first step that any person suffering from the feelings of a dark night of the soul can take is the realization that all people experience these sets of feelings. Even the most brilliant, richest, and most successful people in the world have a dark night of the soul at one time or another.

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The dark night of the soul too shall pass. Time does heal.