I feel as if I am the only one in the world to suffer from an anxiety involving synchronicity

[Guest_5206]

Hello, I am currently 17 years of age and had become an athiest a few months ago, I cannot see religion as real anymore and am struggling with the consequences and aftermath of an anxiety that started in 2014 when I was 12 years old.

Up until I was 12 I was a happy, excited, and curious young child who would enjoy anything, along with a constant fear of the rapture, sinning and going to hell (but those fears never got in the way of me enjoying the present nor got in the way of my life, and I never dwelled on the far future, and rarely thought of the near future), however during the middle of the year in 2014 I made the most horrid mistake of my life.

Because I was religious (I was a Christian) I believed in synchronicity (coincidences with actual meaning behind them) and that it was good to ask God for signs, and unfortunately one day I saw a video of a blind boy, this made me wonder if it was possible that someone with healthy eyes and a healthy body could go blind in the future no matter what (somatic mutations).

So out of my fear and curiosity I prayed to God to make cars with specific designs, custom registration plates, and and colours to come within a certain timeframe (one of them I asked to see a vintage car near my area, that had a certain colour, a coloured numberplate with a custom name and I saw this car exactly as how I prayed for a couple days later), I asked God to see these cars as a sign that I will go blind in my far future no matter what.

About 9 out of 12 cars I asked for I saw, when this happened it was too coincidental to be dismissed, the idea that I will go blind in my far future no matter what has turned my life into a spiralling mess of feeling trapped, regretful and miserable. This has caused me to constantly dwell on blindness in the far future and I am unable to enjoy anything anymore.

Despite me now being an athiest, I am worrying that synchronicity is real because of Quantum mechanics - in which anything is possible, and also because of Einstein's Block Universe theory of time where the past, present, and future all exist, this means that the future is unchangeable, and I can’t simply deny things that are held by science that even have evidence for it, I dont act or think philosophically, I believe things based on evidence.

I know that if I never asked for signs (and therefore never suffered the anxiety) I wouldn’t have been forced to care about things like Synchronicity.

Please dont involve religion.

[Doolhof]

Hi Sad and Grieving,

Welcome to the forum and to the community here. It does sound like you have experienced events that have you concerned, confused and have triggered your anxiety.

I would like to recommend that you have a talk to your Dr. about your anxiety and see if it is possible to see a counsellor to discuss options with you.

Anxiety can develop due to many different issues. Our minds are very powerful and can influence our thoughts, feelings and emotions.

With assistance may well be able to change your perception of Synchronicity so it is not such a concerning issue for you.

Regards from Dools

[Guest_5206]

I am dealing with the issue that synchronicity could be real since it is scientifically possible, I wasn't allowed to type enough words to fully clarify the issue on my thread, but I dont want to see synchronicity as real, but I am struggling to view the 'signs' i saw as a christian as nothing but mere coincidences due to how extremely coincidental they are.

If I blatantly close myself off from scientific theories that are scientifically possible and have evidence (there is evidence that telepathy and precognition is real), I feel trapped and know I am restricting myself out of fear of what could be real/possible.

I really dont want to resort to medication and I need advice on how I can stop worrying about synchronicity, my future and the extreme coincidences (the specific cars that I had asked 'God' for as signs of blindness in my far future) that is leaving me unable to shrug them off as mere coincidence.

I want to be able to stop thinking how life would have been different and continued on normally had I not asked for signs, I want to stop thinking how I could let myself be freely open to scientific findings, and I want to stop thinking how if I never asked for signs and therefore suffer the anxiety, I would have spent 4 more years of my childhood with my family, and I would have quality spent time with my slowly dying cat who died rather young on New Years Day on 2018.

I want to stop worrying about blindness and also be able to look to the future without the feeling of being trapped and also without thinking of blindness, I find myself crying frequently over the stupid mistake I made.

I am trying very hard myself but I am in need of advice without resorting to the use of medication.

[Just Sara]

Hi Sad and Grieving;

You seem to be in quite a mess; I'm so sorry. To reassure you, I totally understand because I've been thru the same thing. Different belief system, but identical in terms of promoting synchronicity as real and tangible and, needing to deal with the invasive consequences.

A common denominator for mental health problems in people is intelligence. Our intellect can so often get in the way of reality, especially our physical existence.

To my understanding, psychic phenomenon is a result of evolutionary 'primal' survival instincts. Our intellect has skewed the important relevance of animal instinct, which is to procreate and survive above all else.

When there's a big storm brewing, animals become loud, confused and scared. There mightn't be a cloud in the sky, but they still feel it in their bones. Birds 'know' when it's time to fly towards warmer weather to breed, and mothers, even humans, will do anything to protect their young when they 'suspect' danger's approaching.

"Why is it so?" is a question dwelled on over millennia which as an intellectual pursuit's ok, but spreading their (philosophical) hypotheses has caused problems for pragmatists.

At 12 you stumbled across synchronicity as a result of religious belief, another intellectual pursuit. Dogma rarely discusses humans being anything other than superior to everything except God; especially evolution.

Your little girls' intelligent mind asked God for answers to questions about something seen on TV, a place full of lies and morbid fascination with life. Lack of experience and proper guidance caused some of that information to be interpreted as 'personal', causing misguided and instinctual fear.

Now, in your 'physical' brain, that fear caused the survival instinct to kick in bringing on specific chemical responses. The primal part of you became a radar scanning for danger, and a self proclaiming prophecy was born. "I think, therefore I am"

The cure is to retrain your brain; you have that ability I can assure you because I've done it. What once was an obsessive pass-time, is now a distant memory.

I'm here most days, so talk or ask questions at will. I'm happy to engage further.

Warm and kind thoughts;

Sez

(sending a loving hug; everything's going to be ok)

[LavenderTea]

Hey there.

Thank you for your post. I found it really interesting and very informative.

It seems like you're having a really hard time trying to come to terms with the idea that you may possibly go blind in the future - it can be a scary thought.

Something we learn about, is that when people are having difficulties coming to terms with a certain idea, we can try to utilise a concept known as reframing. This is the idea that, the facts stay the same, but the way you look at the facts is different.

I don't want to say that synchronicity is wrong - I too believe in this also, to an extent.

There's a common notion about dreams that you might consider - that we can only dream of faces that we have seen before, regardless of whether they were noticed consciously or subconsciously. I don't know if this is factual, and I don't think there's any way for us to prove this. But if you think about the instance where you saw 9/12 cars that you asked God for, is it possible that you were asking for cars that you had subconsciously noticed in your area... or perhaps on your route to or from school?

I don't want to sound like I'm discrediting your beliefs, because that isn't my intention at all, so if the above idea doesn't sit well with you, there's another way you can reframe the signs you've interpreted.

For instance, if you are set on the belief that you will in fact go blind some day, it might not necessarily be something that happens now, but way into the future when you're old. You can get some reassurance about this by seeing professionals (i.e. an optometrist) so that they can monitor the health of your eyes.

I guess what I'm trying to get at here is that, there are ways for your beliefs to exist, that don't have to have this impact on you, since there are other possible ways of reframing these ideas.

Having discussions about this with a trained professional is something that I encourage, especially if this is causing anxiety, since there are ways you can reframe your ideas that may just need some prompting by another objective individual.