My Story Overcoming Lightning
Life after overcoming lightning and how I found my mind again. It was a rainy Seattle Sunday afternoon and I was off to see some girlfriends for a few hours. All morning I had this feeling of dread and not wanting to go, but I had promised to do some business consulting. So, not so merrily, I went on my way. After arriving, it was good to meet new people and have a nice time talking and eating.
A huge storm started to build after being there at my friend’s condo for a while. Loud claps of thunder were growing louder by the minute. I moved to the other room to help map out some strategies and new actions for them to improve their lives. Loud sounds of thunder and lightning were steadily growing to the point of shaking the condo we were in. Out of the corner of my eye, the sky really lit up. More thunder, rumbling, and another flash. That one seemed to move away from the building and then came back in through an open window and smacked me on the left side of my head. Not only did I see stars, I felt like my heart stopped beating, and large amounts of fear and adrenaline filled my person.
Have you ever had a surreal moment?
This was my surreal moment. Being the hypnotherapist that I am, this little voice said, “Become a copper coil and get this stuff out of you.” It made me laugh, so that is what I did and seemed to recover. Next, I reached for the door handle, lost my balance and fell into the closet. That door came off the hinges. Wow, the start of being Super Woman! Oh, Lightning Girl! Later I was to experience “Fearful Woman”.
The host came running out and said, “Please don’t touch that bathroom door, let me open it please.” She politely asked, “Do you think if you touch the metal handle on the toilet or sink that they will melt or come off?” My reply was, “Gee, I’m kind of new to this, doors-coming-off-the-hinges-stuff. What do you suggest?” We resolved that I’d touch everything with a towel or something in my hand, a buffer of some sort.
Well, things settled down and I seemed fine, went back in the room and finished the other consulting work that was scheduled.
The after-effects of overcoming lightning
Finally, it was time to leave my friends’ house and was I was thinking, “No worries”. So off to the car I went, and all the car alarms started going off that signaled there was a disturbance in the force.
The next morning I had a “cute white skunk streak” in front and the side of my hair. A lovely very red rash from my neck to my waist on the left side of my body had appeared. Several days later my heart started skipping beats. I had anxiety, white-knuckled terror attacks, and trips to the hospital.
Good training helped
I was so angry that my life had been good, and my business had been really taking off. Then Bam! The Universe took away that feeling of being lucky. When you get screwed by the Universe, where do you go for faith?
I went inside myself – remembering my training from gymnastics, surviving being a political appointee for over eight years. I also remembered my former coach and mentor, Ken Roskie’s words, “When the going gets tough, you need to be tougher on the inside”. Ken, knew first-hand what it took. He was a former 49er NFL linebacker.
Action, action and more action
I hated starting over more than once, but staying down was a failure. To regain my life was constant – Action, Action and More Action was my call to arms, through pain and tears and massive depression and frustration. Surviving is not for the faint-hearted. It was a long and winding road for sure. Ask anyone who has overcome trauma and tragedy.
From fearless, too afraid of everything, to very depressing — I compensated by narrowing my life and consulting and hypnotherapy practice significantly. I never had problems with my helping people during this time. It was so strange. I was working out of the part of the brain that wasn’t damaged.
Silent screams of fear
Rain in Seattle caused nearly stroke-level fear. Ten to twenty terror attacks a day did little to help the progress. I spent a lot of time in the bathroom that had no windows. Kit, my large male tabby and I spent lots of time in the bathroom during the storms. He was no fan of the thunder and lightning either. Years later we both now sit through storms together.
I finally got sick of my life and wanted to do something different to overcome lightning, but no longer trusted my brain or my ability to learn. Memory was a thing of the past. My humor helped during this time, however, at times it was orbiting Mars.
My journey of adventures continued for fifteen years. There were no problems when I was working, just the ability to do math and follow directions or find my way home from the grocery store. Brain potholes are what I called these moments. You never know where they are until you hit one. My once really great memory was now Swiss cheese.
You are in your own
The health care professionals really don’t know what to do with people like me, “a lightning survivor”. Getting the extra electrical charge out of the brain was the problem. I thought my brain was too slow when in reality it was hyper.
I discovered this through a gift of a Nintendo DS game, Brain Age 2, a great game for the brain. I did the first test and my brain was age 85. After working with it for a while it’s now down to 37. One of the exercises is to relax the brain, where I experienced a physical sensation of the brain slowing down and working more effectively. The knowledge that my brain was firing faster than I could talk or process caused the feeling of almost stuttering. The insight from that realization gave me a greater understanding as to why under stress my brain knowledge and resources seemed to evaporate.
My husband researched and found that overcoming lightning survivors have some unusual effects, such as body not holding B vitamins very well, sleep disturbances, headaches, pain, and severe depression. He said, “Gee Honey, you have about 70 of the 90 symptoms!” Oh, joy!
Through acupuncture, diet, walking, yoga, a loving husband, friends and family, I started to recover but had several devastating relapses.
Oh crap! the relapses
One particularly bad relapse happened on a rainy day again in Seattle. I got stuck behind a utility truck on a metal bridge and spectacular storm with lightning for about 15 minutes — all around us. I finally drove home and spent the next few hours in my car terrified to venture out to cross the street to my home.
It was years of work and I was back at step one – saddened, with angry frustration – I wanted to quit trying. After some self-pity time, I decided this was not for me. I wanted my life back and a better one! The long journey of keeping my dreams alive, in-spite-of people saying, “You will never be the same”. I said to myself, “No, I am strong and more committed to healing, to restart my dreams, and will steel myself for the process of recovery. I am overcoming lightning from “Survival to Thrival”, I call it.
Survival to Thrival
Eventually, I worked and designed my own programs to begin healing and read several books that helped like, “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life”.
Then my old fears cropped up, like, “Can I learn or remember?” or “What about those mind potholes?” Sometimes I couldn’t add or subtract on the same day. “Can the challenged brain be retrained to really learn technical computer stuff?” These were the questions and fears that plagued me. I knew what life was going to be like if I continued doing the same old things.
There are still days that are challenging in learning – sometimes asking the same thing several times before it sticks. But hey, my life is so much better and getting better by the minute.
Beyond my fears
Yes, I did enjoy learning and persisted beyond my fears. I am now back writing to help others overcome their fears and learn to minimize them. I am so grateful for all the patient friends and people in my life and the professionals that helped. I was and am still so lucky.
Overcoming lightning by learning to use the Positive and action in my daily life has given me back my life. “The Positive Works” – yes it does. Not the sweet-coated one, but the positive healthy part that looks at you realistically and says, “Get going, Lady, make each day count.”
Email at Darielle@dariellearcher.com
See my book on Amazon: “The Thriving Code: A Guide For Healing and Energy Protection” This book gives you a step-by-step powerful handbook filled with techniques to solve your problems with negative people and situations.
