Don't feel like a fake, Mouse! What you described was how it felt for me most of the time. I think it's much better for the experience to be gentle, so you're just lucky.
In essence the kundalini experience is a massive healing/purging of our energy body (the spiritual awakening comes at or near the end of this process when we are clear enough for the energy to flow unobstructed out of the crown chakra). If we start working with energy, such as beginning reiki work, then some of the same things are achieved - by moving our own energy around and becoming aware of it we are doing healing work on ourselves, so it makes sense that similar symptoms are observed. I learned some simple energy healing techniques such as EFT and the chakra balancing and daily energy routine techniques suggested by Donna Eden (search for her name on Youtube
) alongside my kundalini work and I think they helped enormously, both to level out the symptoms I was experiencing and also encourage the healing process a little more on my own terms. It also helped me to feel and understand my own energy, which has been a great help.
Old issues will definitely resurface for processing, acceptance and release. I had a lot of past emotional traumas which I had bottled up and they all came exploding out. Having said that, the release was phenomenal. I remember after one powerful session clearing my chakras I got up off the bed and almost fell over because I felt like I was floating, such a huge weight had been taken off me.
I felt like I was bobbing about like a balloon all day until I got used to it.