Meditation a good idea?

[Txxxrho]

I've been thinking about meditation for my anxiety/panic/hypochondria/etc but I read all this stuff on meditation causes induced depersonalization and derealization so now I'm scared to try it because I already have the fear of losing my mind and get depersonalization and derealization so the idea of bringing it on through meditation is horrifying so I really don't know what to try to get better because everything seems flawed

[PanchoGoz]

Yes it's a very good idea. You won't lose your mind, you are sane and you are your mind, it can't be lost. Start on something simple - I recomend mindfulness.

[Txxxrho]

Any advice on how to start or techniques, routines, etc?

[NoPoet]

Depersonalisation and derealisation are basically a defensive mechanism. They may seem scary or threatening, but they're not designed to hurt you, they are designed to protect you.

[Txxxrho]

How so? What do they act like a defense mechanism for exactly?

---------- Post added at 01:15 ---------- Previous post was at 01:13 ----------

And it was a study I saw where they were doing research on TM meditation and they said that there was some adverse effects to some people who engaged in these meditations to much and they complained about those symptoms or feeling that they've become detached in some way.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Meditation has proven clinical studies behind it. You want to look for MBSR by Jon Kabat-Zinn in the US and our version that was developed from it, MBCT co created by professor Mark Williams at Oxford uni. These have studies to show how they help with mental health conditions and MBSR has studies related ti improvement of symptom control in physical conditions e.g. astham, cancer, etc.

TM is a form that fell out of favour because it went a cultish a few decades ago and it developed a bit of a reputation due to the people involved in it.

Mindfulness, on the other hand, is a school of Buddhism. Its been around thousands of years and if you look at earlier forms such as Kum Nye you will see it was around before even Buddhism inside other schools of thought. So, its stood the test of time.

Mindfulness is a school that is concerned with personal performance. There are otjhers e.g. Loving Kindness, which have slightly difference emphasis but seem to retain a central message between the two from what I have seen.

I'm not sure on meditation, or even TM, having adverse effects. In my reading about Mindfulness, I have never come across anything other than the good. Its been studied using MRI's in its MBSR form too. This showed changes in brain structure by reduction in volume in the fear centre (right Amygdala) and increased volume in the sides more compassion-based (inula).

Another question would be about the study. Many studies are conducted under conditions that are not considered to be to a clinical standard hence in peer reviews or things like meta-analysis, they get debunked. There is also the issue that a lot of studies are also not independent thus suffer from bias.

I don't DP/DR is a self protection mechanism, although I don't know much about these, but NoPoet might mean "Disassociation" which is. Disassociation disorders do include shutting out of triggers, a good example is amnesia-based DD. If you've ever seen any programmes or read about people who dissappear but live normal lives and then are found with no recollection of the previous years, this is what it is.

Another part of Disassociation is non epileptic seizure which can be experienced by people with anxiety or depression but are not classed as DD. These do the ssame thing but are isolated I believe.

If you want some free Mindfulness resources, check out Tish's recent thread on the Top Tips board "Mindfulness Apps".

[PanchoGoz]

OMG Terry you are such a nerd!! Where do you learn all this stuff?! :P

Original poster, if you do anything too much it will have adverse effects. Eating, smoking, cycling, anything. If you meditated all day you would feel a bit weird, but 20 minutes a day is ideal. 5 or 10 is fine too.

Depersonalisation and derealisation happens when your brain feels overloaded. It shuts out unneccessary outside stimuli to give itself a bit of rest, and this may cause you to feel unreal/detatched. So you are not noticing as much colours and smells. Also, back in caveman days, if you were in a panic situation, you would not want your arbitrary senses when there's a tiger after you, for example, you wouldn't want to be salivating over food, you would want to be focused on that lion and ready to run. If you were in a situtation where panic is required, such as you are being mugged, you would encounter this but you wouldn't notice it as it would seem more of a normal thing to happen in that situation. There are stories of rape victims leaving their body and looking down on the situation, this is a similar thing to derealisation. The reason it scares you is because there is no apparant reason for it. It's not a sign of going mad, it's your body doing what it should be in a panic situation, but the mistake is there is no panic situation, it's your body panicing for no good reason. You need to train it to learn there is no tiger :)

Try typing in Jon Kabat Zinn Google Lecture in Youtube and watch some of his lecture. That got me into mindfulness. There are some good free mindfulness websites out there, just have a scroll through and try some simple exercises when you have a good understanding of it. Wish you well.

[MyNameIsTerry]

OMG Terry you are such a nerd!! Where do you learn all this stuff?! :P



It just sort of gets stuck in there! I'm terrible for researching things before I try them so I tend to look up a lot of stuff.