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I had been doing headspace since January. I enjoy it and find mindfulness helps at night when I cannot sleep, just focus on relaxing and observe my thoughts. Great.
This morning on my google feed up pops something about the dangers of meditation? People experiencing things like detachment DP, psychosis to name but a few and well that sent my anxious mind off.
For someone with anxiety is meditating safe?
If you enjoy it and find that it helps, then no, it won't drop you into psychosis. You're fine :)
Yes, it is. Our NHS use it for these disorders and treatments ike MBCT are evidence-based for recurrent depression therefore accepted, and recommended, by NICE.
Meditation is a risk to those with disorders that include psychosis and it is recommended a medical professional determines whether it is safe before starting. That's what has been said about it in the past due to articles like this. Retreats were often mentioned in this where it is more intensive meditation.
It's also worth noting that there are various types of meditation and some are more intrusive than others. Mindfulness is a light version that has been found useful for refocussing of the mind and allowing yourself to watch thoughts rather than interact with them. It's not searching for emptiness as some think and not intense and we do much of it all our lives without realising. That's why it's so useful to us because we change how we focus on things to something more negative and Mindfulness helps change it back to something more positive/neutral.