Should People with Mental Illness or Trauma Meditate?

It is common among meditation communities to believe that people with mental illness or trauma should not meditate, as it might worsen their condition or cause them to relive their trauma. While I understand this concern, I find this view to o extreme. The matter actually depends on two factors:

  1. What is the kind of meditation practised?

  2. Is the student properly taught?

What is the kind of meditation practised?

If the meditation involves deliberate concentration, then I agree that people with mental illness should avoid it. Concentration exaggerates things, and since people with mental illness already tend to exaggerate things, developing concentration is very risky for them.

If, however, the meditation is about cultivating awareness, complete with right view and right attitude, then it is quite safe for them to meditate—even on their own. In fact, a student of mine who had Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID, more widely known as Multiple Personality Disorder) managed to drop two of her personalities (or modes) completely on her own outside retreats.

Note: Her case was relatively mild. During her retreats with me, she switched to her child modes many times, which wasn’t a bad thing at all. With her training in awareness, those episodes allowed her to learn about her modes. Presently, it seems she is no longer affected by DID, as she has not switched modes for many months. I should add that meditation alone did not undo her disorder. Her recovery from DID also depended on talk therapy, which I fortunately could provide.

As for mental traumas, reliving them might seem like a bad thing, but actually it is not. I had a retreat student who re-experienced her PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). She trembled as she told me she must leave the next morning. I said okay, and also asked her to breathe and relax. She agreed. The next morning, she was happy as a lark and no longer wanted to leave, as she had released something that had been troubling her.

I had another retreat student who was raped. When the memory arose, she was able to deal with it alone.

When one is relaxed—whether while meditating or not—it is possible and natural that suppressed memories and emotions resurface. If one doesn’t view them as they are—e.g., thoughts as just thoughts, feelings as just feelings—a nd allow them to be as they are, on e may be re-traumatized, even if only mildly. However, if one has been trained as above, one can release the emotions.

Is the studentproperly taught?

If the student is taught to cultivate awareness instead of concentration, the likelihood of negative effects is much reduced. Having said that, it’s still possible for the student to misunderstand the teaching and practise the wrong way. Therefore, proper guidance is essential, particularly in two key areas mentioned above:

  1. Seeing things as they are, i.e. right view

  2. Allowing things to be as they are, i.e. right attitude

That said, having right view and right attitude is difficult for people with illnesses like depression or anxiety disorders. So, for them, I recommend a simple way for mental settling: breathe and relax. (For more, see How to Meditate if You Have Mental Illness .) Once their mind becomes more stable, I’ll ask them to do Open Awareness Meditation , which is what I usually teach. As for people with schizophrenia, medical treatment should come first.

Conclusion

While meditation can benefit people with mental illness or trauma, the type of meditation and the quality of instruction are crucial factors. With the right approach, meditation can be a safe and transformative practice for many.

Note: This article was written at the request of SIMsara, a Dutch magazine on Buddhist meditation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Giving Gifts or Giving Burden?

Image
Lay Buddhists are often taught the importance of giving (dāna)—especially to monastics—as a meritorious act. While this practice is deeply rooted in the Buddhist tradition, it has led to a growing concern: the excessive giving of gifts to monastics, resulting in monasteries having to deal with unnecessary possessions. Monastics do depend on lay people to give them what they need. However, when the giving becomes excessive, it creates a burden for the monastics. Their monasteries can become cluttered with items they neither need nor want. In this situation, the gifts have become a burden. To address this issue, lay Buddhists should be advised to practice wise giving . This involves considering the true needs of the recipient and the potential result of the giving. Instead of giving out of religious piety or a desire to gain merit, one can give wisely. What do the monastics really need? If you want to give but don't know what the monastics really need, you can always ask them. By ...
Read more

Beware of Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Protect Yourself from Hidden Personality Disorders

Image
Sometimes I meet people who suffer because they are unknowingly living or working with someone who has a personality disorder. It’s important to be aware of such disorders, as being with individuals who have them can be distressing. When we think of mental illness, we usually think of conditions like schizophrenia, depression and anxiety disorders—conditions that are either very obvious or that people usually seek help for. We don’t usually think of another category of mental illness: personality disorders . There are many kinds of personality disorders, but let me speak of two which are not so obvious but surely worth knowing for our own protection: APersonality Disorder (ASPD) and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) . Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) “Antisocial” here does not mean “unsociable”. In fact, individuals with this disorder may appear highly sociable. They are antisocial in the sense that they are hostile or disruptive to social norms. They lack emp...
Read more

How To Deal With People Who Often Criticize You

Image
Having people, or even just one person, in your life who is constantly critical of you can be very challenging. It’s possible that they don’t know the harm that they are causing. In any case, you’re the one having a problem and so you’re the one to do something about it. You need to find a suitable way to stop being constantly criticized. You first need to find out why they behave this way . There are a few possible reasons: They have a spoiled entitlement schema . They feel entitled to criticize you. They have an unrelenting standards schema . They can’t stand standards lower than their expectations, which they feel are normal and justified. They have a defectiveness schema . They try to feel better about themselves by putting others down. If they have a spoiled entitlement schema , your chances of getting them to stop is very slim. The only way they would even consider changing their behaviour, is being under the threat of losing something that they want...
Read more