https://www.ksl.com/article/50513459/mindfulness-worked-as-well-for-anxiety-as-drug-in-study
The actual article https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2798510
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03522844
https://www.healthline.com/health/mindfulness-based-stress-reduction#what-it-is
This above article and many copies have been circulating on the web lately. An often touted quote is 'meditate, don't medicate' and I have been as guilty as anyone regarding that. However, with new knowledge comes better understanding and decisions. I have been teaching meditaiton and mindfulness in a psychiatric hospital for a while now and see people in all realms of mental illness episodes, both chronuca nd acute. I teach children, acute care adults, chronic drug usesrs and detoxificaion pathints as well as a 'Hero's' unit of PTSD (et al) problems. I have also taught meditaiton to the general public at my office and have practiced it for over 35 years.
It all began for me around 1987 when all of the sudden college life got the best of me, a large class load and lots of changes in my life found me a bit anxious. I did not realize it at the time. but I was unwell. The most prevalent and only symptom I really noticed was the inability to look at or eat anything mushy. It was odd, I was having sleep issues as well but I was in college, so who didn't, right? I went to the health center on campus and spoke to the doctor. 'You have anxiety and a peptic ulcer' she said. She gave me a script for a medication for my stomach and the business card of one of the college professors in the psychology department. I went to the office and knocked on the door. A typical college professor answered, behind him was a dishseveld desk of papers and books, he wore a coat (as I remember the run of the mill one that college professors wore with the leather patches on the elbows). He also had a pair of glasses on the top of his head and one on the bridge of his nose. I gave him the card and he said, 'who are you?, why are you here?' I explained how I came to him and he nodded and went to the desk, rifling though doors and papers and came back to me with a cassette tape. He said 'listen to this every night, come back in two weeks'. 'OK' I thought, this is weird, I thought I was going to have some form of sit down and talk it out therapy or a referral to get some form of anxiety meds.
I took the tape back to my dorm room and began listening. I fugured if I did not like it I could always make a mix tape for myself and copy over it. The tape was Emmet Miller and Stephen Halpern's "A trip to the beach" and on the other side was a tension relaxation session. Each were only about 20 minutes or so. I listened to the 'Trip to the beach' and as soon as the narrator said 'find a comfortable place to sit or lie down for a while..' I was not only hooked, but fast asleep. It took me days before I would hear the end of the tape telling me to wake up, and a lot longer before I had any idea what was happening in the middle. Remember this is a long time ago and hypnotism was still pretty weird and I figured it was just telling me to act like a chicken or give someone a dollar everytime they snapped their fingers and that I was somehow instructed to not remember it.
I returned to the office where I got the tape and it was always locked and seemed empty, so knowing me, I figured I lost the place and got lost. I have notoriously have had a terrible sense of direction and for some reason buildings always got the best of me.
So I kept the tape.
I sat up to listen and soon had to lie down, fall asleep. I would not hear the whole thing for months because I would crash out as soon as I would put it in. Soon the digestive issues subsided and I got good rest. This was the 'almost' beginning of my meditation journey. I had actually started around 1979 in Aikido classes with a Sensei and his wife in their very cold home in Tahoma, California. I cannot remember his name but I do remember his cat to be one of the greatest teachers and snitches to my innatentiveness. That cat would chase his tail and cause me to snicker and I would be then punished to do so many rolls, pushups or what have you.
It was not until much later I got into it again in college studying again martial arts and eventually Tai Chi in Pasadena and that ended me up at The Rosemead Buddhist Monastery in around 1999 for a meditation retreat. I was hooked.
Since then I have studied stress, its effects on the body, the chemistry and the mind for now coming on 25 years. I became a chiropractor because it was one reason or way I could help people with that without just pushing pills or cutting them open.
Now that I have worked with hundreds if not thousands of people with depression, anxiety, PTSD, SAD, Crohn's disease and many other afflictions related to stress, I find that meditation is not THE answer but a good part of the answer. People need lots of help and anywhere they can get it the better. If that takes some exercise, nutrutional supplements, diet changes or even social changes it is worth it.
Every once in a while a new article appears and people seem to jump all over it. Some tout a supplement, some exercise, good sleep, yoga, diets, or any number of them together to be the new 'silver bullet' for anxiety. However there is no such thing. In my expereience (I am not a psychologist) but have helped many with anxiety, find that [eople all expereince these mentall un=wellnesses differnetly, at least a little. There is no one set of symptoms or signs they ALL have. There are also no single triggers or remedies.
Even in Buddhism we see it mentioned that meditation is not THE panacea, it has even shown to be troublesome for people. In the book 'Wild Ivy' by Ekaku Hakuin, he relates his own expereince of stress and how he found help through a simple technique we all know as a body scan. In his version it is simply called the 'lump of butter' technique. Even in the Buddha's time there was not one single 'meditation' or even teaching for everyone, he had to teach depending on understanding and personality. This is no difference now. THe myriad of issues takes a myriad of techniques.
The advent of medicines to treat anxiety and depression.
Since ever, people have had anxiety and depression, it is part of the human condition. We have self medicated with alcohol, drugs, food, sex, and any number of herbs, spices, gizmos and doodads pedeled over the years. Not one has worked to erradicate stress.
As people would try and try it was just simply brushed off as 'you did not do it enough', or 'you did it wrong' or whatever. This was common among mediation teachers a while ago. You had to sit a certain way, face a certain direction, keep your hands in a certain place or you would not get 'the' benefit of the practice.
Unfortunately medication can make you dull, not feel like yourself, etc. But it has its benefits, like most medicines it buys you time to heal. To rest. This is one of the unsaid truths of medications. It quiets down your body and or mind long enough to get you the help you may need.
'Time heals all wounds'.
But there comes a point when what ever we are doing is not enough, it is a common problem to try the same thing over and over and over and expect a different outcome. (the definition of insanity, right?)
Meditation is the same,
Medication is the same.
Today we see the new hype of psychadelics, mushrooms, DMT, LSD etc... this is also the same as any new medication, meditation , or ecercise. So each person has to find their own prescrition of what works and what does not, however there is a time factor and severity factor to consider for just doing more will not help you.
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