can meditation cured Anxiety disorder?

[NickNgaruiya]

Yes, very extent. In my opinion, fashion is very important in daily life. So, to seat for meditation simple shirts are important. Anxiety can be cured by meditation very extent.

[Dahila]

Anxiety can not to be cured ever, it is part of us, the mechanism is to protect us human beings. You can help yourself meditating to better respond to stress and situations causing anxiety. It is not curable but manageable

[Ponder]

Pretty much what Dahila said.

[MainerMikeBrown]

Many find meditating over the long term to be very helpful in getting control of their anxieties.

[Kuma]

I don't think meditation "cures" anxiety. But I do think those who maintain a consistent meditation practice (especially mindfulness) probably tend to find it easier to manage their anxiety.

[salvator here]

I've incorporated meditation into my daily life and happenings and now its almost 2nd nature for me to do so when alone. See.. I spend much of my time alone - by my choosing - I'm not seeking friendship until I learn to accept my own company without feeling depressed. I strive to embrace the solitude. I'm always mindful of how I'm feeling and I use it (mindfulness) to find the root causes of my depression, because I always try to find the underlying cause of my anxiety and depressions; they almost always is something. Some days I"m not successful determining the root cause, those days I just accept it as a rough day and hope it passes soom.

[Kuma]

I am trying to develop a consistent meditation practice, but I have not been entirely successful with that. It is interesting to hear that you are exploring the root causes of your anxiety and depression. I have made a choice (not sure it is a right choice, but it is the choice I have made) not to explore the underlying causes of my anxiety, but instead to try to treat it through cognitive methods (like CBT). But I have to say thus far I have not been very successful.

[Dahila]

Well it is painful sometime, for me was the worst to reopen childhood trauma. It took me a good ten years to be able to go back and just observing it, It helped even it took me weeks of dedication. From this time on I started to get better. Maybe is the case of age in my situation. I do know that I can not accomplish a lot in this life, so I focus on living in peace and trying to make it a pleasurable experience,
I was sitting in my garden, my heaven and looking on sky on trees, listening to birds singing. The peace that fell upon me was incredible. I feel energized, calmer, even with sore back (deweeding the veggies patch, yesterday)
I am like sal not lonely, I do not need people to feel loved, just the nature.
We all should accept ourselves the way we are, to make peace with it, I hope you will have a good weekend gents

[salvator here]

Right now I can be happy with nature and just my surroundings.. providing I align myself into situations that can brighten my mood. Don't get me wrong, I do hope one day I might discover a friendship (not one-sided) that I could do things with, but it would have to happen by accident (you know what i mean of course - no such thing as accidents). My therapist keep wanting me to join groups and force friendships and that won't work for me. First of all.. I don't trust people easily and someone would have to work hard to gain my trust before I would open up totally. I keep a large wall up around people and in public. Now though, I'm in no shape to be a supportive friend for someone else. Maybe one days things will chance.

[Kuma]

I’m married with kids. But still the anxiety makes me lonely. It’s an isolating experience bc nobody understands unless they experienced it

[Dahila]

You can be in crowd of people, friends and still be lonely. What is the worst this is the worst kind of loneliness.
Sal I do not trust people either. You are so right, When you trust you open yourself for more pain. I keep my distance and safe

[Kuma]

I like people. But I keep most relationships, even with long time friends, pretty superficial. I don't tend to reveal my inner thoughts to them. The closest I come is with my wife. I guess that is not surprising (many years of marriage).

[Dahila]

my only person I trust and not completely is my hubby, I tend to hide my secrets, it's nobody business , When I suffer I dissapear till I am better.

[salvator here]

I know its not necessarily the best but I also hide away when I'm not doing well. I try to disguise how I'm feeling but I'm told I wear my heart on my sleeve and people can always tell. People see it as weakness because we are animals and people smell blood (though not all people are sharks). I wish I didn't feel that way about humanity.

[Dahila]

sal you do like I do, it is not good they say. I dig the hole and go into it, I do not know how to share my pain. I tried it is not working for me. From very early childhood I had tremendous anxiety, My constant stays in hospital and feeling of abandonment had not help. There were not children wards in hospital, when I was a child so I had to pretend that I am ok . i was terrified especially when I was witnessing woman passing, She had cancer, stomach cancer and she got hemorrhage, she said .>>>>>my name to call a nurse, I had and came back to witness her passing. I was terrified, I had not know anything about death , I was maybe 8 years old. Nobody in my family thought that I am traumatized, No one talked to me about it,
I can not imagine not to talk to my children about situation like that. Maybe it is a reason why I hide myself . I do not know. What do you think gents?

[salvator here]

Hey D..

I wanted to let you know I read your posting and I've been thinking about you and what you went through. I appreciate that you opened up here, sometimes its helps somewhat sometimes for me anyway. I just didn't want to leave you hanging. I guess I think its pretty clear PTSD to me, but what to do even is that is the case? therapy and pills seem to be the popular answer, but we (of course) know different. As you recall, I have a thread here about this very thing.. opening up to your therapist and you see my success rate (Pretty Poor). Nobody can take away my pain or reverse time back and undo it. There is still a lot my therapist doesn't know about me and might never know. Perhaps we learn our own coping mechanisms to get us through our days - whether or not they are considered healthy in the eyes of the medical profession. I don't pretend to have any answers D as some days I wonder how I get by myself. I live day-by-day.. sometimes.. moment-by-moment. Its a 2 sided coin for me. I'm my best friend and worse enemy. When I'm alone (most of the time) I think and think and think until it hurts and beat myself up. Rarely do I praise myself for my achievements (I have come a long way when the odds were against me). Sometimes I do but quickly back to beating. I guess our past shapes us and if we're not careful, it can define us. I don't know how to step away from my past, sometimes I feel like it still haunts me.

I wonder what Ponder or Kuma might have to add. Please take anything I say for what its worth. I mean well and I do care and I hope something I wrote at least lets you know you're not alone here.

EDIT - Added something

[Dahila]

thank you Sal this is just one of the events in my life, probably the least cruel. Yes I know I have PSTD and I live with it for so long it become the part of me. We cannot change the past, and yes it shaped us. It is a part of us , we cannot get rid of our past. a lot of my life will never come out. I had unblocked my memories but they are for my benefit, I do not talk to any therapist, they have no idea, My therapist does know nothing about me :) It is funny sometimes how mistaken are people in reading me. I was married for almost 19 years , had two children, My ex hubby has bipolar , I could not stay with him any longer, it costed me too much. The thing is he was the only one who had understand me, we communicated with just our eyes in situation when we could not speak, So in my long life one person that knew me, to the core. I am in relationship but I do not think we have connection. It is more of convenience, we help each other. I like to be alone and not to deal with others nonsense , they will never know what I think or what I feel. I am pretty good actress, can fooll anyone. Most people like my calmness, eh How wrong they are :)
Thank you Sal, I do want to keep this forum alive, so does Ponder .
Kuma is back and he is my favorite person so nice and smart :)
I feel closeness to all of you. Thank you gents for being you

[Kuma]

Thank you for the kind words, Dahila!

I have friends who I enjoy spending time with, including some long-time friends from when I was 8 years old. (I am in my 50s now). And I enjoy being social, when my anxiety levels are not too high. But I usually don't get "too deep" with friends. With one exception, I do not talk about my anxiety and related mental health issues with friends at all. My kids know about my anxiety. One of them cannot relate at all to that so just ignores it, which is fine. The other, who is in his early 20s, has experienced anxiety himself, so he understands somewhat. But his situation and mine are very, very different.

The one person I confide in is my wife. I feel like that relationship is totally different. But to be honest, these days she is pretty tired of my anxiety -- which has been extremely intense for the past month or so -- and she would much prefer that I just put on a happy face and talk about other things, rather than burdening her with it. That reaction is hurtful, because I don't think I should have to "fake it" at home as I do with the rest of the world. But I know that its just because she does not understand what I am experiencing, and to some extent is trying to protect herself.

Sal - I was also interested in your comment about therapy. I do open up almost entirely to my therapist. I figure I am paying him a lot of money, so I might as well... Sometimes I think it is helpful. Sometimes less helpful. But I feel like I have to do everything I can to get better...

[hlebhleb]

I know I am late to this thread, but I found the last bunch of posts really interesting, coz it's something I've really been thinking about lately.

I've had mental illness all my life, mainly anxiety, and I've always found it so hard to talk to anyone about. I mean, I've spoken to psychiatrists, therapists, my parents and siblings, but they've never truly understood it because I don't really know how to accurately describe what I feel, and MORE IMPORTANTLY, they've never had it.

I really feel lonely these days because I feel I want to share this side of me with someone who is going/been through it (and I mean in person, not on an online forum).

I feel like maybe I could develop somewhat of a true friendship (unlike my superficial ones) or maybe even a true relationship with a woman (I've always shied away from women because I don't want them to have to deal with my rough times).

Do any of you have any advice/comments about befriending or having a relationship with someone who also suffers from mental health issues? I'd appreciate them... Thanks!

[raggamuffin]

I've noticed in recent years that I've been a lot more open with people about my anxiety and depression. They're fairly common disorders and people I talk to about it often know someone who's experienced it, or have been through similar experiences themselves.

Meditation can be helpful if it's done routinely. I think most people struggle to maintain new regimes, let alone if you have all the doubts and negativity that comes with anxiety or depression.

In an ideal world there'd be daily meditation, daily exercise, a regular sleeping pattern, a job that evokes positivity and enthusiasm and a diet that consists of very few processed foods. That's not to say we can't move towards healthier lifestyles, I just find that as I'm getting older, I seem a lot greedier with what little free time I get.

Ed

[Dahila]

Ed I think that 99% of people have anxiety or depression. It is a sigh of our modern times ,

[Ponder]

Another perspective, is that an ideal world would drop the concept of money so that the need for a job would no longer exist. Then one would have all the time to do as they wish. There would be no need to foster purpose, positivity and motivation as the need to thrive would be completely unnecessary. Once it's realized that we can have all we want without believing in ideals designed to limit us, then greed would also no longer exist.

We are what we say we are. We all choose the paths we take. But it's much easier to believe there is a larger system that has our best interest in hand. Which is why most people subscribe to working, thriving and endlessly searching for possy wossy feelings. It's how we are kept reliant. But we don't live in an 'ideal' (a deceitful term itself) world. Instead we live in one that creates ideals with the 'soul purpose' to keep us all in a perpetual state of fear always feeling needy and dependent on others. This keeps us vulnerable to deceptive ideals/individuals and events that seemingly exude positive vibes, compassion and love with the promise to give all that one desires.

So whilst completely deluded and having no idea we are in a prison without bars, we instead think we are players who have meaning either going off to work wishing we had more. Worse is to beleive because you don't have a job that you don't deserve to exist, whilst those that have see themselves above others that they themselves consider to be less. Such has always been and is our indoctrination that we refer to as ideals.

Before you can dream, muster and or create a so called 'ideal' world/existence, I propose that we would do far better to identify how it is that current ideals keep us from thinking and feeling for ourselves. How ideals are designed to keep us trapped. Focus more on how it is that deception works like a wolf in sheeps clothing. Keep the masses feeling inferior, fearful, shameful and all that. Make them like a mass of dazed individuals racing for the bright light also know as a bug trap. ZAP!!! That light is the wolf in sheeps clothing. To extend it further I would not call it Satan or some other wizz bang culturally accepted version. It's more or less and extension of someone who the victims voted in - agreed to.

Agreements. You see it's very important that we all agree to be the people whom we see ourselves to be. This is how traps are made and sold off as ideals. There is nothing more convincing than an agreement mixed in with a herd mentality. It's in the way we are set up psychologically (fear based) - the way in which we are influenced with personalized stories that leave us racing to that light of agreement. Yes I am not worthy, Yes I can do better, Yes I need you, Yes I will bow down and play this game.

No this explanation is not derived from a conspiracy as too, like the word ideal, the term conspiracy is used to demonize the truth. What's important is to understand how it is that 'We are what we say we are. We all choose the paths we take.'Once you fathom the importance of that and how it relates to controlling the collective, THEN - there are options to use the same brainwashing techniques to let go of all that BS and instead, make the most out of nothing.

NOTHING! - This is what meditation can help us achieve. Gives us the head space to see things as they really are as well as the fortitude to fall away and embrace the void so often used to keep us in a state of fear. Meditation when enacted upon without making it an act or trying to achieve is the very opposite of all that we have been taught. This is probably why most of us fail so miserable when entering into such a practice as it's been marketed today.

Unfortunately I think very few people will understand what I am trying to say as so epic is this worlds dysfunction. But that's OK - I know what I mean. See it like so (fathoming) is the only way I can make less painful choices the give me some kind of solace that then help me create what I term as moments of peace. I have many many certified labels that require renewing from time to time. However, I do my best not to identify with those complicated diagnoses. Instead I do better to fathom just how much power I still have left and how much it needs not anything that this world and it's society has to offer.

There is nothing wrong with US - there never was. It's just easier to keep us believing in such things.
'We are what we say we are. We all choose the paths we take.' I have always struggles with choice and said so many times in here. Perhaps better said for those of us that have been molested, raped, beaten, tortured, that whilst such evil can massively impact us and effect us for a lifetime to come, that ultimately in the end we still choose what we are to become. That in itself should be enough to move on, but the addiction to victim-hood is played upon with our glorified ideals - thus keeping many of us in that state of fear. It's a merry go round from there. The possy wossy's on one side pushing it to the victims who in turn then push it back to the idealists who are both. It keeps spinning round and round until the day ones finally had enough. Sadly for some, they will never get off. Thus hell on Earth.

I won't even it like that though. They say there is hope. You get to come back. heheheheheheeeee

Just meditate and go to the void!

Good Luck. ;)