Please help me to verify my theory [Meditation will help anybody]

Hello everybody! I have been suffering from panic attacks, depression, anxiety and other problems for several years. With the help of meditation I got rid of all symptoms of these things. And I want to verify my theory with your help. The theory is: "meditation will help almost anybody to deal with depression, anxiety, panic attacks, obsessions etc."

I believe in this theory, not because it helped me, but because meditation develops essential mental skills for dealing with negative emotions. Like sport makes your body stronger and more resistant to diseases, meditation makes your mind stronger and more resistant to negative feelings. That's why I think this principle is universal.

By meditating I mean calmly focusing on breath/mantra/image for some period of time (10 or more minutes), observing you mind without judgement and noticing when you attention goes away.

Please chose your variant in the poll. I think, most of you, people who say "I have no hope at all, I tried everything, Nothing helps me, etc" didn't even try meditating regularly.

I am mostly interested in variant №2. It states: "I have been meditating for at least half a year regularly, and it didn't help me at all". I took this period of time "half a year", because I think that meditation will have some effect within half a year in many cases, provided with fact, that you do it every day. If you meditated only several times and then dropped practice, it is very early to judge about the potential effect of meditation on you. You can't say: "I have meditated 5 times, practice had no effect, so there will be no effect in the future." You can't be sure. But half a year of regular practice is probably enough for most of people. (It is only my assumption, I may be wrong and someone needs more.)

Please be fair, choosing this variant. If you choose it, please write a short comment why did you choose it, what type of meditation you used etc. Please don't choose it because you don't like the fact that people meditate, and experience skepticism towards practice. Chose it only if you tried it for at least half a year and it brought no positive effect.

This poll is about practicing. So please don't post things: "I didn't practice meditation, but I think this is crap, and I don't think it will help me or anybody". Either you tried and it helped. Or you tried and it didn't help. Or you didn't try at all. This is all this poll is about.

Of course this poll can't totally prove or disprove my theory. But it will give me some food for thought.

Voted. Very happy with what it's provided me. No surprises what my vote was :)

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Originally Posted by jessed03

Voted. Very happy with what it's provided me. No surprises what my vote was :)

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good! happy for you!)

Same as Jessed, as I said in my thread, it was not the meditation which saved me many times over. Good thread;))

Thanks for your replies!

It's a pity only few people participated in the poll and only those who had got their benefits from meditation. It's disappointingly to know that people try new different meds, methods, give up the hope, but they don't even try meditating and even don't even think about doing it. And pharmaceutical companies still get their enormous revenues by selling to people quick but temporary solution.

I hope some day the practice of meditating will be more spread among official treatment of depression and there will be more information about it in popular sources. I hope that modern medicine will direct their searches to find an effective solution towards dealing with personal problems, but not towards inventing and ideal "mental painkiller".

Thank you for your voting, those who participated! Only few people, but results are encouraging!:D

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Yes, meditation has helped me - 100.00%

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:D

Try repeat, only few people on site practice meditation. I am on meds and practicing it every day. It is a reason I start to sleep better, my sleeping pills stopped working long time ago. They do now and half of dose only. I would say that only meditation help not to think about dying or get rid of suicide thoughts, which never left completely:))

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Originally Posted by Dahila

Try repeat, only few people on site practice meditation.

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Ah, I had no doubt in it. The only thing disappointing me is absence of interest towards meditation in dealing with depression. People keep asking: "What will help me? What is my last hope? What other pills will work? What shall I do?" But most of them ignore the fact that meditation even exist. The answer is here.

But this is how things are. I hope they will be different some day.

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Originally Posted by Dahila

I am on meds and practicing it every day. It is a reason I start to sleep better, my sleeping pills stopped working long time ago. They do now and half of dose only. I would say that only meditation help not to think about dying or get rid of suicide thoughts, which never left completely:))

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This is good. I think meditation gave your a good point of not fighting with your thoughts. Sometime they return, then they go away. It's a good way just to accept that, don't emotionally react to the fact that they return don't identify yourself with them. And meditation teaches it.

I didn't have suicidal thoughts, but I had (and I have sometimes) obsessive thoughts connected with the work of my body. They return sometimes. But I simply don't care. Meditation gave me that.

Impact of Transcendental Meditation on Hospital Admissions


Intestinal -49.0%
Nose, throat and lung -73.0%
Heart -87.3%
Genital and urinary -37.0%
Injuries -63.2%
Tumors (benign and malignant) -55.4%
Bone and muscle -67.6%
Ill-defined conditions -76.0%
All mental disorders -30.6%
Nervous system -87.2%
Metabolism -65.4%
Infectious diseases -30.4%
Other -91.2%
Congenital -50.6%
Blood -32.8%

Inpatient days for children (age 0-18) -50.2%
Inpatient days for young adults (age 19-39) -50.1%
Inpatient days for older adults (age 40+) -68.4%

Outpatient visits for children (age 0-18) -46.8%
Outpatient visits for young adults (age 19-39) -54.7%
Outpatient visits for older adults (age 40+) -73.7%


Reference:
Orme-Johnson, D. W. Medical care utilization and the Transcendental Meditation program. Psychosomatic Medicine 1987; 49(1): 493-507.

See also:
Orme-Johnson D. W., Herron R. E. Reduced Medical Care Utilization and Expenditures through an Innovative Approach. American Journal of Managed Care 1997; 3: 135-144.
Herron R, et al. The Impact of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Government Payments to Physicians in Quebec. American Journal of Health Promotion 1996; 10(3): 208-216.
Herron R, Hillis S. The Impact of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Government Payments to Physicians in Quebec: An Update. American Journal of Health Promotion 2000; 14(5): 284-291.
Herron, R, Changes in Physician Costs Among High-Cost Transcendental Meditation Practitioners Compared With High-Cost Nonpractitioners Over 5 Years. American Journal of Health Promotion September/October 2011; 26(1): 56-60.


Peace

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Originally Posted by Try_Repeat

Ah, I had no doubt in it. The only thing disappointing me is absence of interest towards meditation in dealing with depression. People keep asking: "What will help me? What is my last hope? What other pills will work? What shall I do?" But most of them ignore the fact that meditation even exist. The answer is here.

But this is how things are. I hope they will be different some day.



This is good. I think meditation gave your a good point of not fighting with your thoughts. Sometime they return, then they go away. It's a good way just to accept that, don't emotionally react to the fact that they return don't identify yourself with them. And meditation teaches it.

I didn't have suicidal thoughts, but I had (and I have sometimes) obsessive thoughts connected with the work of my body. They return sometimes. But I simply don't care. Meditation gave me that.

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I am guilty of this myself. Laziness and lack of knowledge. I have been reading the official site of the Dali lama and when he was asked what are the reasons why people do not practice meditation his very first response was Laziness. Guilty AS CHARGED. I guess it is easier to take a pill or pill's ? BUT, i am working on it.

Voted. Meditation has been wonderful for me. It was hard to truly learn how to clear my mind but once I got that down....it really worked wonders for me.