Meditation?

[mrsh88]

Hi

I suffer from extreme anxiety, almost constantly, and have panic disorder too. I have had this since birth, but has got a lot worse in the last 3 years. Docs have prescribed meds but I won't take them as I have a medical phobia and am terrified that they will make me ill. I've had a bit of therapy too which hasn't helped, but one of my therapists has recommended meditation - has anyone tried this before and/or found that it helped? I'm worried about starting new classes on my own, but will do it if I think it will help!

[jessed03]

Hi Mrs H. I think meditation to me was more effective at ridding anxiety, than anti-depressants were. Sure, I needed the meds to stabilize, but the meditation was what actually allowed my brain to process the stresses of it all more effectively. The downside, is it can take a fair while before you see major changes. After a few sessions, it's common to feel a little more peaceful, and energetic, but life long changes, do take a long while. Most teachers say it's about a year before you begin to notice big changes. The second part of the downside, is it can often make anxiety worse before it gets better. Meditation is very intense - in the sense it goes deeply into the mind, and allows an emotional detox. That being said, neither are good enough reasons not to start!!

I actually couldn't imagine joining a class! - Something about doing something so personal among other people seems so weird to me haha, but some enjoy it very much. I think meditation has a very unfair reputation as being something very difficult to learn - I think the opposite is true. It takes time to really get into the swing of it, but the method is almost as simple as simple can be.

I have the mp3's that guided me through my early periods of meditation, I can't remember the website, so if you give me a PM, I'll try to upload them to an upload server so that you can download them (same goes for anybody else too). I'm sure google has some very good resources too.

All the best, I hope it's something you decide to do :)

[trinidiva]

Meditation is wonderful...I try to do it at least once during the day. I also take Tai Chi, which is quite relaxing as well.