Does Meditation Really Help With Depression And Anxiety?

The Question: I experience depression and anxiety. Will meditation really help me?  The Answer: Depression and anxiety can make everyday life very challenging. And research suggests that healthy lifestyle habits like meditation may help with some of its symptoms.  Case in point: A small study published earlier this year in the journal Psychiatry Research. Researchers randomized 70 adult participants with generalized anxiety disorder into two groups. One group received mindfulness-based stress reduction as a technique to cope. The other group, acting as the control, did not receive any sort of meditation training. The scientists found that participants who learned the mindfulness techniques showed much lower levels of a specific biomarker for stress in the body. This could suggest meditation can not only help how someone feels over time, but also may leave an impression on a cellular level.  This potentially corroborates a large body of meditation research that suggests the practice is a wunderkind for mental health issues. But it’s important to note that previous research outcomes also had its flaws. Some early studies lacked a control group. Other research potentially fell victim to “expectancy bias,” which is when participants expected meditation to work and thus reported feeling better after the experiment.  The recent Psychiatry Research study took all of this into account, which is why it seems pr...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news