Debate: Can mindfulness and meditation be harmful?

Yes (in perhaps 8% of individuals). Can mindfulness and meditation be harmful? (Science Focus): Meditation has escaped both the religious cells of monks and nuns and the labs of scientists. An increasing number of people are using meditation apps to deal with mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety. Although there is no clear estimate of how many people are practising meditation, last year one single app had close to 40 million downloads. But now my new study, which reviews over 40 years of the science of meditation and mindfulness-based therapies, suggests that these practices can also lead to negative effects in about 8 per cent of individuals — from increases in anxiety, depression and stress, to unusual experiences like hallucinations. This sounds counterintuitive, given the thousands of scientific studies exploring the positive effects of meditation. But this study also indicates that scientists have been aware of these problems for a long time … We hope our study will motivate scientists to seek a more balanced understanding of when, for whom, and under what circumstances meditation can be beneficial, or harmful, and it will pressure commercial meditation/mindfulness apps and course providers to raise their ethical standards – at the very least, they should be obliged to inform the public that meditation is not a panacea, it doesn’t work for everyone, and it may produce negative effects. No (at least when we talk about widely available programs an...
Source: SharpBrains - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Education & Lifelong Learning anxiety depression harm harmful meditation meditation apps mental health problems mindfulness negative side effects Stress Source Type: blogs