This thread is blowing my mind, although not for the obvious reason. I’m just astounded by all the anecdotes people are mentioning here that suggest meditation, mindfulness, etc. actually work , even the secularized, distorted, popularized versions we get here in the West. Previously I just assumed this was all a bunch of wackadoo woo-woo bullshit designed to separate dissatisfied California yuppies from their money.…
Every therapist I've gone to has suggested this meditation, along with cognitive behavior therapy and medication.
This thread is blowing my mind, although not for the obvious reason. I’m just astounded by all the anecdotes people are mentioning here that suggest meditation, mindfulness, etc. actually work , even the secularized, distorted, popularized versions we get here in the West. Previously I just assumed this was all a bunch of wackadoo woo-woo bullshit designed to separate dissatisfied California yuppies from their money.…
I've got ADHD and 7 minutes of guided mediation in the mornings changed my life. I didnt believe it would when a doctor suggested it. But it did. I cant really explain it but I sure wish I knew about it earlier in my life.
Any kind of guided meditation? Specifically focused on aspects of ADHD? And how did it change your life?
I mean... That's exactly what the "you're just doing Buddhism wrong" crowd is saying. There's a vast variety of methodologies and approaches to meditation, that come with their own effects, some bad some good. This is all quite well documented among the practitioners over the centuries. And beyond documentation, that's also why it's heavily suggested that one have guru or someone to actively guide and judge "progress…
The study was looking at guided meditation which consisted of 60% of it’s sample. So, suggesting a guide on it’s own doesn’t solve the issue.
I wouldn't conflate mindfulness (or capital M mindfulness, you could say) with meditation either. Meditation has always been a deeply spiritual practice; Mindfulness attempts to turn it into a psychological, clinical one.
From the article: > "I spent my last day in Los Angeles riding on a Segway, buying legal marijuana and staring at some turtles in an on-campus pond at UCLA. I was unsettled yet intrigued by Britton’s message. Some of the adverse experiences she had described were similar to challenges I had faced. But, at this point I was a decade into my intensive mindfulness meditation practice. I was too deep to get out. " There's…
Marijuana intensifies many aspects of the mind. It's dangerous, but it like jumping into deep water to learn to swim, or training to drive on a fast, manual car. If you can bring your mind back from psychosis, you can bring it back from the lesser anxiety you felt before.
Since this is a long article, here’s a summary for fellow readers — it’s mostly about the negative side effects of meditation that the author believes is under-documented or under-reported due to the ‘hype’ of meditation as the 21st century cure-all. He talks about dissociative experiences (which is well documented in medical research), it being a pseudo-religion, and lastly, his belief that the extended use of medit…
These sorts of things have been dealt with for centuries by Buddhists, it’s a fairly common effect when you start with Zazen. This is why taking one part of the practice and abandoning the rest (most specifically, an experienced teacher) isn’t a great idea for everyone. Most of the time all you need to hear is “just let whatever comes up during Zazen go, and return to the moment” but alas, if you don’t things can go…
> designed to separate dissatisfied California yuppies from their money Can I ask how the generic advice of "sit for 20 minutes a day paying attention to your own attention processes" costs anything?
Are you disputing the fact that there are a very large number of people who charge money for instruction, training, retreats, etc. around the concepts of meditation and mindfulness? Are you suggesting that "sitting for 20 minutes a day paying attention to your own attention processes" will lead to the profound revelations, mental changes, existential crises, etc. described in the article and in comments posted here?
20 minutes a day — unlikely. 2 hours a day for 10 years — you bet.
The guy just had a panic attack and didn't know how to deal with it. Getting kinda tired of the sensationalist articles acting like they discovered some unheard of horror that no other person has ever known.
> I read on Twitter about this one guy who gave himself brain damage by constantly working for months on end while programming. Link? I'm interested.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27003207 https://archive.is/KD74v "So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain"
I remember that thread, the "I burned all the glucose out of my brain & gave myself seizures" isn't how things work. It seems like he has unresolved mental health issues (which I'm sure were either caused or exacerbated by burnout), and came up with a rather strange self diagnosis.
As someone who experienced countless panic attacks, I find the description of his symptoms to be very on point with my experience. I've hit rock bottom about 10 years ago, experiencing these about three times a week. The road to building myself back was pretty long and is still an every day effort, but nowadays I only experience these once or twice a year, if any. If that's of any help to anyone, I've found countless…
I found his description of a Panic Attack well documented. I have never convulsed though. My panic attacks were very brief compared to the authors. "The next four hours were a hellscape of terror, panic and paranoia. There were almost no thoughts, only my body begging to escape my skin, convulsing like a fish fighting for life. The fear was a bottomless trench." The last line hit home with me. I've only had one bad P…
I'm guessing the "convulsion" he's talking about was just adrenaline tremors. I had these a lot after panic attacks, my legs would shake like crazy. The thing I read that basically made them disappear was that if you watch animals like a zebra or something after they been chased by lion... they usually twitch and shake all over. I used to get really upset and more panicky when they happened which just made them even worse.
It's a completely normal response after an adrenaline rush and it's actually a sign that your body is calming down.
As someone who experienced countless panic attacks, I find the description of his symptoms to be very on point with my experience. I've hit rock bottom about 10 years ago, experiencing these about three times a week. The road to building myself back was pretty long and is still an every day effort, but nowadays I only experience these once or twice a year, if any. If that's of any help to anyone, I've found countless…
Glad to hear you're doing better. I had a similar experience about a decade ago. Went through 2 years of feeling awful, changed a lot of things and got better. Had an attack out of nowhere last year and felt off for a few months until I remembered exactly how I got out of it before. Each time you realize you can get better with your set of tools it becomes less scary.
You definitely get to the point where they're just kinda meh and you move on with life.