--- In [email protected], ruthsimplicity <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "feste37" <feste37@> wrote: > > > <snip> > > In a sense, TM is a victim of its own success and availability. So > > many people have learned it (millions?) that it stands to reason that > > out of those large numbers, some will have pre-existing mental > > disorders that may or may not be helped by TM.But the > > idea that TM causes these disturbances is ludicrous. > > I still wonder about how many stuck with TM for any length of time out > of the many who started. > > But yes, I am sure that there were those with mental health issues who > were not helped by TM. I know this because I know of examples. > > As far as TM itself causing mental health problems, my guess is that > 20 minutes twice a day is unlikely to do so. However, some people just > get anxious when told to relax and can't get suggested out of it. And > there are some people who think themselves into trouble and if they > use their meditation to reinforce bad thinking patterns, (arguably not > meditating properly, but remember it is supposed to be effortless, > easy!) I could see problems being exacerbated. I certainly have seen > meditators who are very irritable after meditating and critical of > others. I refuse to lump all such bad behavior under the unstressing > umbrella. >
Well, if someone who is irritable after meditating doesn't follow the instruction of taking longer to open the eyes and move around, can they truely be said to be meditating properly? > Then again, I think there are some who thrive on the discipline of > meditating twice a day and they find it relaxing. > > > I think that rounding and other longer meditation practices have > greater potential to cause problems or making problems worse. I > think this can happen because people are sitting too much and are not > active enough, or are too self focused and not enough other focused or > are sleeping too much or sleeping too irregularly (either of which can > happen with rounding), or are just thinking themselves into crazy. > Too much of anything can be "too much." The blame for someone who starts showing massive unstressing during rounding and continues with the rounding lies with the person in charge of the rounding course who doesn't admit that that person probably needs LESS meditatoin, not more. On the other hand, I have dear, dear friend who is on extreme medication who meditates regularly. ONce, I found her running in circles immediately after meditating, screamign that she was having an anxiety attack. I literally tackled them, wrestled her to the floor and made her lay quietly with her eyes closed for 30 minutes. After consulting with her psychiatrist, we all agreed that she should continue meditating, but that I should maintain vigilance to make sure she rested sufficiently long after meditating. Please keep in mind that her psychiatrist doesn't practice any form of meditation, and in fact, his jaw-dropped when he heard the person had actually acknowledged, albeity loudly, that she was having an anxiety attack, because one of her symptoms was normally to fall asleep for four hours after crying non-stop for an hour, and not remembering any of the past 5 hours' activities. Soooo... this episode was either merely some kidn of severe unstressing (remembering an anxiety attack), or a literally (*literally*) life-changing breakthrough in her ability to be aware of what was going on during his anxiety attacks ( come to think of it, unstressing or not, it probably WAS a breakthrough of some kind, given her subsequent gradually growing ability to acknowledge them as they happened and remember them later). Either way, her psychiatrist recommended she continue meditating with appropriate supervision to make sure she lay down long enough afterwards if she felt bad. And you can't get much more severe anxiety attacks than those requiring a $200/month regimen of extremely powerful anti-psychotics, so new that there are no cheap generics. Lawson
