Despite popular belief, meditation could be bad for your mental health, a new study has shown.
For years we have thought that meditative practices and wellness retreats could help to reduce anxiety and stress but researchers from the University College London (UCL) have found the opposite could be true.
The team conducted an international survey and discovered that more than a quarter of people who regularly practice meditation have had "a particularly unpleasant" psychological experience which included overwhelming feelings of fear and other distorted emotions. The report, published in PLOS ONE, is part of a growing body of research that suggests meditation could actually have a negative psychological impact on those who practiced it.
The NHS previously reported on a separate study that found a group of people practicing meditation encountered a range of related "challenging or difficult" experiences, with some participants expressing feelings of extreme depression and suicidal thoughts.
In light of these emerging reports, the team at UCL set out to determine whether or not their own study would produce similar results. They set up an international online survey of 1,232 people who had at least two months' meditation experience and asked participants a series of questions about their practice.
Nearly 30% of the respondents reported having encountered "particularly unpleasant" meditation-related experiences. This included those who had attended a meditation retreat, those who practiced specific types of meditation and those with higher levels of repetitive negative thinking.
"These findings point to the importance of widening the public and scientific understanding of meditation beyond that of a health-promoting technique," said lead author Marco Schlosser. "Very little is known about why, when, and how such meditation-related difficulties can occur: more research is now needed to understand the nature of these experiences."
He pointed out that by further exploring the topic, experts could establish under what circumstances these unpleasant experiences arose and whether they can have long-term effects.
"This future research could inform clinical guidelines, mindfulness manuals, and meditation teacher training," he said.
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