The Mental Health Remedy
The Mental Health Remedy
In today’s world, mental health struggles are becoming more apparent. When dealing with the stresses of daily life, anxiety is a common emotion to experience. When faced with a problem, feelings of stress or worry are expected. While these feelings are a normal part of life, anxiety disorders are much more extreme and can have a huge impact on someone’s life. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, a generalized anxiety disorder causes irritability, muscle tension, fatigue, restlessness, difficulty concentrating, and difficulty controlling feelings of worry. Anxiety disorders also cause unwanted thoughts, negative thinking, and stress. These symptoms can be extremely difficult to manage and according to Arlin Cuncic, 6.8 million Americans struggle with these symptoms of chronic anxiety daily. Anxiety can cause significant issues in areas of life having to do with school, work, and even social interactions. Research from the Anxiety and Depression Association of America reveals that “Untreated children with anxiety disorders are at higher risk to perform poorly in school, miss out on important social experiences, and engage in substance abuse.”
There are ways to alleviate some of the symptoms of anxiety such as taking medication. However, meditation has proven to be just as helpful. According to Susan Chow, “Meditation is an ancient practice that is believed to have originated in India several thousand years ago. Throughout early history, the practice was adopted by neighboring countries quickly and formed a part of many religions throughout the world”. Meditation teachings made their way into Western Cultures during the 18th century. Since then, it has become more popular and is now recognized as a great technique for managing one’s well being and mental health. According to Holly Berton, there are many different types of meditation including mindfulness meditation, spiritual meditation, focused meditation, mantra meditation, visualization meditation, and more. Berton states that “mindfulness meditation originates from Buddhist teachings and is the most popular and researched form of meditation in the West”. Mindfulness is the act of acknowledging your thoughts, sitting with them, and allowing them to pass. It involves noticing any sounds that you may hear, any smells that you can smell, or things that you can feel. During this type of meditation, it is common to focus on the breath, and notice the physical sensations that come from breathing. Cuncic states that “the basic premise of mindfulness-based meditation is learning to detach from anxious thoughts. This is achieved by practicing awareness, identifying tension in the body, understanding your thinking patterns, and learning how to deal with difficult emotions.” One must allow thoughts to happen in order to detach from those thoughts. This allows one to remove judgement for their way of thinking, and to understand why certain thoughts come up, so that eventually one can correct their thought processes. Pushing thoughts and feelings to the side is not healthy because they will come up at some point.
Meditation has neurological benefits that have been confirmed by fMRIs and EEG. A study conducted at Johns Hopkins took a look at the relationship between mindfulness meditation and its ability to help symptoms of anxiety, depression, and pain. Alice G. Walton states that “Researcher Madhav Goyal and his team found that the effect size of meditation was moderate, at 0.3. If this sounds low, keep in mind that the effect size for antidepressants is also 0.3, which makes the effect of meditation sound pretty good. Another study was conducted at Yale University that revealed mindfulness meditation “decreases activity in the default mode network or DMN, the brain network responsible for mind wandering and self-referential thoughts”, says Alice G Walton. Mind wandering can lead to unwanted thoughts or worrying. Many studies show that meditation quiets down the DMN, allowing you to become better at snapping back into reality when the mind wanders. There was another study done at Johns Hopkins where they discovered that mindfulness meditation has the ability to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and pain. It can also help social anxiety and addiction, which are common struggles in society.
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Cuncic, A. (2020, December 10). The benefits of meditation for generalized anxiety disorder. Retrieved December 04, 2021, from https://www.verywellmind.com/the-benefits-of-meditation-for-generalized-anxiety-disorder-4143127
Casabianca, S. (2021, June 23). Meditation for anxiety symptoms: Does it work? Retrieved December 04, 2021, from https://psychcentral.com/anxiety/meditation-for-anxiety
Anxiety disorders. (n.d.). Retrieved December 04, 2021, from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders
Chow, S. (2021, March 18). Meditation history. Retrieved December 04, 2021, from https://www.news-medical.net/health/Meditation-History.aspx