Loving Kindness is one of my favourites. It has been proven to increase activity in the brain associated with happiness. Below is a chart from my Heart Rate Variability monitor where are started "LovingKindness" or "Metta" Meditation at the 1-min mark. It immediately increased my HRV amplitude, indicating increased parasympathetic activity.
Here is a great little audio called "Loving kindness on the go." You can and should do it all though the day. Anyone you see in a store, etc.
http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/1830.html
Another great meditation is "Insight Meditation"or Mindfulness Meditation, where the goal is to simply learn to watch the patterns of the mind, so you can catch yourself spiralling into anger or any other negative state.
Over time, positive emotions occur more and more and neagtive emotions occur less and less. When negative emotions ooccur, you notice them quickly...and once you indentify it, you separate yourself from the emotion and it just fades away.
"HOWEVER, it caused crazy brain fog! And also, it caused me to have depressed thoughts constantly. Meditation definitely made me very depressed. It affected me cognitively and emotionally for the worse."
What you experienced was spiritual growth that accompanies meditation. When we start our meditation journey our bodies are not used to us as spirit taking control and they often rebel. Your body took over and convinced you that it was a better one to control your life - and you as spirit gave in.
You are the one who created the depressed thoughts - not meditation. If you don't like your depressed thoughts - let them go, don't keep repeating what has made you miserable. Regardless of what you experienced you are still responsible for your own reality - and everything in it that has ever happened to it.
Meditating is like physical exercise - on a spiritual level. You are toning your spiritual muscles for more in depth insight into who you are and what you are here to do. You can and will hit blocks as you did and you can continue to meditate and move through the blocks, or you can give up. I've hit things that there is no way I wanted to look at (mainly blaming others for my "problems") them a few years or even months ago, but if you allow spirit to simply release the garbage and get you through it the love, joy, and physical exhilaration is beyond description.
Everyone of us has hate, anger, pain (oh that pain) as well as joy and peace within us. Gandhi said: "The only devil there is is the one that is in each and everyone of us and that is where we should fight him."
You are learning about yourself and all that's buried within you. God loves you and all of your creations - take a chance and learn to love yourself with all of your faults and your good stuff too and you will be richly rewarded.
"You have no idea about all the people out there that have a biological cause of brain inflammation that meditation won't be enough to help with. Depression is a biological state of brain inflammation."
There is no proof to support that statement. You also neglect the fact that meditation can and does reverse depression, anxiety, and a host of other things.
I've practiced meditation for more than 30 years, an hour or more per day. I've eliminated clinical depression, PTSD from both childhood, combat, and another disaster, and found a much richer and rewarding life in the process. There is no study or advice anywhere that meditation causes depression.
There are many, many forms of meditation. I use a type where you are in a normal sitting position with feet flat on the floor and activate my earth energies, chakras, and kundalini. I don't practice either TM or yoga meditation. Get in touch with yourself as the spiritual entity that you are, and you can achieve a lot, including curing depression, bipolar, and everyday tensions and "problems." (There is no such thing as a problem, only a perception of a problem.)
http://blogs.psychcentral.com/bipolar/2011/04/mindfulness-bipolar-disorder-de...
Rewiring Your Brain through Mindfulness
If brain chemistry can affect thoughts and behaviors, can thoughts and behaviors affect brain chemistry and perhaps even rewire the brain?
Yes.
An accumulating body of evidence supports the notion that non-medical interventions – especially mindfulness – can create changes in the body and brain that help reduce distress and improve brain function in a variety of ways.
Some of the most interesting projects have explored the use of mindfulness practices to reduce stress and depression and improve attention. Several fascinating studies have explored the minds of “experts” in meditation – a form of mindfulness – and clearly show they have strong neuro-circuitry in areas of emotional regulation and feelings of compassion.
A recent study in the journal Neuroimage entitled “Impact of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Training on Intrinsic Brain Connectivity” (Kilpatrick et al., 2011 Feb 17) involved a group of healthy women who were trained for eight weeks in mindfulness meditation skills compared to a group that did not participate in the training. Functional MRI studies at the end of the eight weeks showed “increased functional connectivity” between various areas of the brain in the women who studied mindfulness. The training changed the brain in ways thought to relate to how the brain pays attention and how it processes sensory information.
Some studies have examined the effects of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) that have similarly suggested brain changes that occur in response to therapy and are related to improving symptoms.
Our feelings and behaviors are the results of complex and constantly evolving interactions of our genetic patterns and the environment acting on those patterns. The environment includes all things that affect us – physical and social/emotional stresses are all part of the story. What we need to keep in mind is that the environmental effects on our systems are just as “biological” as any medication or surgical procedure, and they may affect the brain in positive ways as well as negative.
Nurture is nature; our biological makeup evolves as we interact with the world around us. So the work of helping ourselves feel better involves looking at all the possible ways of creating beneficial changes in the nervous system – from medicine to food to exercise to light to various types of therapies and practices such as mindfulness and beyond.
Come back on Thursday to read guest blogger Shamash Alidina’s post, “Using Mindfulness for Bipolar Disorder.” Shamash Alidina is author of Mindfulness For Dummies.”
If you’ve had any sort of mindfulness training, please share your experiences and insights.
Also on Psych Central, ”How to Be Mindful and Have More Positivity,” by Joe Wilner.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/blogs/go-healthy-ny/Transcendental-Meditation-TM-No...
If Stressed, Try Meditating: Psychiatrist
If you’re stressed, meditate, says a world-renowned psychiatrist.
“Your nervous system is constantly being assaulted all day long -- stresses from within, from other people, obstacles occur. When you meditate regularly, you don’t get bent out of shape so easily,” says Dr. Norman Rosenthal, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown Medical.
"Often times when we snap at people, we’re under stress,” he says.
This can be especially true for those living in large cities like New York City.
“Getting to work, getting to the bus, the deadlines that you have to make, and the hours that you have to work – these are constant stresses stressing us and if we don’t have a quiet place to go and a special technique that enables us to settle down our bodies and our minds, then we don’t have protection against the frequent batterings to our nervous system – that have consequences,” Rosenthal says.
The technique that the former 20-year National Institute of Mental Health senior researcher recommends is transcendental meditation, which uses a mantra taught in a specific, effortless way.
But "any meditation is better than none," he says......
"It is a rare reaction, yes. But your logic is so flawed its ridiculous. You put so much emphasis on showing how meditation can cause physical changes in the body, yet fail to comprehend how sometimes this can actually not be good for a person."
Why is it then that all real research on meditation is nothing but positive? If my logic is so "flawed its ridiculous" why can't you support it with sources?
We in Western Society are a bunch of pill poppers. We look for something to put in our mouth to cure anything from a headache to a cancer - just like we did as an infant when we were frustrated only then it was either a boob or a bottle. It's our first reaction.
When one is addressing something like depression why don't we ever look at lifestyle? Tobacco use? Alcohol use? BMI (anything over 25 is a contributing factor)? Exercise? Nope - we would rather take a pill.
Have never seen anything regarding vitamin d and depression but there is a great amount of literature on omega 3 and depression. If you read the book The Omega 3 Connection you will find that the psychiatrist author uses omega 3 in huge quantities for clinical depression with some good results.
The "chemical imbalance" theory is just that. There is no supporting evidence.
http://chriskresser.com/the-chemical-imbalance-myth
The "chemical imbalance" myth
A theory that is wrong is considered preferable to admitting our ignorance.” – Elliot Vallenstein, Ph.D.
The idea that depression and other mental health conditions are caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain is so deeply ingrained in our psyche that it seems almost sacrilegious to question it.
Direct-to-consumer-advertising (DCTA) campaigns, which have expanded the size of the antidepressant market (Donohue et al., 2004), revolve around the claim that SSRIs (the most popular class of antidepressants) alleviate depression by correcting a deficiency of serotonin in the brain.
For example, Pfizer’s television advertisement for Zoloft states that “depression is a serious medical condition that may be due to a chemical imbalance”, and that “Zoloft works to correct this imbalance.”
Other SSRI advertising campaigns make similar claims. The Effexor website even has a slick video explaining that “research suggests an important link between depression and an imbalance in some of the brain’s chemical messengers. Two neurotransmitters believed to be involved in depression are serotonin and norepinephrine.” The video goes on to explain that Effexor works by increasing serotonin levels in the synapse, which is “believed to relieve symptoms of depression over time.”
These days serotonin is widely promoted as the way to achieve just about every personality trait that is desirable, including self-confidence, creativity, emotional resilience, success, achievement, sociability and high energy. And the converse is also true. Low serotonin levels have been implicated in almost every undesirable mental state and behavioral pattern, such as depression, aggressiveness, suicide, stress, lack of self-confidence, failure, low impulse control, binge eating and other forms of substance abuse.
In fact, the idea that low levels of serotonin cause depression has become so widespread that it’s not uncommon to hear people speak of the need to “boost their serotonin levels” through exercise, herbal supplements or even sexual activity. The “chemical imbalance” theory is so well established that it is now part of the popular lexicon.
It is, after all, a neat theory. It takes a complex and heterogeneous condition (depression) and boils it down to a simple imbalance of two to three neurotransmitters (out of more than 100 that have been identified), which, as it happens, can be “corrected” by long-term drug treatment. This clear and easy-to-follow theory is the driving force behind the $12 billion worth of antidepressant drugs sold each year.
However, there is one (rather large) problem with this theory: there is absolutely no evidence to support it. Recent reviews of the research have demonstrated no link between depression, or any other mental disorder, and an imbalance of chemicals in the brain (Lacasse & Leo, 2005; (Valenstein, 1998).
The ineffectiveness of antidepressant drugs when compared to placebo cast even more doubt on the “chemical imbalance” theory. (See my recent articles Placebos as effective as antidepressants and A closer look at the evidence for more on this.)
Folks, at this point you might want to grab a cup of tea. It’s going to take a while to explain the history of this theory, why it is flawed, and how continues to persist in light of the complete lack of evidence to support it. I will try to be as concise as possible, but there’s a lot of material to cover and a lot of propaganda I need to disabuse you of.
Ready? Let’s start with a bit of history.
The first antidepressant, iproniazid, was discovered by accident in 1952 after it was observed that some tubercular patients became euphoric when treated with this drug. A bacteriologist named Albert Zeller found that iproniazid was effective in inhibiting the enzyme monoamine oxydase. As its name implies, monoamine oxydase plays an essential role in inactivating monoamines such as epinephrine and norepinephrine. Thus, iproniazid raised levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine which in turn led to stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system – an effect thought to be responsible for the antidepressant action of the drug.
At around the same time, an extract from the plant Rauwolfia serpentina was introduced into western psychiatry. This extract had been used medicinally in India for more than a thousand years and was thought to have a calming effect useful to quite babies, treat insomnia, high blood pressure, insanity and much more. In 1953 chemists at Ciba, a pharmaceutical company, isolated the active compound from this herb and called it reserpine.
In 1955 researchers at the National Institutes of Health reported that reserpine reduces the levels of serotonin in the brains of animals. It was later established that all three of the major biogenic amines in the brain, norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine, were all decreased by reserpine (again, in animals).
In animal studies conducted at around the same time, it was found that animals administered reserpine showed a short period of increased excitement and motor activity, followed by a prolonged period of inactivity. The animals often had a hunched posture and an immobility that was thought to resemble catatonia (Valenstein, 1998). Since reserpine lowered levels of serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine, and caused the effects observed in animals, it was concluded that depression was a result of low levels of biogenic amines. Hence, the “chemical imbalance” theory is born.
However, it was later found that reserpine only rarely produces a true clinical depression. Despite high doses and many months of treatment with reserpine, only 6 percent of the patients developed symptoms even suggestive of depression. In addition, an examination of these 6 percent of patients revealed that all of them had a previous history of depression. (Mendels & Frazer, 1974) There were even reports from a few studies that reserpine could have an antidepressant effect (in spite of reducing levels of serotonin, norepinephrine and dopanmine).
As it turns out, that is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to revealing the inadequacies of the “chemical imbalance” theory.
As Elliot Valenstein Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of psychology and neuroscience at Michigan University, points out in his seminal book Blaming the Brain, “Contrary to what is often claimed, no biochemical, anatomical or functional signs have been found that reliably distinguish the brains of mental patients.” (p. 125)
In his book, Valenstein clearly and systematically dismantles the chemical imbalance theory:
Another problem is that it is not now possible to measure serotonin and norepinephrine in the brains of patients. Estimates of brain neurotransmitters can only be inferred by measuring the biogenic amine breakdown products (metabolites) in the urine and cerebrospinal fluid. The assumption underlying this measurement is that the level of biogenic amine metabolites in the urine and cerebrospinal fluid reflects the amount of neurotransmitters in the brain. However, less than one-half of the serotonin and norepinephrine metabolites in the urine or cerebrospinal fluid come from the brain. The other half come from various organs in the body. Thus, there are serious problems with what is actually being measured.
Finally, there is not a single peer-reviewed article that can be accurately cited to support claims of serotonin deficiency in any mental disorder, while there are many articles that present counterevidence. Furthermore, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) does not list serotonin as the cause of any mental disorder. The American Psychiatric Press Textbook of Clinical Psychiatry addresses serotonin deficiency as an unconfirmed hypothesis, stating “Additional experience has not confirmed the monoamine depletion hypothesis” (Lacasse & Leo, 2005).
When all of this evidence is taken in full, it should be abundantly clear that depression is not caused by a chemical imbalance.
But, as Valenstein shrewdly observes, “there are few rewards waiting for the person who claims that “the emperor is really nude” or who claims that we really do not know what causes depression or why an antidepressant sometimes helps to relieve this condition.”
There are several reasons the idea that mental disorders are caused by a chemical imbalance has become so widespread (and none of them have anything to do with the actual scientific evidence, as we have seen).
It is known that people suffering from mental disorders and especially their families prefer a diagnosis of “physical disease” because it does not convey the stigma and blame commonly associated with “psychological problems”. A “physical disease” may suggest a more optimistic prognosis, and mental patients are often more amenable to drug treatment when they are told they have a physical disease.
Patients are highly susceptible to Direct-to-Consumer-Advertising (DCTA). It has been reported that patients are now presenting to their doctors with a self-described “chemical imbalance” (Kramer, 2002). This is important because studies show that patients who are convinced they are suffering from a neurotransmitter defect are likely to request a prescription for antidepressants, and may be skeptical of physicians who suggest other interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy (DeRubeis et al., 2005). It has also been shown that anxious and depressed patients “are probably more susceptible to the controlling influence of advertisements (Hollon MF, 2004).
The benefit of the chemical imbalance theory for insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry is primarily economic. Medical insurers are primarily concerned with cost, and they want to discourage treatments (such as psychotherapy) that may involve many contact hours and considerable expense. Their control over payment schedules enables insurance companies to shift treatment toward drugs and away from psychotherapy.
The motivation of the pharmaceutical companies should be fairly obvious. As mentioned previously, the market for antidepressant drugs is now $12 billion. All publicly traded for-profit companies are required by law to increase the value of their investor’s stock. Perhaps it goes without saying, but it is a simple fact that pharmaceutical companies will do anything they legally (and sometimes illegally) can to maximize revenues.
Studies have shown that the advertisements placed by drug companies in professional journals or distributed directly to physicians are often exaggerated or misleading and do not accurately reflect scientific evidence (Lacasse & Leo, 2005). While physicians deny they are being influenced, it has been shown repeatedly that their prescription preferences are heavily affected by promotional material from drug companies (Moynihan, 2003). Research also suggests that doctors exposed to company reps are more likely to favor drugs over non-drug therapy, and more likely to prescribe expensive medications when equally effective but less costly ones are available (Lexchin, 1989). Some studies have even shown an association between the dose and response: in other words, the more contact between doctors and sales reps the more doctors latch on to the “commercial” messages as opposed to the “scientific” view of a product’s value (Wazana, 2000).
The motivation of psychiatrists to accept the chemical imbalance theory is somewhat more subtle. Starting around 1930, psychiatrists became increasingly aware of growing competition from nonmedical therapists such as psychologists, social workers and counselors. Because of this, psychiatrists have been attracted to physical treatments like drugs and electroshock therapy that differentiate them from nonmedical practitioners. Psychiatry may be the least respected medical specialty (U.S. General Accounting Office report). Many Americans rejected Fruedian talk therapy as quackery, and the whole field of psychiatry lacks the quality of research (randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind experiments) that serves as the gold-standard in other branches of medicine.
Dr. Colin Ross, a psychiatrist, describes it this way:
“I also saw how badly biological psychiatrists want to be regarded as doctors and accepted by the rest of the medical profession. In their desire to be accepted as real clinical scientists, these psychiatrists were building far too dogmatic an edifice… pushing their certainty far beyond what the data could support.”
Of course there are also many “benefits” to going along with the conventional “chemical imbalance” theory, such as free dinners, symphony tickets, and trips to the Caribbean; consultancy fees, honoraria and stock options from the pharmaceutical companies; and a much larger, growing private practice as the $20 billion spent by drug companies on advertising brings patients to the office. Psychiatrists are just human, like the rest of us, and not many of them can resist all of these benefits.
In sum, the idea that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance is a myth. Pharmaceutical ads for antidepressants assert that depression is a physical diseases because that serves as a natural and easy segue to promoting drug treatment. There may well be biological factors which predispose some individuals toward depression, but predisposition is not a cause. The theory that mental disorders are physical diseases ignores the relevance of psychosocial factors and implies by omission that such factors are of little importance.
Amusement is a huge healer. Has even been a story about a guy who cured his cancer with it.
Over my head? I think you've got it backwards. There is nothing, nothing in your articles that even hint that meditation is unable to reverse what you have presented. Yet there are testimonials that indicate that SSRI imbalances can be healed with meditation. Here's but one example of a bipolar, clinically depressed, mentally incarcerated teen who cured herself with meditation alone.
http://voices-of-recovery-schizophrenia.blogspot.com/2008/07/jane-alexander-m...
You've been listening to the medical doctors too much. If you think you can't be cured or receive help through particular option, you won't. It is spirit which does all healing and it is spirit that you access during meditation.
Another great healer of depression is exercise, but again - if you don't want to heal - you won't.
Exercise for Depression Rivals Drugs, Therapy
Aerobic exercise can make a big difference in mild to moderate depression, say Andrea Dunn, PhD, and colleagues in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine’s January edition.
The researchers found that 30-minute aerobic workouts of moderate intensity, done three to five times weekly, cut mild to moderate depression symptoms nearly in half. That’s comparable to other depression treatments, say researchers.
Depression Common, Treatment Rare
In any given year, nearly 19 million adults in America have a depressive illness, says the National Institute of Mental Health. That’s more than 9 percent of the population.
Many suffer silently, not getting treatment that could help.
Only 23 percent of depressed people seek treatment and just 10 percent receive adequate treatment. That’s partly due to social stigma associated with treatment, say the researchers.
With that in mind, they studied a socially accepted antidepressant — exercise. Studies have shown that exercise can help relieve depression, but no one knew exactly how well it worked.
Participants were 80 adults with mild to moderate depression. All were 20 to 45 years old. None were taking other depression treatments.
Fitness Makeover
The participants signed on for a major fitness overhaul. Before the study, they were largely sedentary, working out less than three times weekly for no more than 20 minutes per session.
Those couch-potato days vanished when the 12-week study began. Participants were randomly assigned to one of five groups to test different fitness strategies.
Two groups did moderate aerobic exercise. One group worked out 3 days per week; the other group exercised 5 days per week. They worked out on treadmills or stationary bikes.
The other groups took it a bit easier. Two groups did low-intensity aerobic workouts for 3 or 5 days weekly. For comparison, the last group didn’t do any aerobic exercise. Instead, they stretched and did flexibility exercises for 15 to 20 minutes 3 days per week.
Cheating was out of the question. Everyone exercised under the watchful eye of fitness pros at the Cooper Institute in Dallas.
Exercise Equals Talk Therapy, Drugs
After 12 weeks, participants were rescreened for depression symptoms. All three groups had lower scores than at the beginning of the study.
The moderate-intensity groups had the biggest improvement. Their symptoms fell by 47 percent. In addition, depression had gone into remission for 42 percent of those participants, according to their depression test scores.
That’s comparable to other depression treatments, say the researchers. They cite remission rates of 36 percent for cognitive behavior therapy and 42 percent for the antidepressant medication Tofranil (imipramine) – an older antidepressant — in other studies.
Lower-intensity aerobic exercise and stretching/flexibility weren’t as beneficial. Low-intensity exercise cut depression symptoms by 30 percent, compared to 29 percent for stretching/flexibility.
It didn’t matter whether the workouts were done three or five days per week.
“The key is the intensity of the exercise and continuing it for 30-35 minutes per day,” says psychiatry professor Madhukar Trivedi, MD. Trivedi worked on the study and directs the university’s mood disorders research program.
Keep in mind that this study focused on mild to moderate depression in younger adults. It didn’t address severe depression, or other groups of patients.
Depression is a serious illness affecting the whole body and deserves professional help. No one suggests trading talk therapy or prescription drugs for gym memberships. Instead, exercise might be one more option to consider in planning treatment. It’s also a good idea to get your general health checked out before launching a new fitness program.
I understand your "argument" very well. You don't believe that you can be healed. It's a common misconception. You obviously don't believe Jane Alexander's healing of depression deeper than yours - with meditation alone.
You hit spiritual growth and your body took over and has continued to take over. It is bodies that try to rely on logic. Spirit transcends logic.
You talked about "depressive thoughts" when you meditated. Who created those depressive thoughts? Was there a little robot in your head? Was it the SSRIs? You created those thoughts all by yourself and there are a couple things that could have been done. First you can simply change the thoughts (a common psychiatric solution) - or, you can through meditation turn off the thoughts and allow love and joy to fill your reality.
Happy healing.
Life is living in the present moment. Everything is happening now. You can't experience the future. You can only experience now. If you are in fear of the future, you are behaving irrationally because in the present moment nothing in the future can do you harm.
An excellent little bit about the present..... enjoy
http://positivepause.com/index.html