Mindfulness will make your anxiety worse OR, at best, hold you in an anxious cycle
Over the last 20 years myself and our team have had the unique opportunity to help over 200,000 people... from that data, we have discovered some facts that will surprise you.
It is a warning from the only accredited anxiety disorder recovery and educational organisation and is based on over 200,000 case studies and thousands of hours experience, 20 years of practice and deep research and knowledge.
My philosophy has always been, 'if there's doubt, do and say nothing" but psychologists continue to practice their art despite not witnessing recovery in the vast majority of their clients... so why carry on doing what doesn't work?
I will explain all of this below.
Mindfulness Mindlessness
Our mental health team has seen a MASSIVE increase in anxiety and anxiety related issues over the last 12 to 18 months and it's all because of one 'fad'... a marketing boom in the inappropriate use of a process called mindfulness.
Mindfulness isn't 'new', it's the bastardisation of meditation, an ancient art, but it's a 'marketing ploy' not a healthcare provision and hundreds of our clients and others have bought into this fad and have been damaged by its practice.
I call it a 'fad' because that's exactly what it is... and the marketeers don't seem to understand, or care, that when unsuspecting anxiety sufferers buy their apps or recordings in good faith, they place themselves in risk... risk that the process will make them feel far, far worse.
Why?
If you suffer from an anxiety disorder, your mind is producing 'what if' risk assessments which are fed by your senses.
These risk assessments are meant to identify and deal with REAL risks... like a tiger or a man with a gun for example.
In anxiety disorders such as panic disorder, OCD, GAD, agoraphobia, PTSD, eating disorders, health anxiety etc. there is no REAL risk present.
Your brain relies on its resources to look for and identify risk and in the absence of real risk, it generates untruths... these are what we call anxiety disorders. These disorders are based on false fear.
Your mind relies on 'head space' in order to generate these risk assessments and we all know that when your environment is silent or less 'busy' your anxiety is worse.
Don't you find that your anxiety is worse when you:
- are alone
- are bored
- are somewhere you feel trapped (hairdressers, cinema etc.)
- have just become less busy
- are in bed trying to sleep
- have just woken up
You see, these are the times at which you have the 'head space' required to generate these risk assessments.
If you didn't generate these risk assessments or 'what if' thoughts, you wouldn't feel anxious. They are vital to the process that produces anxiety.
Mindfulness is a basic form of meditation... meditation is the very last thing you or any sufferer needs.
The biggest anxiety lie in healthcare
The biggest lie in anxiety healthcare and mental health is that sufferers need to relax. If you ask any psychophysiologist or neurologist whether anxiety can be helped by relaxing or meditation, they will laugh!
Relaxation, meditation and similar head-space producing techniques will, without exception, cause anxiety disorder sufferers to feel worse. They will provide the focus on the 'self' that anxiety needs in order to create 'what if' thought processes and to massively exacerbate anxiety disorders, obsessions, phobias and low mood. It will cause you to focus on your symptoms, your thoughts, your phobias and obsessions - it will not remove or subdue your anxiety because your anxiety is preset deep within your autonomic nervous system... mindfulness will no more remove your anxiety or calm you than it could reduce your weight or change your hormone levels... it's a complete nonsense.
Please do not use these 'quick-fix-promising' resources... if you wish to do so, please do, but do so at your peril and please remember who told you they wouldn't work and come back to me with your stories.
Last week I was told of a 14 year old boy whose gran bought him a mindfulness app in good faith... the anxious boy then tried to take his life as the Mindlessness teacher talked him through a meditation about death... what kind of an idiot would create such a device and market it in that way?
Mindfulness is mindlessness...
please be warned.
Extract from https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jan/23/is-mindfulness-making-us-ill
Claire, a 37-year-old in a highly competitive industry, was sent on a three-day mindfulness course with colleagues as part of a training programme. “Initially, I found it relaxing,” she says, “but then I found I felt completely zoned out while doing it. Within two or three hours of later sessions, I was starting to really, really panic.” The sessions resurfaced memories of her traumatic childhood, and she experienced a series of panic attacks. “Somehow, the course triggered things I had previously got over,” Claire says. “I had a breakdown and spent three months in a psychiatric unit. It was a depressive breakdown with psychotic elements related to the trauma, and several dissociative episodes.”Four and a half years later, Claire is still working part-time and is in and out of hospital. She became addicted to alcohol, when previously she was driven and high-performing, and believes mindfulness was the catalyst for her breakdown. Her doctors have advised her to avoid relaxation methods, and she spent months in one-to-one therapy. “Recovery involves being completely grounded,” she says, “so yoga is out.”
I know that I am probably going to get attacked for creating this page... I always do when I state facts from our unique and very sound data... the people who sell these apps and audios won't like the fact that we protect sufferers from being damaged by their nonsense... it upsets their purses... but please accept these as my final words...
...recover from your anxiety disorder first and THEN, if you still feel you need to meditate... use one of these apps... at least you will do so from a position of recovery and sound mind and not from a position of anxiety and despair. I am anxiety free and have no need to meditate because my life is calm and structured... I don't know anyone who needs to meditate or has the time on inclination to do so... it's a very unnecessary option if you are in emotional equilibrium and are happy with your life. Our clients are both.
Take care
Charles