Meditation is Not Everyone's Cup of Tea

Being transparent about your battles with mental illness could also mean being the target of unsolicited advice from those who claim that meditation is the solution to all the problems, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other issues. But what they fail to notice is that sometimes it is not the neurodivergence per se that has caused mental health disorders, but rather, society's refusal to accept or accommodate neurodivergence that, ironically, manifests in the form of advice like this.

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Meditation: The ADHD Cure that Nobody Should Prescribe

Some claims are made indicating that autism and ADHD can be "cured" with meditation, where one has the attention span to sit uninterrupted, in a trance, for a few minutes every day.

However, Jaime A. Heidel, an autistic writer, points out that those with ADHD and autism who perceive sensory inputs differently may find meditation disturbing.

The traditional meditation practice's requirement for silence and calm may actually overwhelm them because the sounds, textures, and other stimuli seem more prominent to them than usual, making them feel uneasy and agitated (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Experience of nature and times of silence as a resource to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and their effects on psychological wellbeing-Findings from a continuous cross-sectional survey in Germany

Go to source).

In fact, research has linked the anxiety, that neurodivergent people experience to their tendency towards sensory oversensitivity.

Meditation may occasionally increase anxiety in a neurodivergent person rather than reduce it.

A person with ADHD may also have difficulty with meditation techniques that depend on sustained attention to one's body since they have trouble controlling their focus (2^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Mindfulness Meditation Training for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Adulthood: Current Empirical Support, Treatment Overview, and Future Directions

Go to source).

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PTSD and Trauma May not be Ready to be Friends with Meditation

"For some people struggling with trauma, the basic tenets of mindful meditation practice, including focusing on the breath and remaining still for periods of time, can actually exacerbate trauma symptoms," David Treleaven, author of Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practises for Safe and Transformative Healing, told Mashable.

The body's fight-or-flight stress response may be heightened by paying close attention to uncomfortable or threatening feelings. It may also cause intrusive thoughts of injury or danger and bring up unpleasant memories (3^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services

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The Dark Side of Meditation that no-one Talks About

When we were kids, the future used to excite us, but it turns out that adulting is no joke.

Similarly, the advice that we often get is, "The secret to happiness is mindfulness." This sounds all flowery but could turn out to be all thorny, especially for neurodivergent people.

The Possible Cause of Failure of Meditation in Certain Individuals

Some people, including neurotypical individuals, may have a fear of losing control while utilizing relaxation techniques that would enable them to meditate, as well as an increase in intrusive thoughts and anxiety symptoms (4^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation for generalized anxiety disorder: effects on anxiety and stress reactivity

Go to source).

According to a study that specifically targeted PTSD sufferers, there is a "negative correlation between anxiety sensitivity or a fear of anxiety and anxiety-related sensations, which tends to be elevated among people with PTSD and mindfulness (5^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Meditation and Mindfulness: What You Need To Know

Go to source)."

It's also likely that a meditation session's accompanying vulnerability, which frequently results from being told to deliberately relax one's body, can make someone feel even more frightened or panicked.

Need of the Hour: Locating the Downhill of Meditation

The American Psychiatric Association made a statement in 1977 urging researchers to examine both the benefits and risks of meditation.

Ancient meditation guides, such as the Buddhist Dharmatrta Meditation Scripture, also mention that the mind can become unsteady, restless, or confused if meditation is not done correctly, according to Miguel Farias, an experimental psychologist who focuses on studies of beliefs and spiritual practices, including meditation, in BBC Science Focus.

However, as researchers have remarked, it has taken decades for us to even accept that we might be fostering biases that lead us to overestimate the clinical benefits of meditation practice while ignoring the possibility that it might have a negative influence on some people—lying even to ourselves—and that this is the case.

Further studies are needed to investigate how meditation and mindfulness practices can accommodate neurodivergent brains because research on the usefulness of meditation on ADHD brains has also indicated that the practice does not totally eliminate the effects of the disorder on people's life. However, there haven't been many developments on that front so yet.

In conclusion, while meditation does open up a wealth of advantages for many people, it's crucial to recognize that it might not work for everyone. We must endeavor to create mindfulness techniques that take into account the complexity of the human mind as our understanding of neurodiversity deepens.

References:

1. Experience of nature and times of silence as a resource to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and their effects on psychological wellbeing-Findings from a continuous cross-sectional survey in Germany - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36420008/)
2. Mindfulness Meditation Training for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Adulthood: Current Empirical Support, Treatment Overview, and Future Directions - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25908900/)
3. Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24901203/)
4. Randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation for generalized anxiety disorder: effects on anxiety and stress reactivity - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23541163/)
5. Meditation and Mindfulness: What You Need To Know - (https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/meditation-and-mindfulness-what-you-need-to-know)

Source-Medindia