Meditation can be helpful, but it can also have dangerous side effects. Experts warn against trivializing the risks. Those affected report negative experiences and a psychology professor explains which people should be particularly careful.
Many people turn to meditation to counteract everyday stress and other possible psychological problems. They swear by the positive effects of mindfulness practice, which is partly scientifically proven by studies. However, the fact that meditation can also have negative and sometimes even dangerous side effects is often ignored or played down, according to a report by the research magazine Vollbild. The report also includes comments from those affected who claim to have become mentally ill through meditation.
Side effects of meditation are not uncommon
Speaking to Vollbild, US psychologist Willoughby Britton from Brown University warns that research in recent years has focused primarily on the positive aspects of meditation, while the possible negative consequences have been examined less closely. However, such risks are already mentioned in ancient Buddhist texts and are therefore “nothing new”.
Britton himself discovered in a ten-year long-term study that one in ten meditators developed side effects that severely limited their everyday lives. Most of the time, these were anxiety, dissociative experiences, or a combination of these. In rarer cases, psychosis could also occur.
Dissociation is a state in which one experiences one’s own consciousness as separate from the body. Mild dissociations occur every day, for example when one is highly concentrated and blocks out everything around one. But dissociations can also be unpleasant, for example when they cause forgetfulness or the relationship between the self and the environment is perceived as disturbed.
A study by the Charité Berlin, published in the journal BJ Psych Open, came to a similar conclusion to Britton. 22 percent of the approximately 1,400 test subjects examined developed unwanted side effects. Nine percent of these were only mild and temporary. The other 13 percent had moderate to extreme effects that required treatment and in some cases even made hospital stays necessary.
Full-screen research: Psychoses and panic attacks
The full-screen report also reports on specific cases in which those affected developed serious psychological problems after they started meditating. Nadin, a 28-year-old student from Düsseldorf, was treated as an inpatient in a clinic for two months because she had developed a psychosis as a result of a retreat. Micki, a 26-year-old student from Wiesbaden, explains that he had panic attacks while using a meditation app and eventually also went to a clinic.
Vollbild also mentions a particularly tragic case from Canada, where a 22-year-old woman prematurely ended a meditation retreat and subsequently committed suicide. Her exact motives and whether meditation was actually the trigger have not yet been clarified.
Why side effects of meditation are often ignored
When people report negative experiences with meditation, the course providers often blame them themselves, Britton explains, saying that the person is doing something wrong or that the problems were there beforehand.
Micki explains that in the meditation community they say: “If you have problems meditating, then you need to keep going. […] You are so close to the goal, now you just need to do a little more.” Nadin also reports that her guru did not take her negative feelings seriously and that the retreat staff encouraged her to continue when she expressed her concerns to them.
Vollbild also warns that anyone without serious training can offer meditation courses and retreats. Many providers are therefore overwhelmed when it comes to serious mental health problems. In addition, there are no controls on such offers.
Certain groups of people are particularly at risk
In a 2023 interview with Spiegel, psychology professor Ramani Durvasula also warns that mindfulness exercises such as meditation could have undesirable side effects in certain groups of people.
Narcissists, for example, could fall into a “tyranny of well-being” and use such practices only to elevate themselves and devalue others. In traumatized people, however, meditation threatens to provoke anxiety.
Meditation can harm traumatized people
Due to side effects such as “hyperarousal or dissociation,” Duvarsula would not recommend meditation to very anxious people with a traumatic history: “I would make it clear that you can and should stop if meditation becomes overwhelming or causes anxiety,” she explains.
But that doesn’t mean that traumatized people shouldn’t meditate in general. According to a 2022 study in the journal Jama Psychiatry, meditation can also help reduce anxiety. Whether mindfulness practices help or harm depends on the person’s history and personality, according to Durvasula.
Beware of “mindful” narcissists
The psychology professor also warns of an effect that occurs specifically in narcissists. Narcissism is a personality style that, according to Durvasula, is characterized by, among other things, high self-expectations, the search for validation and ego fixation. In addition, narcissists wear a “mask” in public that is different from their private side and can sometimes be cruel, unfeeling and manipulative.
Narcissistic people often only engage with things very superficially, explains Durvasula. Instead of really integrating what they have learned into their own lives, they sometimes practice mindfulness and meditation to express their own superiority. “On social media, they rave about their meditation, but in reality they remain contemptuous and feel superior,” says the psychologist.
The narcissistic person can “use these wellness practices as a weapon” to shame others or to neglect family duties under the guise of self-care. Other people cannot do anything about it “because society tells them: mindfulness and meditation are good. So what objection can they have if someone takes care of themselves?”
On the other hand, narcissists tend to get frustrated because they sometimes see mindfulness practices as a panacea. If the methods don’t lead to success, they say: “I do everything, I exercise, I meditate – so why isn’t it getting better?” says Durvasula.
Alternatives to meditation
Instead of meditating, Durvasula recommends that those who find meditation uncomfortable focus on the present in other ways: “Crafting or baking or something else that is sensual but may not produce such stimulating states of mind.”
Narcissists, on the other hand, should practice practices that strengthen the connection with other people: for example, putting down the cell phone when talking to others, making eye contact and listening carefully.
People want quick answers to their problems and therefore often turn to mindfulness and meditation. However, Durvasula believes that this “TikTokification of mental health” is problematic. Mindfulness practices are just “one tool among many”. Although they can have positive effects, they still require a certain amount of caution.
Note: Anyone who feels psychologically stressed can find help from the telephone counseling service: On 0800/1110111 or 0800/1110222. Alternatively, there is a chat service at: online.telefonseelsorge.de
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