The dangers of misusing Mindfulness

Over the years, meditation and many of its variants have taken deep roots in the Western world.

And it is that there are multiple variants of meditation and oriental principles with a lot of potential to improve people's lives.

But not everything is rosy. Is Mindfulness Good For Everyone? Can you solve all the psychological problems that society brings? Keep reading.

• Related article: "The 4 types of Mindfulness and their characteristics"

The benefits of Mindfulness

The potential benefits of Mindfulness are undeniable. I myself practice it in my day to day life, and sometimes I use it as a tool in therapy.

Mindfulness has become very fashionable over the years in Western countries. Mindfulness arises as a relatively simple, inexpensive tool, accessible to almost anyone you have access to the Internet or a meditation class center in your neighborhood.

And many people have seen videos and documentaries about the scientific studies that have been done, about Tibetan monks with electrodes on their heads, showing that after years of intense meditation practice, their brain waves are different from those of the typical Western person stressed.

Many books have been written (and sold) on the subject, courses have been given, some companies even included Mindfulness as part of the work routine of their employees (whether they want to or not).

The general idea that is established in the collective memory is that Mindfulness works for everything, from treating problems anxiety or depression, even multiplying your performance at work or even opening the doors to another reality spiritual.

What very few people know is that Mindfulness it doesn't work with everyone. In specific cases, it can even make things worse.

Possible dangers of mindfulness for some people

Mindfulness is in fashion, and like all great fashion, there are many people making money with it. When someone's finances depend on her ability to sell Mindfulness books, courses or classes, it is difficult to expect that person to show us the "dark side" of meditation.

Little is said, but there is a multitude of scientific research that shows how, of all the people who practice Mindfulness, there is always a small percentage of them who report episodes of anxiety, panic, or even derealization. Obviously, this doesn't happen to everyone. But it happens.

The main mistake, from the experts' point of view, is putting too many expectations on Mindfulness as a tool.

Yes, it is very useful in certain clinical cases, it can be extremely useful in managing day-to-day stress and worries. But mindfulness, On its own, it cannot make depression, anxiety, or panic attacks go away. Especially if people "self-medicate" watching videos online, without consulting a professional before.

Mindfulness and panic attacks

For example, the case of panic attacks or anxiety. We can understand these problems as excessive hypervigilance towards certain physical sensations or thoughts.

The person's natural stress response is activated (by any element of the environment), and that the person, when perceiving her nervous symptoms, becomes more nervous. Then the bodily sensations and anxious thoughts intensify. Then keep climbing, until the person loses control.

If that person, instead of going to a psychologist, decides to start doing Mindfulness on their own, it could increase the chances of experiencing a panic attack during their meditation. Because that's exactly what Mindfulness consists of: making us more aware of our feelings and thoughts, accepting them and letting them go.

But if the person's problem is precisely hypervigilance or over-reactivity to certain stimuli... I could end up activating the whole sequence until the panic attack.

If the person had first gone to a professional psychologist, they would first have made an evaluation, a functional analysis, the person's learning history would have been studied. The irrational beliefs that cause and maintain panic attacks would have been worked on.

And eventually, the person would have been gradually exposed to the feared stimuli, with a hierarchical system and under supervision. Slowly. The person would have been properly prepared.

• You may be interested in: "Panic Disorder: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment"

Mindfulness as an escape from reality

Another error of expectations of many people is to think that by doing Mindfulness, their worries will disappear, or that they will stop experiencing fear, worry or anguish.

Unfortunately, that does not depend on us, unpleasant emotions are an inherent part of life.

Some people start to practice Mindfulness believing the positive dogma that "it all depends on our attitude." And yes, our attitude when it comes to reacting to problems is important. But the origin of the problems does not disappear, because we can never have 100% control of the world.

Precisely, by becoming too obsessed with such ideas, we can put too much responsibility on ourselves. Our families, our bosses, our partners, the politicians of our countries, all have responsibility for the things they do to us.

So, if I convince myself that "everything" depends on my attitude, I am sending the message that everything is my fault, my lack of personal growth. And I lose the opportunity to fight for social improvements, for context changes that do solve many real problems.

Mindfulness is a wonderful tool. But just as you can't build a house with just a hammer, you can't solve all psychological problems just by meditating.

Do you suffer from anxiety?

Anxiety does not have to be a problem in your life, if you let science be with you. I am Luis Miguel Real, a psychologist, and throughout these years I have helped many people to overcome their anxiety and to feel satisfaction in their lives again.

Mindfulness will be just one of the many tools that we have at our disposal to work on any psychological problem. Get in touch with me, and we'll start working on it as soon as possible.