Risks of mindfulness – getting sick from meditation?

For some, intense meditation can cause psychological distress. The predominantly positive image of meditation means that it is difficult for those affected to be heard about side effects SWR-Show research.

Millions of people in Germany meditate regularly. The offers range from apps to online courses to meditation in studios and multi-day retreats. According to a survey by Statista Consumer Survey, almost one in four people aged 18 to 64 have a meditation app on their cell phone. A Buddhist tradition has long since become a mass phenomenon, and the market for mindfulness is booming.

Meditation is often praised as a cure for stress and psychological problems. But recent scientific research shows that intensive meditation can also trigger serious psychological side effects. This side is often ignored or trivialized, like research in the investigative format Full screen resulted.

One in ten meditators suffers from side effects

In a ten-year long-term study, the American psychologist Willoughby Britton from Brown University was able to prove that around one in ten meditators develop side effects that severely restrict their everyday life. Anxiety, traumatic flashbacks and hypersensitivity are the most common side effects of meditation, according to Britton.

German studies also point to undesirable side effects of meditation: A study by a working group at the Charité Berlin based on 1,397 meditating subjects found that a total of 22 percent had undesirable effects. Of these, around nine percent were classified as mild and temporary, while 13 percent had moderate to extreme adverse effects that required treatment, were persistent or even required hospitalization.

Negative effects are often underestimated

Research on meditation over the past 20 years has mostly shown positive effects such as reducing stress or depression. Psychologist Britton criticizes research on contemplative practices and points out that the negative effects of meditation are often underestimated. This means that possible risks and side effects are often neglected.

In Germany, there has been a first point of contact for victims of meditation side effects at the Institute for Border Areas of Psychology and Psychohygiene in Freiburg for two years. The psychologists Ulrich Ott and Liane Hofmann founded the contact point. They report that the consultation hours are already being heavily used and that the suffering of many of those affected is high. The psychologists suspect that there is a high number of unreported cases of those affected and assume that there is a great need for advice in Germany.

panic attacks, hospital stay, Suicide after meditation

Full screen spoke to several people who developed serious psychological problems after intensive meditation and had to be treated in a clinic. A 26-year-old student from Wiesbaden describes how he developed panic attacks after intensive meditation with an app and had to be treated in a clinic. A 28-year-old doctoral student from Düsseldorf reports that after an intensive retreat she developed delusions and went to a clinic for an inpatient stay.

A particularly drastic case from Canada shows extreme consequences: a young woman left a ten-day meditation retreat early and took her own life. Her mother reports that her daughter began to feel unwell during the retreat. When asked, the meditation center stated that it was deeply saddened by the tragic incident. The teachers are trained to recognize signs of psychological imbalance, and students are not asked to continue meditating if they are in distress.

Responsibility seen in meditators

The predominantly positive image of meditation often means that those affected have difficulty being heard and understood when side effects occur, and that providers often see the meditators as responsible.

US researcher Britton also observes this: “Blaming the victim is probably the most common reaction. There are many different variations.” It is often said that the person has already brought the problems with them. Therefore, the retreat or the provider are not responsible. Or the person meditated incorrectly. “The normal meditation teacher wants to be helpful, and then to hear that you’ve caused harm, that’s a very difficult kind of feedback,” Britton said.

The psychologists Ott and Hofmann criticize the fact that meditation providers often deny responsibility for possible side effects: “It is of course also the provider’s responsibility to check in advance whether people are mentally healthy, are they stable and not with such an exclusion clause any responsibility to reject them,” says Ott. However, the offers often say: “Participate at your own risk. This clearly places the responsibility on the participants,” says Ott.

No compulsory training, no control

Covert research also shows how little attention is paid to risks: Full screen In a self-experiment, I asked about a course from around 20 meditation providers and stated that the supposedly interested person had psychological problems. Only a few recommended seeing a doctor or therapist beforehand. There was no prior information about the risks and side effects of meditation on the providers’ websites.

In Germany there is the Association of Mindfulness Teachers with eight training institutes and around 1,000 mindfulness teachers. Loud Full screen-Research undesirable side effects of meditation are a topic in the training here. But the training is voluntary. Anyone who wants can offer meditation. There are no controls. This is also why many meditation teachers are apparently overwhelmed by the psychological damage and side effects of meditation.

The film on the topic is available in the ARD media library.