3 ms·
I have a very intelligent, kind friend who lives alone, got deep into meditation during covid, started hallucinating / getting increasinly paranoid, and ended u
by jrowley 6y ago
I have a very intelligent, kind friend who lives alone, got deep into meditation during covid, started hallucinating / getting increasinly paranoid, and ended up hospitalized for a couple of weeks and diagnosed with schizophrenia. She is doing better now but will almost certainly have to drop out of school. That's not to say meditation is a bad thing, or should be avoided, but it isn't without risk or harmless necessarily either. If it can do so much good, what's to say it cannot also do bad. The mind is a powerful thing.
- bamboozled 6y agoBy "during covid", I guess you mean while isolating in lock down ? I'd be more inclined to suggest it was the isolation, loneliness and stress of uncertainty that would trigger something like that. It was a dark time. Curious if your friend started meditation hoping it might alleviate and already uncomfortable mental state, or they felt fine and just wanted to meditate for fun ? I'm not a doctor, or psychiatrist but from the exposure I've had from my own practice, I'd imagine taking up anything other than a very, very, very light meditation course during such a stressful uncertain time could really expose one too a bit too much sensory overload.
- a9h74j 6y agoSpeaking to the possibility of other/multiple/connected upstream causes, there is this remark I once heard: "Meditation is what you do while you are losing touch with your friends and interests." To me that can be appropriately unclear about what causes what.
- bamboozled 6y ago"Meditation is what you do while you are losing touch with your friends and interests." This makes no sense to me.