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The author might be more correct than he imagines. I suffer from bipolar disorder, which was “activated” during a heavy meditation period 5 years ago or so. My

The author might be more correct than he imagines. I suffer from bipolar disorder, which was “activated” during a heavy meditation period 5 years ago or so. My therapist now advises me to stay away from it. She says that meditation is a form of “self hypnosis” and that I should stay away from daily practice, which is what I had previously.

nradov 5y ago
Is there any evidence that your bipolar disorder would have activated later or not at all if you hadn't meditated?
- kranke155 5y ago
  Not that I’m aware of. But bipolar disorder is (very) poorly understood. Asking for evidence would imply for instance, that we know what bipolar IS, and from my knowledge, I don’t think we do. In order to have evidence that meditation and bipolar interact we would have to know what bipolar affects in our system that causes it. As far as I know we don’t know what causes it/how it works exactly. We have some inklings of what’s involved. What we have is some medications that work with relatively extreme side effects (I am now pre diabetic due to daily Seroquel use) and sort of folk tradition of what to do and not to do - ie bipolar people are advised to stay away from religion for instance. In my experience both the medication and the folk tradition are mostly right actually, as weird as that might sound. It’s not like psychologists are performing huge studies, but they can see patterns in the individual cases when they are studied in bulk - ie religious individuals might have more psychotic episodes etc.
- kayodelycaon 5y ago
  Altered states of consciousness are know to trigger psychosis in people who many develop bipolar disorder. It’s relatively easy for me to deliberately trigger psychosis, despite being on antipsychotics. And it is a very bad idea for me to do that. Losing touch with reality isn’t exactly fun. For those who are interested, I’ve written about the four-month-long psychotic break that ended with me being diagnosed bipolar. https://kayode.co/blog/4106/living-with-psychosis/ https://kayode.co/blog/4106/living-with-psychosis/
kovek 5y ago
Me too!
joshcsimmons 5y ago
I’m so sorry to hear that and I hope you’re doing better now.
electriclizard 5y ago
It's been a bit like having access to my computer's terminal for me. I didn't expect the power. I did way more than just turn off the distractions. I fucked some shit up and had to spend some time in the shop. But I also learned how to fix the stuff that was broken and then stay the hell away from the terminal the rest of the time. My issue was mainly that I couldn't turn the UI back on. But also I fucked up all the links and the whole system was out of order. Now I still use it when necessary because I still have bugs, which is really easy because just thinking about it will pop it open. But I mostly use it to signal to me when the UI is starting to fade away; not something I was good at before.
- hnfong 5y ago
  It's fucked up that I kinda understand what you're talking about.
  - electriclizard 5y ago
    When you know, you know. I'm sorry you've been through the hell. I hope you're doing better.
- cheschire 5y ago
  Metaforgotten…

nradov 5y ago

Is there any evidence that your bipolar disorder would have activated later or not at all if you hadn't meditated?

kranke155 5y ago
Not that I’m aware of. But bipolar disorder is (very) poorly understood. Asking for evidence would imply for instance, that we know what bipolar IS, and from my knowledge, I don’t think we do. In order to have evidence that meditation and bipolar interact we would have to know what bipolar affects in our system that causes it. As far as I know we don’t know what causes it/how it works exactly. We have some inklings of what’s involved. What we have is some medications that work with relatively extreme side effects (I am now pre diabetic due to daily Seroquel use) and sort of folk tradition of what to do and not to do - ie bipolar people are advised to stay away from religion for instance. In my experience both the medication and the folk tradition are mostly right actually, as weird as that might sound. It’s not like psychologists are performing huge studies, but they can see patterns in the individual cases when they are studied in bulk - ie religious individuals might have more psychotic episodes etc.
kayodelycaon 5y ago
Altered states of consciousness are know to trigger psychosis in people who many develop bipolar disorder. It’s relatively easy for me to deliberately trigger psychosis, despite being on antipsychotics. And it is a very bad idea for me to do that. Losing touch with reality isn’t exactly fun. For those who are interested, I’ve written about the four-month-long psychotic break that ended with me being diagnosed bipolar. https://kayode.co/blog/4106/living-with-psychosis/ https://kayode.co/blog/4106/living-with-psychosis/

kovek 5y ago

Me too!

joshcsimmons 5y ago

I’m so sorry to hear that and I hope you’re doing better now.

electriclizard 5y ago

It's been a bit like having access to my computer's terminal for me. I didn't expect the power. I did way more than just turn off the distractions. I fucked some shit up and had to spend some time in the shop. But I also learned how to fix the stuff that was broken and then stay the hell away from the terminal the rest of the time. My issue was mainly that I couldn't turn the UI back on. But also I fucked up all the links and the whole system was out of order. Now I still use it when necessary because I still have bugs, which is really easy because just thinking about it will pop it open. But I mostly use it to signal to me when the UI is starting to fade away; not something I was good at before.

hnfong 5y ago
It's fucked up that I kinda understand what you're talking about.
- electriclizard 5y ago
  When you know, you know. I'm sorry you've been through the hell. I hope you're doing better.
cheschire 5y ago
Metaforgotten…