Arabic version: مخاطر التأمل تدفع إلى المطالبة بموافقة أفضل

According to ABC News, meditation can offer mental and physical health benefits, but some practitioners experience adverse effects that can persist for more than a month or impair daily functioning. Research cited by ABC News suggests one in 10 meditators has such an experience, while the potential harms remain relatively unknown and under-researched.

Willoughby Britton, an associate professor of psychiatry at Brown University and director of the Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Lab, has researched meditation-related adverse effects for decades. A 2017 study by Dr Britton and her team, based on interviews with more than 100 Buddhist meditation practitioners over 10 years, identified more than 50 reported symptoms. These included hyperarousal effects such as anxiety, fear, insomnia, involuntary movements and emotional flooding, as well as hypoarousal effects including reduced emotion, motivation and sense of self.

Some people in the study reported psychosis symptoms lasting on average between one and three years, with serious effects on functioning including hospitalisation, suicidality, time away from work or school, and job loss. ABC News reported that Sue, a Florida woman in her 70s, experienced dysregulation after using a meditation app and remained in that state for about a year and a half. Jane, a retiree in her mid-seventies, was diagnosed as psychotic and manic after a five-day Zen retreat and was hospitalised multiple times over the following two decades.

Dr Britton founded Cheetah House, a not-for-profit service supporting meditators in distress and educating teachers and clinicians about meditation risks. The service has operated for the past decade and now averages 150 appointments a month, treating thousands of meditators in more than 20 countries. Nicholas Van Dam, director of the Contemplative Study Centre at the University of Melbourne, said mindfulness meditation can help with anxiety, depression, some substance-use problems and pain management, but argued that participants should be informed of potential risks. Historical Buddhist writings also recognised meditation as a possible source of mental and physical problems, according to Pierce Salguero of Penn State University.