“I am dying of a broken heart” (2018)
papyrus-stories.com
papyrus-stories.com
> A symptom that appears in the Akkadian Diagnostic Handbook is ašuštu "depression".
> "If depression continually befalls him, he often sighs; he eats bread and drinks beer but it does not go well for him; he cries out, 'Oh, my heart!' and is dejected, he is sick with Lovesickness" > https://t.co/MEphr6Ln8f
To alleviate anxiety, allow your thoughts to sit with your breath. That's all meditation is - a change of the subject through which your mental exertions are driven.
Tension is held in the body, so relief from anxiety will be manifested in both mind and body.
How to do this?
Go to a room where you won't be disturbed for 10 minutes.
Listen to this.
Mental health problems are complicated, and real, and not "all in the mind". Any "just" solution will at best work for a tiny fraction of sufferers, and for everyone else, the assumption that there is a quick and obvious fix is insulting.
Mental health problems are complicated, and real. Our knowledge of mental health i.e. mental functioning, and mental health problems i.e. disease, are only rudimentary.
What we do know is that mental health, and mental health problems, exist entirely in the mind and in the body. That fact is not an insult. It's a fact.
What you may be referring to is a form of dismissal, when people accuse those who suffer from mental dysfunction and illness of inventing problems as an excuse, to shirk work or otherwise excuse some behaviour that doesn't suit the accuser.
People in positions of power e.g. employers or family members who lack insight and empathy, sometimes think they can get away with that form of dismissal because the nature of mental health problems is that the symptoms are not externally visible as they are in the case of e.g. a broken leg or a burn or a cut.
But mental health and mental illnesses are far too important to warrant dismissal. That's why medical science allocates tens of billions of dollars to studying mental function, with the aim of developing understanding, and, ultimately, treatments.
The tradition of meditation to help alleviate anxiety has been practiced for thousands of years. It takes time and practice, which are ironically not always easily available to the people who need it most, to have an effect. Still, for those who can put in the time to develop skills in meditation, relief from anxiety is a reasonable expectation that is experienced every minute of every day by practitioners the world over.
I linked to that youtube video because it is more accessible than requiring people to read a book or attend a course. It's limitation is that it is just a 10 minute youtube video! Still, it's value is more than zero, particularly if its small effect can lead someone curious towards more study and more practise.
What meditation won't resolve is a list of mental health problems that are beyond its reach, including severe depression, schizophrenia, various forms of anxiety, bipolar disorder, psychosis...
For some forms of heartache, meditation is a welcome relief.
I have used meditation to help overcome the loss of loved ones who have disappeared from my life at various times for various reasons. It helps me to quieten my thoughts and focus on the positive aspects of having known people, rather than the negative aspects of their disappearance and absence.
I have also used meditation to steer my thoughts away from work related anxieties, which are usually centered on dreaded outcomes, to just stay in the moment and concentrate on the present moment experience of doing good work, moment by moment. When I take the time out to give 10 minutes to meditation, it helps set the course of my work day in a more productive direction.
All of this begins each time with just focussing my thoughts on my breathing, in, and out, to the exclusion of all else. Other thoughts come and go. I direct my thoughts, to the degree that I have choice, towards my breath, in, and out... It's the reset method that enables the anxious thoughts to subside, and the more pleasant and useful thoughts to be mounted and executed.
You believe in ghosts? Or what are you saying? Is it possible to have a depressed brain and a happy mind? Or vice versa?
I don't think that gives us any answers to the questions we have about how mental health and illness work and can be influenced, because we don't know how these systems work to create mental life in any great detail. It does, however, rule out various possibilities that mysterious forces can cause mental dysfunction. In other words, the answers to questions about mental health can be found in the physical systems of the body, and our knowledge of these systems is increasing all the time. So that is reason for optimism.
I'm not sure if that addresses your questions or concerns, or not. If I am missing your question or your point, could you kindly spell it out more clearly for me?
So do physical illnesses.
The rigidity of the criticism you’re getting surprises me.
For someone suffering from such severe anxiety, meditation alone might not help much, if at all. Imagine trying to meditate in the middle of a cataclysmic earthquake. That said I believe nowadays meditation is often recommended as an accompanying therapy or for remission, and it helps for many. But "To alleviate anxiety, do this..." is too broad. And apparently, it was already too broad 3k years ago.
I believe MBSR can never work for some.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness-based_stress_reduc...
By George, you have solved anxiety!...
Yea, no, this is not good advise in general.