Did you know:Meditation and mindfulness can worsen your anxiety.wow.

Mindfulness and other types of meditation are generally considered simple pain relievers, but sometimes they can make it worse for people.

According to the first systematic review of the evidence, about one in 12 people who attempt to meditate experience an unwanted negative effect, usually worsening depression or anxiety, or even the onset of these conditions for the first time. “For most people, it works well, but it was certainly overkill and not universally benevolent,” says Miguel Farias of the University of Coventry in the UK, one of the researchers behind the work.

There are many types of meditation, but one of the most popular is mindfulness, in which people pay attention to the present moment, focusing on their external thoughts and feelings or sensations. It is recommended by various agencies of the National Health Service in the UK as a way to reduce relapses of depression in people who have experienced the disease repeatedly.

The enthusiasm for meditation may be due, in part, to an increased awareness of the side effects of antidepressants and the difficulties some people report in stopping taking them. There have been reports of people suffering from a deterioration in their mental health after starting meditation, but it is not known how often this occurs.

Farias' team searched medical journals and found 55 relevant studies. Because the researchers excluded those who insisted on finding adverse effects, they calculated the prevalence of those harmed in each study and averaged, adjusted for study size, a common method in this study. type of analysis.

They found that about 8% of people who try meditation experience a side effect. “People have been through everything from heightened anxiety to panic attacks,” Farias says. They also found cases of psychosis or suicidal thoughts.

The 8% figure may be underestimated, as many meditation studies report only serious negative effects or none, Farias says.

Katie Sparks, a board-certified psychologist and member of the British Psychological Society, says the number may have been determined by people who have tried meditating due to undiagnosed anxiety or depression. “Meditation helps people relax, refocus, and help them both mentally and physically,” he says.

But sometimes when people try to calm their thoughts, the mind can “rebel,” he says. “It's like a reaction to trying to control the mind and it results in an episode of anxiety or depression,” he says.

That doesn't mean people should stop experimenting with the technique, she says, but rather that they should opt for guided, teacher-led or app-led meditation sessions with recorded narration, which she says , is more secure. “The current study could prevent people from participating in something that can be useful in the right context,” he says.