HEALING OF BIPOLAR DEPREESSION

[vikrant34]

I HAVE BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH BIPOLAR DEPRESSION FOR LAST 12 YEARS. I AM ON MEDICATION.CAN VIPASSANA CURE IT COMPLETELY OR THIS IS ONLY A TOOL

[Morning Dew]

Hi Vikrant34 and welcome aboard!

I am not that skillful at answering this question but until the more experianced members chime in i will say what i feel might be of use to you.
First of all, minfulness meditation is similar to takong a physical shower, only in this case one is workong on mind hygiene so in a way it is a tool for clensing the conditioned mind.
I can not tell if meditation onlycan help you but combining excercise, therapy, meditation, good healthy diet and especialy fixing the D-vitamin deficiency would greatly improve your overall condition i feel.
I suggest you to sit down and try it out for a few month or so and see for your self.
Another good advice is to check your blood D-vitamin levels since we all run low on this one and start up it up with 2000 IU of D3.

Our admin Matthew (the irreverent buddhist) is very skilled to answer such questions but he is gone for a month August to meditate.

I hope others will answer soon

[dobe]

I'm pretty sure it can.  In the long run, it will do a lot more benefit than any quick fix pills.  Depression is of the mind, and thats what meditation deals with.  The Buddhist idea is that our mind starts out perfect, and over the years harmful conditioning is piled up on top of it which leads to suffering(and depression).  But this is a long term thing, takes a lot of grit and determination.  In the beginning, you'll be bored, agitated, and restless.  But it will slowly get easier and you'll begin to enjoy it more and more.   And years down the line you can conquer your depression... But like morning dew, I'm a new practitioner, so lets wait for some veteran advice lol. 

Time for my morning sitting,

Best of luck,

Dobe

[mik1e]

Hi vikrant34,

First of all, any properly done meditation technique (including vipassana) has mentally/spiritually curing effect, because it brings the practitioner to the state of "inner balance". The deeper the meditation state, the deeper is the balance, and, hence, the healthier is your mind.

On the other hand, the mental disorders (in not too severe cases) are usually the result of imbalance in energy system of the person. Pillows cannot restore this balance, since their effect is too powerful and too narrow (or not well targeted). So, drugs cannot substitute the meditative self-healing, but effect of meditation needs much more time to appear. Thus, if you are on the drugs for 12 years, it will take at least 1-3 years of damned hard work (and strong personal will!) to become a normal person.

Are you ready for this?

[Quardamon]

Hello Vikrant34,

There is a mild form of vipassana meditation done in the field of health care, called "Minfullness". The initiator is Jon Kabat-Zinn. I know it is done for anxiety, sleeplessness and depression that may be recurring, but not lasting. Basically Mindfullness (along this definition) is tought by health care workers that had a training of two years to be able to teach this. And typically they teach en ten week programme to get patients on the track. To be honest, i doubt if they would take someone with bipolar depression on board. I do know they are trying to involve mindfullness in the treatment of more and more different ailments. It certainly is worth trying.
So you can check google and wikipedia, and ask a health worker that you are in contact with.
Bleesings on your path,
Quardamon

[dhruv]

This might be a little late but I haven't been on the forums for a while. I was diagnosed with Bipolar and put on a shit load of pills; Lithium, Quitapine, Oxcarbazapine, Alipiprazole I can't even remember all the names. I was misdiagnosed even though I was probably acting Bipolar at the time but I'm sure that had to do with my drug use. I was hooked on to opiates and I would get mood swings and I'd take combos of everything. I od'd one day and landed myself in the hospital. This was about 4 years ago when I was 16. I was diagnosed with depression a few months before this incident and now they said I was Bipolar. The Prozac they were giving me for depression apparently put me out of whack into a "Manic" state indicating that I was Bipolar.

My first experience with Vipassana was a year back at a Goenka retreat. It might not be for everyone but it has definitely helped me. I've just come back from my 3rd retreat and I've been clean for 5 days. I'd relapse shortly after my stint at the retreat and go back to my old ways. I was also desensitized to my body and would find it hard to feel my body and connect my body-mind. I'm making progress now. I've started living healthy too which helps a lot. I wake up early, hit the gym, try and meditate (which I still find hard) and try to remain in the moment taking it one step at a time.

I was probably misdiagnosed but I'm not suggesting you are. If you can wean yourself of the meds it'll be great. Do some meditation then and really get into it, it's harder for people like us initially who've taken a lot of pills. They dumb you down. They take from extreme mood swing to feeling nothing at all. If you're ok without them don't let people tell you otherwise. Do Vipassana and you will slowly learn to take control of your mind. Pills are ok if you're completely out of it and have a serious chemical imbalance. But even a 10 day stint at Goenka's retreat will alter your brain chemistry in a positive way.

Take care and let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers.

[Matthew]

I HAVE BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH BIPOLAR DEPRESSION FOR LAST 12 YEARS. I AM ON MEDICATION.CAN VIPASSANA CURE IT COMPLETELY OR THIS IS ONLY A TOOL

Vikrant,

Medication and meditation have the same root in the Latin language. Meditation helps heal the mind and body. Vipassana is something that arises in your meditation - another word for it could be "insight" or awareness of what you are doing and why.

To begin you start with calming and concentration meditation. If you get a good therapist and start meditating as described in the introduction to meditation topic you may be in a position to reduce and maybe even come off the drugs at some point. That's when you can start to see a lot of progress.

It can be hard work at times and you will have to face your history and understand how you came to be the way you are - but it is a journey worth taking, for you might discover many beautiful things about life that will make you forget you were ever depressed.

Warmly,

Matthew