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Whats your view on mental health issues?
Billyboy
Explorer
Well first off I must say that personally speaking I do not believe nor accept any ideas on Karma of past lives being connected to people who suffer from any mental health issue, although I would say that Karma (actions of ourselves and others) that happened in our present lives , very much does relate to Karma of each moment. First I must also say that I believe in the practise of Zen Buddhism, to save any doctrinal confusion.
So my question is, what's your take on mental health issues as Buddhists? whatever school of philosophy you practise and adhere to.
So my question is, what's your take on mental health issues as Buddhists? whatever school of philosophy you practise and adhere to.
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Comments
Buddhists have mental health issues. Buddhism techniques may assist in alleviating some of the issues, but others need help in the psychological realm.
I know I sometimes fall into the trap of looking at the past with rose coloured glasses as if there were no mental health problems and these things have only come about due to the way we live in the modern world. I am not so sure that's right though.
As far as I can tell, people are often born with these issues.
I certainly do think that the way we are raised (brain washed) by the modern day media / governments / corporations do create some unnecessary self esteem issues in people. Not sure if you consider those mental health problems though.
Will Buddhism drive you mad? No. Both skeptics and believers occasionally think so. Skeptics who think so are just being mean-- psychologists went on the record to reporters saying that the Navy Yard Shooter's mental health was made worse by meditation. Believers, I think, are expecting Buddhist practices to be so powerful that something could go seriously wrong. For me, I think it is powerful enough to work for my purposes, but not exactly like playing with neural dynamite.
Does Buddhism attract people with mental issues? No more than any other thing promising solutions to essentially mental problems (i.e. stress, suffering, misery). I have no numbers to backup my opinion.
Do Buddhist practices work for solving mental health problems? Lots of books say yes, the mindfulness folk (Jon Kabat Zinn) even have some solid research to see where it works. Meditation on its own can't cure tuberculosis or schizophrenia. It might help you cope with both.
Is Buddhism a form of psychology? Sort of. Buddhism is an ancient subject from a time when the division between religion, psychology and boat building weren't so distinct. Buddhism still has some overlap with what we'd call psychology because of the unavoidable interest that the topic has in what is going on in our heads. This contrast with, say, a strictly devotional religion where what goes on inside your head is mostly irrelevant to praising God & getting something back for that.
A MAJOR problem is the issue of stigma and self-perception. There are people who are afraid of you simply because you have a diagnosis and then that affects your own self-esteem when you hear their opinions.
You should be gentle in meditation ie no tantra or tummo (spelling?) or what have you. My teacher put a disclaimer in her intro text that you should get a therapist for mental issues whereas the spiritual practice is a different dimension though also has power or is intended to have power to help you in a different way than therapy that is more powerful due to it being a path all the way to enlightenment. I talked to my teacher about the difficult states of mind and she said to do whatever necessary to get in a mental space (meds etc) where I can study and meditate.
I started meditating with the onset of my illness. I have gently worked at meditation all of those years and they have not harmed me.
Bah. Eh. I'm straining . . .
In all fairness, there is a modifier to pure 'genetic karma' called epigenetics, which simplified means the environment of the person can influence their genes to express themselves in varying ways or intensities. Raised in a healthy, loving family, the child with hereditary predisposition to depression may experience moroseness and melancholy but 'grow out of it' with internalized positive regard from their healthy parents.
I agree wholeheartedly that the insanity of our current materialistic culture makes a contribution to our suffering, it is dukkha personified. I see it as an epigenetic factor, if anything, and a powerful one. But what to do about this? Perhaps it is the only factor we can do anything about? Can't change the culture or the economy, which is driven by the belief we can assuage our dukkha with a 2014 Subaru Outback.
But our most up to date knowledge about the causes of mental illness point to inborn brain differences. For the severe kinds of mental illness like Bipolar I and schizophrenia, the brain differences are so profound, and the symptoms of such early onset (often in childhood/adolescence) that environmental impact as the cause goes all weak in the knees.
Gassho
IMO, the problem in the western world is the extent to which we are deep within a materialistic world view and delude ourselves to be somebody. Sometimes the help of a professional is required to heal traumas of the past, along with a spiritual practice to strenghten a sense of connection.
I'm currently taking a psychology of religion course at university and modern psychology is increasingly integrating a secular version of Buddhism to alleviate anxiety and other pathology. Concetration and insight meditation are very powerful tools to keep touch with the world and reach within.
Clinical depression is a brain chemical imbalance, and does not resolve on its own. Born that way or it develops over time? I have no idea. I don't know if it's been studied. I'd love to stop taking the meds I take, but I fear becoming again what I was before. Even with Buddhism I'm not willing to take the risk. Once the meds clear your system, and you need them again, it takes a miserable while for them to get to therapeutic levels again.
As far as is mental illness connected to kamma/vipaka... Perhaps, perhaps not.. And it really makes no difference as we cannot know the inner workings of kamma.
My personal view is that both Poverty and excessive materialism can create the triggers for depression and anxiety, whilst having a parent that suffers from any mental health issue, would also effect the way they grew up, psychologically, as we depend when young on stable and loving relationships for our development as human beings. To me the middle way explains that we need not be materialists but also should not live in poverty, so that might explain why Buddhists in other parts of the world suffer also from mental health issues. Thank you all for your comments, as I found them most interesting.
The 2 main terms of calculus are:
1. Differentiation, &
2. Integration
Mathematically they are intrinsically interrelated and to see how they are one is a perfection in itself, but when you look at the descriptive language definitions of these terms they are 'bipolar' opposites.
Mental health issues are a problem for 'the statistically normal distributed population' because they will generally lack the ability to integrate people (who are not within 2 standard deviations of the normal distribution) into their world view and cannot differentiate themselves from one another.
This is just a view.
It may be wrong. But I will beg to differ(entiate)