Meditation Sickness: The Hidden Adverse Effects of Mindfulness Practices

Overview

The podcast investigates what can happen when meditation goes wrong, drawing on research from Brown University and reports from meditators around the world. It reveals a more nuanced view of mindfulness that goes beyond the common narrative of universal benefit.

• Hypo and hyper arousal: meditation can trigger insomnia, anxiety, psychosis and other dysregulated states in some individuals.
• Evidence base: the Varieties of Contemplative Experience study identified more than 50 categories of meditation related challenges across seven domains.
• Cultural perspectives: Buddhist and non Western traditions have long recognized potential side effects, yet pop psychology often overlooks them.
• Support and caution: responses include informing meditators, training teachers, and establishing support services like Cheetah House.

Introduction and scope

The podcast examines meditation and mindfulness with a critical lens, guided by Sana Qadar and science reporter Fiona Pepper. It questions the assumption that mindfulness is universally beneficial and asks what adverse effects may arise for some people during or after meditation practice.

From evangelist to investigator

Willoughby Britton, an associate professor of psychiatry at Brown University, describes a personal transformation from promoting meditation to rigorously studying its downsides. Her journey includes a pivotal sleep study that yielded results opposite to her expectations and a formative clinical residency where two meditators on retreat developed psychosis. A key moment was a conversation with a meditation teacher who challenged the idea that meditation is simply a relaxation technique, provoking deeper inquiry into the data and its interpretations.

Key findings: the Varieties of Contemplative Experience study

The 2017 study conducted interviews with more than 60 Buddhist practitioners and over 30 teachers, identifying more than 50 categories of adverse effects across seven domains. The adverse experiences fell into two broad categories: hypo arousal (loss of emotions, dissociation, reduced motivation) and hyper arousal (anxiety, fear, insomnia, tics, emotional flooding). The median duration of symptoms was typically one to three years, though some cases persisted longer and caused hospitalization, suicidality or job disruption.

Brain mechanisms were discussed in terms of two leading hypotheses. The first likens meditation to a dose of an attention enhancing agent, where small amounts improve attention but larger doses escalate arousal and risk of adverse symptoms. The second concerns homeostatic neuroplasticity, where sensory deprivation during quiet sitting with closed eyes can upregulate neural activity to maintain a brain’s set point of stimulation, potentially triggering adverse effects in some individuals.

Risks and risk factors

The podcast emphasizes that adverse effects are not limited to novices and can occur even among highly experienced meditators. Psychiatric history and trauma history are identified as risk factors, but the majority of participants in Britton’s study had substantial practice hours, underscoring that risk is not limited to a subset of meditators. The work also highlights how cultural and spiritual contexts influence the perception of risk and the willingness to acknowledge negative outcomes.

Cross cultural and historical perspectives

Beyond Western research, the podcast features voices from Kathmandu where Pawan Sama describes meditation-induced psychosis in a patient with active schizophrenic symptoms, and notes that such cases are observed with some regularity in clinical settings. References to historical writings show that the Buddhist tradition has long acknowledged meditation related illness, sometimes described in terms of winds or other local conceptual frameworks. This illustrates that the idea of meditation sickness is not novel but underrepresented in mainstream pop psychology.

Response, support networks, and next steps

The massive public response after the 2017 publication included hundreds of inquiries from meditators seeking help, prompting the creation of Cheetah House, a not for profit service that offers support to meditators in distress and aims to educate teachers and clinicians about the risks. The podcast also notes that mindfulness programs are widespread in schools and other settings, with ongoing debates about how to balance enthusiasm with a sober appraisal of evidence and potential harm.

What’s ahead

The episode teases future coverage about personal experiences of side effects during retreats or after using mindfulness apps, and signals that reconsidering the balance of benefits and harms in meditation practice could lead to improved guidance, supervision, and trauma informed approaches to teaching mindfulness.