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On Mental Illness: Meditation and Medication

By Jack Bragen
Monday July 04, 2011 - 12:59:00 PM

Because persons with mental illness seem to get a raw deal in life, Buddhist or other meditative ideas of transcendence are appealing. It seems, despite what one might think, the playing field of meditative practices is more level compared to other areas that could be pursued. I have never believed I couldn’t practice meditation because of having a psychiatric disability. 

The fact of being medicated does not prevent meditation. If a person is psychotic or clinically depressed, it is much more of a hindrance to meditation than consuming the medications intended to treat these problems. 

I began to study books on meditation at age eighteen, a couple of months following my initial recovery from my initial bout with Schizophrenia. At the time, it was a source of hope in my life; it made me believe I could make things better for myself in my [then] future. 

Throughout my twenties, I believed that if I could meditate well enough, it would increase my chances of succeeding at employment. The meditation did two things for me that helped with the job scenario: It made me take less seriously the discomfort that comes with work; and it allowed me to take it less seriously when a job did not work out. 

I used to incorrectly believe that if I became “enlightened” through my meditation practices, it would make the antipsychotic medication I take unnecessary. On the contrary, taking medication supports the meditation practices by keeping a major brain malfunction in check. 

I found that when I had relapses of psychosis, (which were essentially caused by stopping medication against medical advice), most of my meditative progress became erased. However, the memory stayed mostly intact of how to recreate the “attainment.” I found that I could recreate the “attainment” after several years of brain recovery and meditation, but could not do this instantly. My brain had been through a shock from stopping medication. 

After practicing meditation on and off for nearly as long as I’ve had a mental illness, about twenty eight years, I have learned to question whether enlightenment really exists in the “real world” or if it could be a myth. Partial enlightenment can be had by many devout practitioners. However, a “total” state of enlightenment in a person is something I have never run across. As people with physical bodies we are vulnerable to changes and challenges in the environment, and there are some circumstances that can make any living person suffer, regardless of how long and how deeply meditation has been practiced. 

Meditation is a largely nonphysical activity that can improve many people’s lives on many levels. Buddhism teaches us that all things pass away with time, and this must include the progress that we make with meditation as well as our very existence. Life experience teaches that we must get the enjoyment that’s within reach as we journey among a minefield of hazards in our existences.