Concept · Library
Concept · Mindfulness research · 2010s to present
When meditation makes things worse
Also known as meditation makes me anxious · bad experience meditating · meditation side effects · worse after meditating · meditation retreat went wrong
What studies found, within the limits those studies state.
Meditation is not risk-free: research documents anxiety, fear, intrusive memories, involuntary movements, dissociation and depersonalisation as challenging experiences reported by a minority of practitioners, with risk factors including trauma history, dissociation, psychosis vulnerability and intensive retreat practice. The field is still working out how to define and measure these events.
Entries in this library keep the tradition label and the editorial state the source gave them. A record marked as awaiting scholarly review is offered as a lead to study, not as settled teaching.