Mindfulness meditation can help us all make sense of the world around us

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), Oct 23, 2007

Byline: By Brian Allen

The weight of words is getting me (and our local newspaper deliverers) down! Each newspaper seems to arrive with an ever increasing burden of supplements and inserts, often selling something we have already decided we do not want or are unable to afford.

However, I was surprised once to find amongst the pile of newsprint destined for the recycling box 'The Depression Report: A New deal for Depression and Anxiety Disorders". This is a report by the Centre for Economic Performance's Mental Health Policy Group at the The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). 'There may not be many policies that deliver happiness for all, but there are some that alleviate misery for many. This report identifies one such policy. The government must act on it." (Observer Leader 18th June 2006).

This report argues that one reason for a lot of untreated depression and anxiety is the unavailability of treatment. It describes the economic cost to individuals and the nation of leaving millions of people in their untreated distress and concludes that therapies exist that "could lift at least half out of their misery. Shame keeps their misery a secret. And the cost to the Exchequer exceeds the cost of the cure."

A national user perspective has been critical of the LSE recommendation to train more psychologists and therapists. Instead it advocated a smaller, and even more cost effective, investment in peer support services provided by people who have survived experience of both depression and the psychiatric system. Nonetheless the Government" recent announcement of a substantial pounds 170 million pounds expansion of psychological therapies to provide better support for people with mental health problems such as anxiety and depression is to be welcomed.

Well, if words alone are going to resolve the best way of meeting people's needs then we should be there by now. We already have mountains of words and doubtless there are more on the way (yes, and here are some more already!).

Mental distress often has several different causes and so may well benefit from a variety of responses to help those who suffer. Drugs, talking and listening therapies as well as self-help can all play a useful role. Challenging stigma, prejudice and the injustices of poverty which do much to exacerbate mental distress remains a task for all to be engaged in including the church, of course.

When the Newcastle Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) Centre was being inaugurated (Professor of Psychology) Mark Williams gave a public lecture.

Whilst promoting CBT he emphasised that it built upon wisdom found in ancient philosophies and religions as well as classical literature. More recently he and colleagues were looking for ways to help people sustain the benefits of CBT. They explored mindfulness meditation as developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the Massachusetts Institute, USA and sought to integrate it with CBT to produce "Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression".

They started using their programme to discover, contrary to Kabat-Zinn's experience, it did not work. Apparently they learnt by experience that unless they themselves were practising mindfulness meditation then its clinical application would not work! The practice involves silent, wordless sitting and walking meditation, just noticing thoughts and feelings as they happen and doing everyday things mindfully, one at time with a beginner's mind and eye. "Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgementally" (Jon Kabat-Zinn).

This use of mindfulness-based approaches is not in itself religious it but draws on Buddhist practice, has echoes of Jewish and Christian precepts and uses the writings of a Muslim mystic, all to illustrate and reinforce its simple, but not easy message that there is no substitute for practice. In the last of the eight sessions a well known and used prayer is quoted: "Grant me the serenity To accept the things I cannot change Courage to change the things I can And wisdom to know the difference."

I find the practice of mindfulness and sharing it with others challenging and very worthwhile. A service user told me once how he benefited from practising meditation when it was time to take his medication, a practical example of complementary and self-help therapies at work! Ifs encouraging to see that the Royal College of Psychiatrists mention, amongst other beliefs and practices the importance of prayer and meditation in their recent publication: "Spirituality and Mental Health". Now, there's another topic deserving more words but thaf s for another time!

CAPTION(S):

BRIAN Allen