How Do Mindfulness Practices Improve the Mental Health of Individuals - Essay Example

Mindfulness and Depression Mindfulness and Depression In the recent times the occurrence of major depressive disorder has increased significantly. There are various factors that have promoted the prevalence of depressed individual within the population. The increase in the stressors is one the major causes, alongside the incapability of an individual to cope with problem surrounding him. Faulty thinking pattern, prejudice, and focusing on stress generating matters. Further, the never-ending competition for basic commodities, and the strenuous work routine, with unbalanced life styles is another reason for the rise increase in the number of depressed individuals. Moreover, patients who even recover from depressed episodes through treatment are at a higher risk for relapse. In this essay the focus of discussion will be mindfulness based therapy for managing depression (Hofmann et al., 2010). According to DSM-V, there are 5 criterions that suggest whether a person is suffering from major depressive disorder or not (Kring, 2005). The first criterion deals with the age of a particular state of mind, and it offers nine different states, and occurrence of at least five out nine symptoms for minimum of 2 weeks is essential in order to declare that a person is suffering from depression. The second criterion is that the symptoms must not overlap with mixed episodes. Next up is the way in which these symptoms affect the functionality of an individual. It must be ensured that these symptoms are not caused by any drug or medicine. Last but not the least, these symptoms are not caused by bereavement, and in such cases the state must persist longer than 2 months. The Cognitive Behavior Therapy has become an umbrella term for the various psychotherapeutic techniques used for treating patients with depression, anxiety and phobias. The aim of this therapy is to decipher the thinking process in an individual that is considered as the major hurdle in adaptation. Therapists who use CBT for treating their patients emphasize on solving the problem instead of searching for the cause. This technique directly attacks the problem instead of digging into subconscious (Chiesa & Serretti, 2009). CBT is among some of the most popular therapies among clinicians, because it saves time and its results are easy to interpret. The rationale behind the Cognitive Behavior therapy is that our thoughts change the way we feel or act, and not vice versa. So, the goal that is to be achieved by CBT therapist is changing the way one thinks, because external stimuli will not change, and less effort is required to change one’s own perception instead of changing others (Dunsmuir et al, 2012). Pattern in which human beings think are based on the associations that they develop by establishing links between things or events. These associations are develop for rationalizing the occurrence of events, because it is very difficult for an individual to accept the effects without knowing the cause. Though, developing links and finding justifications is the basic method of scientific investigation, but some false beliefs can turn scientific investigation into an illogical jumble of cross-linked events. It is normal for a depressed individual to co-relate two unrelated events (Baer, 2005). Why psychologists find mindfulness as useful tool for improving the effectiveness of a therapy? As mentioned earlier, mindfulness is nothing more than a state in which present become the point of focus, and the burden from the past and the horrors of tomorrow are put aside. Though, achieving mindfulness to 100 percent is never a goal, because it is impossible to attain, but normalizing perception and evading the biases can be accomplished to some extent if stress is distributed. So, mindfulness allows therapists to help their patients, and it’s a way through which psychologists try to empower their subjects with the ability to assimilate to present irrespective of the past. Further, one can consider mindfulness as way of filling up the gaps that remain unfilled during and after the therapy(Teasdale et al., 1995). Awareness of the present without being judgmental about the moment is known as mindfulness. It is a mental state in which acceptance comes prior to rationalization, which promotes openness, discourse and motivates one to remain curious (Hofmann et al., 2010). Further, it can be divided into two components; they are self-regulation of attention and orientation with in the present moment complemented with curiosity and acceptance. Trauma from the past and fears of the future are two key elements that instigate episodes of anxiety and depression (Tyerman et al 2008), and to overcome the stress generated by what has happened and the query of what will happen, mindfulness offers the way to improve present experience; by promoting nonjudgmental behavior and acceptance (Smalley, 2010). It can be considered as a method through which tension is distributed, instead of accumulating at one particular point, because the more one concentrate or think about an event, the great stress is generated. It depends on the person that to what extent he or she values a particular event and occurrence of an event. The greater the attention, the greater will be the stress. In simple words mindfulness is method of releasing extra tension and normalizing physical, mental and emotional state. Human behavior is perhaps the only scale for determining the psychological state of an individual. Sweating, shivering, looking tense etc. are all human responses that are often detected efficiently to determine the impact of an event on an individual. Evaluation of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy was carried out by (Teasdale et al., 2000). To prevent dysphoria- activated depressogenic thinking in recovered recurrently depressed patients, a group intervention was constructed to train these individuals in order to minimize the chance of relapse. The total number of subjects in the study was 145, and the period of monitoring was 60 weeks. Two sets of experiments were used to attain data, the patients were randomized to receive treatment as usual, and in addition, to receive mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Almost 77% of the patients exhibited significant decrease in the risk of relapse (Teasdale et al., 2000). Another study conducted by Ma and Teasdale (2004) showed that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) reduced the relapse of depression episode from 78% to 36% in 55 patients with history of more than 3 major depressive episodes; however, in 18 patients with a history of 2 recent episodes there was no significant improvement. Further, it was determined that mindfulness based cognitive therapy proved more effective in preventing relapses not preceded by actual life events. Adding to this a clear co-relation was observed between relapse and recent life events. Thus the findings of this study suggest that MBCT is an effective way of limiting relapse in recovered recurrently depressed patients, with a history of more than 3 episodes (Ma & Teasdale, 2004). LePera (2011) investigated the relationship between boredom proneness and mindfulness, along with the correlation between mindfulness and negative impacts like anxiety and depression. LePera used the Boredom Proneness Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Mindfulness attention Scale and a substance use questionnaire to attain data for further analysis. The study included 138 subjects. The results obtained from the collected information showed a positive correlation between the boredom proneness and negative outcomes; while negative correlation was observed between mindfulness and negative outcomes including depression, anxiety and substance use (LePera, 2011). Deng, Li and Tang (2012) attempted to investigate the relationship between wandering mind, depression, and mindfulness. The Sustained Attention to Response Task was used to assess the wandering mind, along with online thought probes were used as markers for mind wandering. Depression and dispositional mindfulness were assessed by the Beck Depression Inventory and Mindfulness Attention and Awareness Scale (Hayes et al, 2011). A negative correlation was observed between wandering mind and dispositional mindfulness, while positive results were obtained for relationship between wandering mind and depression(Deng et al., 2014). Mindfulness-based therapies are helpful in treating patients suffering from depression, and they minimize the chances for the relapse of the episode (Segal et al., 2013). It is a way through which a therapist empowers a patient to develop self-help inventory. It’s training more than therapy, where practitioners work in order to provide their patients with elementary skills for dealing with stressors and managing attention. From the available literature it has been reported that mindfulness shows an inverse relationship with depression, mind wandering, and boredom proneness (Schooler et al., 2014). Over the last two decades the usefulness of this training has been accepted by psychologists all across the mental healthcare systems, especially when it comes to dealing with depression, anxiety, and phobias. Mindfulness allows an individual to remain aware of his surroundings, even when there are stressors in the environment that demand attention. Further, it allows the individual to focus on present moment, instead of worrying about the consequences, or history associated with a particular stressors. In this manner mindfulness develop a more acceptable mind that is curious, and non-judgmental. Last but not the least, mindfulness improves the way one thinks about situations, people, and things; it allows one to optimize attention, and makes the person more acceptable and adaptable. References Baer, R. A. (2005). Mindfulness-based treatment approaches: Clinicians guide to evidence base and applications. Academic Press. Chiesa, A., & Serretti, A. (2009). Mindfulness-based stress reduction for stress management in healthy people: a review and meta-analysis. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 15, 593-600. Deng, Y.-Q., Li, S., & Tang, Y.-Y. (2014). The relationship between wandering mind, depression and mindfulness. Mindfulness, 5, 124-128. Dunsmuir, S., Fuggle, P., & Curry, V. (2012). CBT with children, young people and families. London: SAGE. Hayes, S. C., Follette, V. M., & Linehan, M. M. (2011). Mindfulness and acceptance: Expanding the cognitive-behavioral tradition. New York: Guilford Press. Hofmann, S. G., Sawyer, A. T., Witt, A. A., & Oh, D. (2010). The effect of mindfulness-based therapy on anxiety and depression: A meta-analytic review. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 78, 169. Kring, A. M. (2005). Abnormal psychology. Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley. Lepera, N. (2011). Relationships between boredom proneness, mindfulness, anxiety, depression, and substance use. The New School Psychology Bulletin, 8, 15-25. Ma, S. H., & Teasdale, J. D. (2004). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression: replication and exploration of differential relapse prevention effects. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 72, 31. Schooler, J. W., Mrazek, M. D., Franklin, M. S., Baird, B., Mooneyham, B. W., Zedelius, C., & Broadway, J. M. (2014). The middle way: Finding the balance between mindfulness and mind-wandering. The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 60, 1-33. Segal, Z. V., Williams, J. M. G., & Teasdale, J. D. (2013). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression. New York: Guilford Press. Smalley, S. L., & Winston, D. (2010). Fully present: The science, art, and practice of mindfulness. New York: Da Capo Press. Teasdale, J. D., Segal, Z., & Williams, J. M. G. 1995. How does cognitive therapy prevent depressive relapse and why should attentional control (mindfulness) training help? Behaviour Research and therapy, 33, 25-39. Teasdale, J. D., Segal, Z. V., Williams, J. M. G., Ridgeway, V. A., Soulsby, J. M., & Lau, M. A. (2000). Prevention of relapse/recurrence in major depression by mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 68, 615. Tyerman, A., King, N., & British Psychological Society. (2008). Psychological approaches to rehabilitation after traumatic brain injury. Malden, MA: BPS Blackwell. Read More