Meditation Instruction for People Who Are Bipolar
Since I posted my request for suggestions regarding meditation for people who are bipolar, I have received over twenty responses, with many useful ideas. People have also asked me "What is your question?"
My question is first how not to cause anyone harm as a meditation instructor, and second how to encourage a new student to enter meditation practice in a sane way. My concern starts with having witnessed extreme manic state in three people who I know. So I started with that focus, rather than the depressed side of the polarity.
There are quite a few members of our sangha who describe themselves as bipolar, and find meditation helpful in managing their lives. Most of them use medication to manage mood swings, but a few do not.
Here is a synthesis of what some of you have been saying, and a few comments of my own:
1. It is very important for a meditation instructor to be clear that he is not a therapist and not to interfere with therapy.
2. Having a manic episode is destructive and increases the likelihood of a more severe one in the future. People who are bipolar must maintain awareness of their moods and manage them often with the help of medication and other therapy. A friend will not encourage someone to abandon therapy.
3. It is very difficult to meditate in an extreme mind state, so therapy is often a basis for meditation as well as for living a healthy life.
4. Make sure that the introduction to meditation is uplifted, but sane and ordinary.
5. Avoid long or extreme sessions.
6. Encourage the student to monitor his state of mind, relax with meditation, and not push it.
7. Make sure that meditation is not used to generate altered states of mind.
8. If you are a meditation instructor, trust the wisdom of your student who has more experience with this than you do.
9. Stay in contact.
Many people have found that basic peacefulness and awareness meditation is helpful. Several people have told me that vajrayana practices which include visualizations are relaxing, grounding and energizing also.
One practitioner offered the following:
I've been a Shambala member for many years. I'm not a meditation instructor nor am I a particularly strong practitioner but I do have experience riding the swells of mania and sliding into the depths of depression for over 30 years. Riding on the razors edge has special meaning for those working with a mental disorder such as bipolar. It has been workable at times and not workable at others...over and over again. I have experienced states of mind that few people I have met experience and have learned to appreciate my minds contrast and fear its overwhelming power.
"Good bad, happy sad, all thoughts vanish into emptiness like the imprint of a bird in the sky"...but the thoughts and emotions of someone in the midst of an extreme state of mind appears to be extra real because of their potency. Philosophy and pretend external practicing don't cut the mustard. One either relates directly with the intense confusion and pain or else one succumbs to it's hellish grip. There is no room to maneuver. It's very humbling. It can also be inspiring.
Someone else wrote:
It is good to set up guidelines. However, one must always bear in mind that
everyone is unique, and after consulting the guidelines, one needs to throw
them away and actually see the person one is instructing and act
accordingly. Not so easy, but who said it was going to be easy.
One respondent recommended the following link: psychoeducation.org
The discussion of exercise and depression is great!
Recovering Sanity, A Compassionate Approach to Understanding and Treating Psychosis by Edward M. Podvoll, M.D.
Ed Podvoll, also known as Lama Mingyur, was a powerfully compassionate and original therapist, as well as a great meditator. This book is about psychosis, recovery from psychosis, and the compassionate care of mental patients. Obviously, it also has a lot to say about meditation in that context. Of immediate interest here is the working model of how a manic state is produced on pages 171-177. Having lived with a college apartment mate who manifested two manic episodes within a year, I can testify to the authenticity and usefulness of this discussion.
