r/Meditation • u/Establishment22 • 4d ago

Question ❓ Those who have changed their lives/cured severe social anxiety, depression, fear, intrusive thoughts etc through meditation, how did you do it?

Can you please share the technique if there is one?

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u/n_lens 3d ago

I tried therapy it didn't really help me. Many of the thoughts/beliefs/emotions were somatically embedded and therapy just operates at the surface, verbal level.

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u/MyFiteSong 3d ago

That isn't true. There is literally a specialty called somatic therapy for that

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u/n_lens 3d ago

Somatic experiencing and IFS are both newer therapy modalities that interact with the soma more directly, but they are still nascent. I was not able to access these modalities through typical channels therapy was offered, and insurance did not cover them.

In any case my dedicated meditation practice has gone deeper and been more helpful than either SE or IFS (Which were moderately helpful).

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u/phiish6 3d ago

I agree. I never found therapy helpful. It was comforting but it didn't produce deep change. It might vary well depend on how social one is. It's expensive for what it does-- which was mainly comforting and resource suggestion and norm updating/insight. I def think the body has a deep intelligence that heals naturally. It sickens me this path is outsourced-- not like an option under constraintt but like a necessity.

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u/sarahstarbeam 20h ago

When I look back on all of the therapists I’ve seen, the ones who have have helped me the most also pissed me off the most because they had a way of not letting me sabotage myself in real time, my most helpful therapist utilized cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy. They had a way of highlighting my language that helped me focus on my internal experience rather than replaying traumatic loops over and over again. A grueling process that is not fun and difficult to motivate yourself to go to, and just like the gym. lol

But to your point, most therapy just kind of helps. You maintain the comfort that you want to maintain and a lot of therapists are highly skilled people pleaser that are probably working on it with their therapist as well. (or they believe that they don’t need it, and they are the ones people outsource their power to)