Mindfulness?

[RosieWithTheGoodHair]

Here for traffic

What is it?
What does it do?
Is it a load of tosh?

[Schmoozer]

Mindfulness is underpinned by neuroscience
It's so much more than meditation alone

[iPost]

When I was diagnosed with ADHD the psych suggested it. As do most of the sites for adult ADHD. However to date I haven't found any striking evidence to support it as a therapy/aid. Although I've found a fair few sources pointing out how weak the evidence is.

This may be due to unconcious cherry picking on my part. I hate the idea of the whole thing. Possibly because anything even slightly meditation-y/yogic/breathing based in conjunction with me doing it ... makes me itch. Which could be the ADHD reacting to the thought of doing things it doesn't want to do. Like stand still, or work on quieting the thought-party in my head. It would much rather have racing thought and hyper-focus on interesting things.p

I don't know if it's mindful related, but I did find one thing I like. It's made for children... "breathing bubbles" app by AT&T aspire . Free, cute and surprisingly effective. Although I feel a bit crushed that my brain evidently has the concentration levels of your average six year old.

[Chickydoo]

So is meditation underpinned by science.
They are the same.
Meditation I think scares some people. They think that it is set only in Buddhism or Hinduism. The word mindfulness is more appealing to Western palates.
Maybe you could explain the difference between the two??

[FaithAscending]

I've found it very helpful. I use the headspace app. I struggle with anxiety issues. Mindfulness has helped me realise that my thoughts are just thoughts - they're not actually me! Doing mindfulness stops me from getting stuck in negative thoughts and let's them come and go.

[5tardusty]

I tend to use it as being in charge of my thoughts and emotions, and recognising when I am making a situation worse for myself. I.e not allowing myself to wallow and believe that my life is sad and awful because of X situation; reminding myself that actually in the grand scheme of things X could be a lot worse and to be happy about AB and C.

I believe that being able to react to inevitable tough life events in a proportional, rational and measured way is helpful for my long term mental health

[iPost]

I just went back to google to dig up some of the more critical stuff I read. This about potential negative side effects is just one of a fair few articles taking a less enthusiastic look at the practice.

Not saying it's on the money. As is stated in the article, there has been very little work done in terms of exploring that side of the equation, to weigh up how much of an issue it may, or may not be. But I'm fairly risk averse, have a quirky thought process sometimes and some of what people have reported resonates with me. Albeit on a far less dramatic scale. I assumed (and still do to some extent) my sense of panic and "I can't fucking breathe at all if you tell me to focus on it... shit.. that's it, my lungs no longer work.. I'm going to DIE OF NO OXYGEN!" was ADHD related shenanigans to get out of doing it. Which it might be. Cos, aside from the breathing bubbles app, the desire not to do anything mindfulness related is strong in me. 45 seconds into a five minute exercise and I appear to be prepared to believe myself to be about to expire of suffocation rather than carry on.

[lasttimeround]

rosie. I hadn't seen your question befire but i have v disabled child lots of parenting courses and other specialist help from camhs and similar includes bits on mindfulness. It's not unhelpful but sometimes I just think wtaf we need support services and respite and the mindfulness stuff just makes me annoyed - it's such a drop in the ocean of what we need.
A friend of mine in a similar position in terms of severity of child's disability but who knew from birth as it's genetic told me once of being at the hospital in the weeks afterwards for some mindfulness thing for parents with v disabled newborns doing the raisin sucking thing and not knowing whether to laugh or cry. I know there's some studies but j think the impacts are overstated jn the early research and it's a nice cheap service to roll out instead of more expensive respite and support.

[lasttimeround]

I'm not against mindfulness but would like it offered alongside rather than instead of core services. Cuts in services round here means that our la is getting very good at offering only the cheap interventions. Support circles and mindfulness there's plenty just not much else anymore.

[Lilybensmum1]

Very valid points here mindfulness alone will not cut it for most people it has worked for me in conjunction with counselling, for anxiety and depression.
5tardusty described it very well and that is exactly how I use it, I'm very suspicious of what I consider alternative practice as a nurse myself I like concrete science bases but, it has really worked for me. That aside its not suitable for everyone and lasttimearound I can hear your point you need actual help and then mindfulness once these are in place. It must be really stressful in your situation but mindfulness won't help you until at least some of this stress is eased.