This is exciting news. Thank you for putting this together. I’m sure your blog will help a lot of people cope with their fears and anxieties. I have practiced mindfulness myself. I know it works!

I can attest to the effectiveness of mindfulness techniques in decreasing symptoms in bipolar I disorder & borderline personality disorder. I have been on medications for bipolar for 12 years & in & out of therapy since I was 15 when I had my first suicide attempt. I didn’t get much benefit from any of the therapy. The medication did help a lot, but I was still having difficulties with extreme over-reactions to perceived criticisms & feeling extremely sensitive. I also had another overdose 2 1/2 years ago after about 5 years of relative stability. I’m 54 & my mother did commit suicide when I was 15 (she also had bipolar).

My meds were being adjusted, but I was not able to achieve stability. In my support group a man talked about how much Dialectical Behavioral Therapy was helping him. I decided to look into it & began the weekly therapy group sessions that are actually more like classes as we have homework to do each day (practice what we are learning in regards to mindfulness & other coping skills & learning new thinking patterns & communication techniques, etc.) & we have a manual.

I was so impressed with what I was learning (though the actual doing was terribly hard for me) that I also started individual therapy with the therapist leading the DBT group.

Within 8 months of starting DBT & therapy & steadily gaining the mindfulness & other skills, I got off Klonopin completely. I had been taking Klonopin or Xanax daily for 20 years!!! My anxiety used to be so bad I would literally be paralyzed by it & could not do simple things like dial the telephone & a trip to the doctor would have me crying for days in advance.

I also was able to get off Trazodone which had been prescribed for my intractable insomnia (though it wasn’t helping much; my meds provider wanted to add Seroquel, but I was getting afraid of how many meds I was taking–6 or 7 at this point). I’m actually sleeping all night & have to use an alarm to wake me in the morning–unheard of for me–as I used to sleep only 2 or 3 hours a night. I was also able to cut my dosage of my anti-psychotic in half.

I can now stay in the present & not be constantly looking at the past with sadness & regret or the future with anxiety & fear. When I started with this therapist, she asked me how much time I spent “living in the present.” I didn’t even know what that meant. When she explained it, I had to say that I never do. I also never just stopped & felt the sensations of my body or looked at my environment or just let myself be & accept what is.

My meds provider is amazed at my progress. She can see how I can regulate my emotions so much better. I may be “triggered” by something & start to cry, but I can “pull myself back together” & not escalate it into a huge crying jag like I used to, where I could not stop thinking about the thing that was making me cry & I would make myself spiral into an emotional abyss.

I was skeptical at first about this mindfulness stuff, breathing? Doing one thing at a time & really concentrating on it? Feeling the sensations of your body? Looking around the room or out the window & pausing & slowing down? It seemed kind of hokey, but this fellow in the support group gave me a glimmer of hope that something could give me some relief so I gave it a good effort & am amazed. I’m a zealot now!!

I also have a reoccurring back problem that flares up & causes considerable pain & I understand mindfulness is used for pain management so I hope this subject will be addressed as well so I will be ready for my next flare-up!