Several studies have now examined that Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy works better than antidepressants to deal with depression relapses- the ancient wisdom and the 21st-century science have now joined hands to fight with depression.

Have you ever found yourself wrestling with crippling darkness and despair? The darkness that sucks you and you feel like your life is ending? You keep on drowning into the sea of negative thoughts, and in extreme conditions, you may think to end your life. This feeling is frightening!

Depression leads you to a state where you feel low and have a lack of interest even in usually pleasurable activities.

Today a million Americans are experiencing a high depression. 60% of people who experience a single relapse of depression, the chances are they encounter a second while 90% of people who go through three relapses are likely to have a fourth. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is taking its toll to address the vulnerability of depression and to pull a person out of misery.

The excellent duo of the traditional mindfulness practice and cognitive therapy was developed to prevent relapse in people who experience depressive disorders. MBCT helps on the mechanism of mindfulness, self-compassion, and cognitive reactivity by triggering the repetitive negative thinking and bring changes in life. Even though MBCT has not widespread outside urban areas, many pieces of research have proven the results of this self-help variation as promising.

To know how the therapy works, first, you need to understand the basics. So, read on.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the process of staying in the present moment or accepting yourself without being judgmental. It means to stay focused on the current situation so you can make wise choices for your life.

Mindfulness helps in altering the neural expressions of sadness and reduces neural reactivity to negative thought patterns.

What is Cognitive Therapy?

Cognitive therapy aims to help a person to re-assess the negative thought patterns and replace them with a positive one. It is a process to find relief from dysfunctional thinking that is activated by stressful life events that lead to depression.

What is Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)?

MBCT derives from cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and traditional mindfulness practices such as meditation, breathing exercises, and stretching. It helps break the negative thought patterns and prevent relapses in recurrent depression.

It is evidence-based group therapy for preventing depressive relapse and treating mood disorders. It reduces depression, anxiety, and stress.

Many real-life pieces of evidence show the effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in reducing the risk of relapse of recurrent depression. On average, it is 43%. It is an accessible treatment for people without letting them face the side effects of anti-depressants drugs.

How Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy works?

“MBCT is the gold standard to cope with depression for the people who wants to learn this powerful approach.” Said Daniel Goleman, Ph.D, and author of Emotional Intelligence.

Sometimes normal sadness can become a reason that triggers the depressive relapse into a person who has been recovered from a depressive state. By practicing mindfulness meditation, a person can eliminate sadness and change his/her way of thinking. It rebalances the neural networks and allows the person to think positive about life.

In the MBCT approach, the MBCT therapist can guide a person to use cognitive methods and mindfulness meditation to reduce the depression triggering thoughts. When a person experiences an episode of depression, he/she may have a low mood and negative memories from the past, which leads to physical sensations like fatigue.

MBCT helps people to accept their real-self separate from their thoughts and moods. When they can separate between thoughts, emotions, and the self, they will learn the art of living with their thoughts without being judgmental. This insight can boost the healing process and let them learn to interject positive thoughts into negative moods.

MBCT is a group intervention program of eight weeks. Each week has 2 hours, of course, and one day-long class after the fifth week.

Most of the practice is done outside the class where participants are advised to use guided meditations and try to cultivate mindfulness in their lives.

The outcomes of MBCT in real world

MBCT is done with people in the university with severe depression when nothing helps, no medications, electric shocks, and medicinal psychiatry doesn’t help; people who were depressed deeply, and recovered from the medications, will found get in the depressive state again.

MBCT cut the bay of relapse of having a depression again by 50%. If this were a drug, some pharmaceutical companies would be making billions of dollars, but it is not a drug, and it is free.

Daniele Goleman, Psychologist and science journalist, says.

When people are depressed, they enter into a new sort of depression, which causes a relapse.

MBCT helps elect your mind to feel about a specific thing; you will see judgments and evaluations. People who had chronic pain being present with it has remarkable results.

Another positive thing about MBCT is that it enhances people’s ability to feel the reward. Feel positive effect, positive emotion in the course of their everyday lives, which is vital.

Because it is a tough sell for many people with depression who are feeling unwell and feeling that if there is depression behind them,

said Zindel Segal, co-founder of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, on the topic.

Scientists have gone through multiple pieces of research and found positive outcomes of MBCT. Here are some snippets of the results for your ease.

Found to improve mental health of students

Recent studies suggested that university students are more prone to mental health problems than the general population. And the health condition could be improved by introducing MBCT. The study was published in Education Research International to measure the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on university students in the U.K.

In the research, 57 medical students were recruited to an eight-week mindfulness program in which they are required to attend the training for two hours each week and commit to 30-minute daily home practice in between sessions. The training includes the sessions on how stress impacts one’s life, how the mind works, how stress triggers, warning signs of stress, coping techniques, meditation practice, and the importance of self-care.

The results suggested that mindfulness training had helped students reduce anxiety, negative thought patterns, excessive worry, improve resiliency to stress, and enhance professional development and emotional wellbeing.

2. As effective as anti-depressants

MBCT has performed very well in randomized clinical trials. About thousands of patients have been evaluated using this approach across seven studies worldwide, and the results were quite amazing.

The results found, suggested that, when compared to usual care, MBCT reduce relapse by 43% and compares to anti-depressant medications, it provides equal protection against relapse as continuing on an anti-depressant for longer period of time.

It has the same benefits as anti-depressants, then why taking the pills and get unwanted side effects when you can get effective results without any side effects?

3. Reduce psychological distress and promote well being

You can’t deny the fact of having psychological distress and mental health problems in individuals living with chronic illness. It negatively affects overall health, as well as their capacity to function in everyday life.

A research was conducted to find the effectiveness of MBCT in treating depressive disorders in individuals, and the findings demonstrate that MBCT is highly effective in preventing relapse for individuals who have experienced three or more episodes of depression.

MBCT helps individuals to disengage from repetitive negative thought patterns by shifting perspective from mindless cognitive processing to a more engaged mindful processing of experience.

The participants who were experiencing elevated depression, anxiety, or at risk of increased depression or anxiety, were subjected to MBCT. The results of the studies suggest that MBCT may be effective in targeting anxiety and depression in primary care settings reduced it. It has also found that it has improved psychological well-being in individuals living with persistent illness and any other health challenges or life stressors. It also strengthens self-esteem, resilience, and general well-being.

4. Efficacy of MBCT for depression

Many systematic reviews have shown that MBCT significantly reduces the risk of relapse and related symptoms for individuals in depressive remission. MBCT is effective at reducing the rate of depressive relapse in individuals. Empirical evidence has shown that MBCT is an effective intervention in this context.

An increasing number of published studies have shown that there appear to be specific active ingredients in MBCT that are leading to treatment gains. Mindfulness, one such active ingredient, certainly warrants continued to study as our knowledge of different facets of the meditative experience develops.

MBCT has shown to be an effective therapy in treating depression. It has reduced the rate of depressive relapse along with a reduction of depressive symptoms.

5. MBCT for adults with ADHD

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is another mental health condition in which MBCT have shown evidence-based psychosocial treatments for adult alongside the usual treatment. The promising psychological treatment MBCT has shown to have efficacy in reducing core symptoms in adults with ADHD.

A randomized controlled trial was arranged in which participants were randomly assigned to an 8-weekly group therapy, which includes meditation exercises, psycho-education, and group discussions. Along with the TAU usual treatment in the Netherlands. The primary outcome was ADHD symptoms rated by blinded clinicians. Secondary outcomes were self-reported ADHD symptoms, executive functioning, mindfulness skills, self-compassion, positive mental health, and general functioning.

There was a significant reduction in clinician-rated ADHD symptoms. More MBCT + TAU patients showed a ⩽30% reduction in ADHD symptoms than TAU participants. Participants with MBCT+ TAU also reported significant improvements in mindfulness skills, positive mental health, and self-compassion, which were maintained until a 6-month follow-up. Although patients with TAU reported no improvement in executive functioning at post-treatment. So it was found suggested that MBCT could be a valuable treatment option for adult ADHD aimed at alleviating symptoms.

Wrap up

From analyzing all the research, what do you think? Is MBCT is the future of the therapy? Does it help people fight with their illness more effectively? Does MBCT help reduce the chances of recurrence of diseases and other mental health conditions? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

It’s time to free yourself from chronic unhappiness and practice MBCT to find a way out from the dark world of anxieties and negativity. MBCT will be the next anti-depressant that will not give you any side effects like your traditional anti-depressant drugs. Your life is worthy, and you deserve to live happily. Get up and fight.

Stay Mindful!