“The field of psychology is really pushing cognitive and behavioral psychotherapies that involve talking and thinking about what happened as well as challenging maladaptive thought processes,” says Bret A. Moore, PhD, the vice chair of the Boulder Crest Institute for Posttraumatic Growth, as well as a former active-duty army psychologist and Iraq War veteran. “These are effective interventions for a portion of veterans, but not all.” Dr. Moore says that his field should focus on nontraditional interventions like meditation that are easy to engage in outside of the therapy room and avoid placing the veteran in the “patient” or “sick” role that is often associated with traditional treatments for PTSD. And research finds a benefit to this approach. In a study published in December 2018 in The Lancet Psychiatry, researchers found that meditation worked as well as exposure therapy to ameliorate symptoms of PTSD in veterans. Dan Libby, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist, yoga teacher, and the founder of the Veterans Yoga Project — an educational and advocacy organization dedicated to improving the health of veterans through the practices of yoga and meditation — who was not involved in the study, said that the symptoms of PTSD can often feel as if you’re trapped in a moving car without brakes. “When you really look at what’s happening for someone who’s dealing with trauma, their mind has become an unsafe, unpredictable, and uncontrollable place,” Dr. Libby says. “And the external world seems unsafe and unpredictable, too.” He believes that many veterans could benefit from a more holistic, mindful approach to PTSD treatments. “As a clinical psychologist working at the VA, I found that veterans who also had a practice, whether it be meditation or mindful movement, had better outcomes,” he says. RELATED: PTSD in the Military: Statistics, Causes, Treatments, and More
Different Forms of Meditation Studied in Veterans
Meditation is a technique or set of techniques that can help a person to focus their mind and bring it back to the present moment. According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, it’s been shown to help alleviate a number of health issues, from depression and anxiety to menopausal symptoms and even high blood pressure. Here’s what the research has to say on how meditation may also help veterans manage PTSD.
1. Compassion Meditation
Compassion meditation involves the repetition of phrases designed to increase empathy and compassion toward others. One common phrase used in the practice is: “May I be happy. May I be peaceful. May I be free from suffering.” Once you feel you have internalized the message, you can then move on to wishing the same positive thoughts to others: family members, friends, and even strangers. Small studies show that practicing compassion meditation can lessen the symptoms of PTSD. An article published in April 2019 in the Journal of Traumatic Stress found that practicing compassion meditation for 90 minutes weekly had a greater effect on the symptoms of PTSD among veterans than a program consisting of psychoeducation, relaxation training, and sleep hygiene. Another study published in April 2019, in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, found that veteran participants self-reported a significant decrease in their PTSD symptoms and a high degree of satisfaction with the compassion meditation program. Yet another study examined the effects of loving-kindness meditation (a specific kind of compassion meditation) on veterans’ symptoms of PTSD and depression. Published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, it found that veterans who practiced a 12-week loving-kindness meditation course experienced a moderate reduction in symptoms of depression and a high reduction in symptoms of PTSD at a three-month follow-up.
2. Transcendental Meditation
Transcendental Meditation, or TM, is a form of meditation in which a person silently repeats a given sound, word, or short phrase in their mind for a set period of time in order to focus the mind and bring about a state of peace and relaxation. This word or sound is known as a mantra, and it doesn’t need to have any meaning at all — it’s only important insofar as it helps you to focus your mind on the sound of the mantra. The Maharishi Foundation, which trademarked this form of meditation, recommends practicing TM twice a day for 20 minutes at a time — once in the morning, once in the evening. The foundation offers courses that can cost hundreds of dollars and stipulates that mantras can be assigned only by TM practitioners. Studies seem cautiously optimistic about the role of TM in reducing symptoms of PTSD. For example, a study published January 2018 in Military Medicine found that TM helped reduce PTSD symptoms without causing veterans to reexperience their trauma. Another study, published November 2018 in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, found that veterans who practiced an eight-week TM course reported increased mindfulness and quality of life, along with decreased symptoms of PTSD and depression. While the results seem to indicate TM is effective for veterans, most researchers agree that this specific area of study is still relatively new and merits further research.
3. Mantra Meditation
Luckily for those who don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars learning TM, there is another form of meditation that focuses on repetition of a mantra — it’s called mantra meditation. According to the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, its purpose is to redirect the energy you may spend on negative thinking toward the repetition of a simple and meaningful mantra. Research on the topic is limited, but one study of 173 veterans published in 2018 in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that mantra meditation therapy was generally more effective than present-centered therapy for reducing some of the symptoms of PTSD.
4. Mindfulness Meditation
This type of meditation encourages participants to simply be aware and mindful of the present moment, allowing thoughts to come and go without judgment or reaction. There’s a particular emphasis on deep breathing, which may help to ease the symptoms of anxiety and depression, according to one study published June 2015 in Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. A study of 116 veterans, published August 2015 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that mindfulness meditation had a modest effect on the symptoms of PTSD, but a greater effect overall when compared with present-centered group therapy. And a review of a variety of mindfulness-based treatments for PTSD, published in the Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience in January 2018, concluded that thus far, the practice is moderately effective in reducing PTSD symptoms, and definitely merits further study.
How to Know if Meditation Is Right for You
Of course, as with many medical conditions, there’s no single cure for the symptoms of PTSD among veterans. Treatment for this disorder should always be discussed with a doctor, and where necessary, adjustments to sessions or dosages should be made. “These [meditation] practices are an important and necessary complement to treatment for PTSD, not necessarily an alternative,” says Libby. “It’s all about which tools work for you.” Moore also believes that the existing cognitive and behavioral psychotherapies can be useful along with complementary and integrative practices — and he emphasizes that getting the right treatment can lead to deep personal growth for veterans. “Veterans with PTSD are not broken,” he says. “They are not dangerous. They are not unstable. They are brave men and women who are learning to manage some very difficult life experiences. They are individuals who are trying to make meaning out of what happened during their military service and take the lessons they’ve learned in order to improve their lives and communities.” RELATED: 5 Ways to Practice Breath-Focused Meditation
Where Veterans Can Go for Help With PTSD
If you or someone you know is a veteran living with PTSD and wants help to manage the condition, there are a number of websites and resources you can use for help.
