TL;DR
Meditation, touted as a panacea for mental and physical ills, can cause severe and lasting side effects—anxiety, depression, even psychosis—for about 10% of practitioners.
In 2004, clinical psychology PhD student Willoughby Britton was convinced meditation improved sleep. A controlled experiment proved her wrong—the meditation group slept worse. She initially buried the findings to avoid 'harming the dharma.'
Later a meditation teacher told her: 'Meditate enough and you stop sleeping.' She began to suspect the meditation world was hiding something.
The risk is real, about one in ten
Britton's research became a turning point. She found around 10% of meditators experience adverse effects, from anxiety and depression to acute psychosis. For some, prolonged meditation acts like a stimulant, causing insomnia and disturbing thoughts.
More extreme cases involve dissociation—feeling detached from one's body and reality. These effects are more common after intensive retreats but can also arise from daily practice.
Why the silence? The field protects itself
Much meditation research is funded by pro-meditation organizations and conducted by researchers who meditate themselves; they tend to overlook negative data. When Britton raised concerns, she was ostracized by Buddhist communities and academia, even publicly accused of 'fearmongering' by her former mentor, Jack Kornfield.
Today Britton runs Cheetah House to help those harmed by meditation. Her advice is simple: if meditation makes you feel awful, stop. 'Treat meditation like any other relationship,' she says. 'If you feel like shit with that person, maybe it's time to break up.'
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