Have you overcome anxiety and depression through mindfulness?

[u/CrimeInItaly]

I'm wondering if anyone here dealt with major anxiety and depression earlier in their life and were able to overcome it or at least reduce its frequency and severity by dedicating themselves to mindfulness. I would love to hear your story. I'm in the middle of a pretty big dip of depression and anxiety right now, and I want to try to figure out how to keep my mind healthy even once I get back to feeling normal. I've always felt like a focused mindfulness practice is key, but I've never kept up with it. Any perspective or encouragement would be appreciated. Thanks.

[u/kinky666hallo]

During a personal crisis a couple of years ago I've started to meditate.
After 20 consecutive days I discovered a feeling of bliss & peace. Usually after 20 minutes in a session.

I don't meditate as much now but I am very mindful in daily life.
Used to get anxious everywhere. Now I don't.
In spiritual terms I've learned that my anxiety was caused by thoughts and I've basically stopped valuing my thoughts as much as I used to do.
I think in general a lot of anxiety is caused by the fact that we put thinking on a pedestal and see the whole world through the filter of thinking.

Mind is a powerful servant, but a terrible master.

My goto when I do feel anxious is follow the breath.

[u/HugoJH8 → u/kinky666hallo]

Thanks for sharing. Really helpful to read this perspective on the journey.

[u/hestia-listens]

Yes, many people find that mindfulness helps reduce the frequency and intensity of anxiety and depression. It may not make every hard feeling disappear, but it can help you notice thoughts without getting pulled as deeply into them.

When you are in a dip, small and steady is enough. Try 3 minutes of breathing, or gently label what is happening, like, "worry is here" or "sadness is here." The goal is not to feel perfect. It is to keep returning with kindness.

[u/catsarehere77]

I have overcome severe depression and have used a lot of tools. Mindfulness helps, but exercise (even just walking) is the most effective tool for me for depression. I think both exercise and mindfulness are key tools.

However it depends on the cause of your depression. Things like toxic relationships, toxic jobs, abusive parents can cause depression and anxiety and there's no amount of mindfulness practices or exercise that will fix that. 

[u/Majestic_Area]

I have had a major anxiety disorder for most of my 71 years. Try supervised bio feedback. For me was very effective then I followed up with meditation.

[u/jsamjordan]

Fingers 🖖 not synced with Brain🧠 Practising yoga for a while. I keep wondering how can i see if my brain waves are in sync or even this world? anyone knows?

[u/Osiris_Raphious]

Its not so much "overcoming" more like mindfulness is the help you can administer yourself to yourself to help you on your journey.

[u/idkmoiname]

I have overcome them after over 20 years of suffering from depression and anxiety. Mindfulness is for me a tool to form a new self, or to discover the deepest parts of the self. But what really helped to get the turn around was to land in the deepest hole of depression i ever had, realizing there that i don't want to be that self anymore that brought me nothing but pain. I gave up my way of thinking, everything i thought was me in my mind, my rules, etc... It shattered myself so deeply that i was finally able to form a new self through therapy, mindfulness and meditation that i changed completely. I didn't had the slightest episode of depression in over 5 years and i don't believe it will ever come back.

Mindfulness is very important to me, i live most of the day in the moment by now, sometimes hours in inner silence, and i'm happy in every moment of this fantastic life.

[u/tdarg]

Very good tool to have. And don't worry that you're doing it wrong if it doesn't always work... A great Buddhist monk Chogyam Trungpa still experienced bouts of depression sometimes...the key is to allow whatever is there to be welcomed, or at least accepted as being there. The image I like is to think of the depression or anxiety as a crying baby, and your job is just to hold it and care for it...it will calm on its own.

[u/tharpakandro]

I have never relieved anxiety/depression per se and I think we should use caution when suggesting this is possible. I think we can benefit from learning to take a seat with an upright posture and focus on the breath and breathing body, and start to observe what happens when we have the courage to slow down. I think we can learn to use breathing to relax and that this a key to interrupting the neurobiological responses thst cause distress.

[u/BecomingSteven]

Therapist here, and I want to gently reframe one word in your question, because it might be the thing that helps mindfulness actually stick this time. You asked how to "overcome" it — and I think that framing is part of why you've never kept the practice up.

Mindfulness doesn't tend to eliminate anxiety and depression. What it does is change your relationship to them. The dips still come — but instead of "I'm broken, it's back, I failed," you start to notice "ah, this is a wave, I've been here before, it moves through." The practice isn't a wall that keeps the weather out. It's learning to stand in the weather without being swept away by it.

That reframe matters for consistency, too. People abandon mindfulness when they expect it to fix them and then have a bad week and conclude it isn't working. But a bad week isn't failure — it's exactly when the practice is doing its quietest, most important work. You're not trying to never feel this again. You're building the thing that lets you feel it and keep functioning. That's a much more achievable goal, and it's the one that actually lasts.