The Anxiety Meditation 
PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is a very complicated condition which can cause psychosis, bipolar disorder and also suicidal as well as homicidal thoughts. US researchers have reported that Transcendental Meditation is effective treating the veterans who suffer from PTSD. Practicing of effortless thinking is known as transcendental meditation and the researchers from various universities in the US are of the opinion that everyday techniques such as transcendental meditation can help the veterans to reduce their stress and enable them to focus their mind and become more productive. There are many case studies which prove that transcendental meditation works well on the traumatized veterans.
Prolonged exposure psychotherapy Vs Transcendental meditation
Prolonged exposure psychotherapy is a very common method of treatment for PTSD. In this method of treatment, the sufferers of PTSD are put to re-experience their traumatic experience by way of confronting their memories of the past. The researchers from the US Universities conducted the trial in which they included 203 PTSD sufferers and they included service men as well as women. They were already under treatment for their PTSD symptoms and the researchers randomly assigned to these patients transcendental meditation and prolonged exposure therapy. It was found that 60% of the PTSD patients who were made to practice 20 minutes of transcendental meditation daily showed very promising results. Introduction and inclusion of alternative treatment methods like transcendental meditation is an urgent requirement in UK, US and other parts of the world since over the past four decades PTSD had become a very serious public health problem. When compared to the other treatment techniques transcendental meditation requires comparatively less time. Unlike the exposure therapy transcendental meditation is considerably cheaper and this meditation can be practiced at home. The scientists call transcendental meditation as “restful alertness” since it involves effortless thinking of an idea or a mantra so as to bring the mind back to a calm and settled state. Moreover this is a more comfortable method of treatment unlike the exposure therapy in which the veterans are forced to re-experience the traumatic events they had by confronting their memories. One can practice transcendental meditation anywhere at any time. This type of meditation facilitates self-empowering and one can practice transcendental meditation independently with no equipment and no personal support.
Veterans get their life back
It was found that the exposure therapy has failed to give relief to about 50% of the patients who underwent the treatment. Many of the patients did not respond to the treatment and the drop-out rate was around 40%. Most of the patients welcome new treatment methods that do not involve re-exposure to the traumatic experience. The veterans who could learn the meditation technique successfully are of the opinion that this method could give them their life back. A service woman who suffered sexual trauma during her military service was able to come out of her nightmares after practicing transcendental meditation. Also, she could face the battle that she had ahead. Further, she came forward to serve in a hospital and applied for a job in a hospital. The researchers still continue their studies to find out and confirm whether transcendental meditation can ensure long-term relief to the PTSD sufferers.
