Recovery from Depression Through Buddhist Wisdom: An Idiographic Case Study

Abstract

Results from the recent growing trend in using mindfulness training to deal with depression report an evident decrease in depressive symptoms. The present idiographic case study explores the lived experience of how a woman with depression recovered through Buddhist teachings and practices. This single case adopted multiple data sources, including interviews, autobiographies, a genogram, and an autobiographical timeline. Member-checking and peer analysis are employed to enhance the trustworthiness. The first-hand data, analyzed through interpretative phenomenological analysis, reveal the perceived factors causing the informant's depression, as well as benefits gained from Buddhist practices, and the insight learned from experiencing depression; by which insight self-benefiting altruism can accomplish personal growth by converting suffering into assets that help others. This exploratory research offers an alternative view through which to understand depression and non-medication treatments through Buddhist ideas, and also proposes future research directions.

Buddhist Insights into Life and Death: Overcoming Death Anxiety

“…Notably, mindfulness can be assimilated into daily activities (Kabat-Zinn 2005, Keune and Forintos 2010, Tart 1990) to achieve long-term effectiveness. Since the practice of mindfulness/meditation cultivates bare attention, contemplation, clear comprehension, and a sense of present awareness (Bodhi 2011), it can be applied to mindful eating, walking, sleeping, gardening, and sport (Cheng 2015c) to optimise its effects. This can be applied to non-Buddhist clients and practitioners to enrich mental wellness, including a reduction in death anxiety.…”

“…Developed by the Buddha over 2,500 years ago in India, Buddhism helps human beings alleviate suffering, especially for psychological afflictions, for which the Buddha preached for 49 years and demonstrated how he could achieve liberation from tribulations. Buddhism provides people with a set of practices to handle life difficulties (Cheng 2015c), including a variety of meditation. After his death, Buddhism has evolved three mainstreams: Theravāda, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna (Tantric Buddhism).…”

Image and word on the street: a reflexive, phased approach to combining participatory visual methods and qualitative interviews to explore resilience with street connected young people in Guatemala City

“…Like phenomenology, case studies are resolutely ideographic, and are concerned with uniqueness, particularity and concreteness in lived experience (Eatough & Smith, 2017). IPA can demonstrate a commitment to ideography through the use of single person case studies (Eatough & Smith, 2017;Cheng, 2015). In concordance with IPA, single person case studies "offer a personally unique perspective on their relationship to, or involvement in, various phenomena of interest" (Smith et al, 2009, p.29).…”

Untitled

“…Hope substantiates victims to live on (Kübler- Ross, 1969). The hope of reunion in a future life was the result of Lotus's "optimistic explanatory style for negative events" (Ho, Chu, & Yu, 2008, p. 473) through the teachings of impermanence, cause-and-effect, and the cycle of death and rebirth (Cheng, 2015b), so that she accepted her husband's passing away, and learned to enjoy the present moment (Fawcett, 2013) with self-loving-kindness. This significant idea from the survivor dimension urges counsellors not only to non-judgementally listen to their clients (Wang, 2007) but also to facilitate them to live well without the deceased (Worden, 1991).…”