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Reaching children with depression Ten million children in America take antidepressant medication. Therein lie two terrible facts: first, that so many youngsters are diagnosed as clinically depressed; and second, that they are forced to take potent medications, most with known hazardous side effects. (In fact, the most widely prescribed antidepressant, Prozac, was just banned by the FDA for use among children because it has been shown to lead to suicide.) A study on meditating children at a middle school in inner-city Detroit—and the experience of their teachers and parents—confirms what previous published research has shown: Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation increases inner happiness, self-esteem, and self-worth and reduces anxiety and depression. The research results and the classroom experience suggest that this same program, offered to students on a wider scale, could well provide a nondrug antidote for childhood depression—or better yet, prevent depression in the first place. Here then, in brief, is the “Nataki Story.” The Nataki Talibah Schoolhouse of Detroit is located in an old, three-story brick building in northwest Detroit, right off Seven Mile—a stark stretch of road of mostly boarded-up store fronts, churches, and liquor stores. There are steel bars over the windows and doors of the houses around the school—decorative but definitely protective. But while the location may not be great, the Nataki charter school (K-8), founded 30 years ago by educator Carmen N’Namdi and her psychologist husband George, is outstanding. Nataki has earned a well-deserved citywide reputation for excellence, and the school attracts students—all of them African American—from all over Detroit. In fact, many of the city’s government and civic leaders attended Nataki as children. Since 1997, Ms. N’Namdi decided to introduce Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation to students and faculty for one reason: she wanted to offer everyone in her school a simple tool to decrease stress and boost achievement. She continues to offer the program at Nataki each year for one reason: it works. For those eight years, Jane Pitt has directed the Transcendental Meditation program at the school, where as many as 125 children (and 30 teachers) have practiced the technique together twice a day in the school gymnasium. She describes the scene that plays itself out every day as part of the normal school routine: “A horde of active, energetic middle-school students come bounding into the gym, take a ‘backjack’ chair off the stage, and sit down in rows with their classes. They finish up conversations with friends, get comfortable— and the lights are dimmed. They begin their practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique and literally, within moments, the room grows deeply silent. Then, ten minutes later, rested and refreshed, they get up, put away the backjacks, and get on with their school day. By now, the whole process is just routine.” The benefits of the twice-daily practice were immediate. “Students said they were more focused in their classes, and teachers reported more energy throughout the day. Both groups noticed they had more patience in dealings with each other. Parents noticed the changes in their children, so they wanted to learn the Transcendental Meditation technique themselves—and they wanted their other children to learn as well,” Ms. Pitt recalls. In 2002, Rita Benn, Ph.D., director of the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Center at the University of Michigan, conducted the first of several studies on the students at Nataki. She examined the “social–emotional competencies” of the meditating students compared to non-meditating controls. Dr. Benn found significant differences between the two groups: the meditating students exhibited high mood states, reported they handled stress better and got along better with their peers—and in general felt more peaceful, happy, and calm. Dr. Benn saw huge implications for the millions of children—one in five, actually—in America who suffer from mental health problems. “If the Transcendental Meditation program has the capacity to facilitate kids feeling better about themselves, it has huge implications for other areas of their lives. It may prevent mental health difficulties—and it may reduce the likelihood of the need for medication,” she says. Dr. Benn presented her findings at the International Center for Integration of Health and Spirituality at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, in April 2003, and at the International Symposium for Complementary Health Care in London in November 2003. Ms. Pitt says the students enjoy their practice and appreciate the benefits it brings. She recalls one student, James, a tall, sullen-looking boy with an attitude of “I just want to be left alone.” That changed almost as soon as he started to meditate. “James was one of the first kids to come to the gym and sit down in a group to meditate every day—and he really seemed to be enjoying it,” she says, adding that James wrote a note to Carmen N’Namdi just before he graduated from eighth grade thanking her for making the Transcendental Meditation technique available: “Thank you for letting me experience Transcendental Meditation. It has helped me stay awake and more alert in class. Thanks to you, school is easier and better for me.” Ms. Pitt remembers another boy, Brian, who wrote Ms. N’Namdi: “Due to the effects of Transcendental Meditation I have cut back on arguing. I’ve only talked back to a teacher once or twice (and I apologized) and I haven’t had a fight since before I can remember.” For students at the Nataki Talibah Schoolhouse, the daily routine of meditating is now as normal as taking a daily class in social studies or math or physical education. “The Transcendental Meditation program seems like the most obvious and logical thing in the world: give the students an easy, practical way to help them to clear their minds, dissolve stress, and feel more self-confidence. Give them the ability to achieve the goal of all education—to enjoy learning, to enjoy childhood, to enjoy growing into happy and healthy adults. From what we have seen at Nataki, we feel that this is the gift that should be given to all our children everywhere, so that education can do what it set out to do,” Ms. Pitt says. Funding for the Nataki the Transcendental Meditation program project has come in part from the Daimler Chrysler Fund and the General Motors Foundation.
© Copyright 2007 David Lynch Foundation
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