I haven’t really talked about my religion on here before but since it is inextricably linked to my recovery I think it’s worthy of mention.
So to start with, I’m a spiritualist, I wasn’t always but due to some personal experiences I became one. This happened to me around about the same time that I was diagnosed with OCD. A spiritualist church is quite different to any other church, and great focus is placed on the art of meditation.

like most I had the preconceived notion that meditation meant sitting cross legged under a tree for hours on end like the Buddha waiting for inspiration to strike. What it actually is is a natural way to relieve stress and train the mind.

A lot of the so called experts will tell you you have to empty your mind, think of nothing! Rubbish! How can you think of nothing?
Instead, I was taught to give my mind something to play with, an object to imagine in my mind perhaps, or maybe even just focusing on my breath, counting out each inhale and exhale.

Sometimes your brain can throw random thoughts in your way, drawing your attention away. In these moments I was told to gently bring my mind back to the task at hand. They call it the monkey mind because your mind jumps from one thought to another like a monkey jumps from one branch to another.

Over time I began to gain control of my mind. It wasn’t immediate, it was subtle. The funny thing was, I found that my intrusive thoughts which had frightened me and made me physically sick and exhausted had dissipated. In effect, I had inadvertently gotten control over my OCD because every time an intrusive thought popped into my head, I would just instinctively gently bring my mind back to whatever I was doing.
Now obviously it wasn’t just meditation that had achieved this, the CBT and drug therapy had also helped transform my mind, but meditation certainly played a big part too!

This was just part of my journey, and maybe meditation won’t work for everyone, but maybe it will help alleviate some of your symptoms, whatever your diagnosis is.
So why not try it?