There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to treating obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but many people find relief through meditation.
If you haven’t tried meditating to manage your obsessive thoughts and actions, now is a good time to familiarize yourself with basic technique. Although meditation has been around for thousands of years, it has been gaining mainstream attention recently thanks to popular apps like Headspace and Calm.
The holistic treatment is recommended by medical professionals, touted by meditation experts, and praised by people with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Dorothy Grice, MD, director of the program for tics, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and related disorders in the Department of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine on Mount Sinai, believes meditation (along with other therapies and / or medications) is an effective way to treat Obsessive-compulsive disorder can be thoughts or urges and the distress associated with them.
In fact, meditation is designed to help you relax and reduce stress, among other things.
Transcendental Meditation
Adam Delfiner developed obsessive-compulsive disorder as a teenager. He says that Transcendental Meditation (TM) helped him overcome what he calls “what if”. He even wrote his dissertation on the subject.
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This unique type of meditation involves repeating mantras twice a day. The mantras are meaningless words. They exist to channel a “still, stable, calm realm,” says Kelly McKay, a certified Transcendental Meditation Teacher based in Brooklyn, NY.
As a meditator in TM, you have permission not to focus on anything. McKay says the practice puts your brain in a state of relaxation from stress.
Mindful meditation
Unlike Transcendental Meditation, mindfulness meditation practice does not require mantras, although you can use them if you want. You can meditate sitting, lying flat, or walking, either standing still or walking.
Carla Stangenberg has meditated and put students on the meditation mat at the Jaya Yoga Center in Brooklyn, NY for over 20 years. She describes meditation as “mind training”.
It’s about getting your attention to something, she says. By focusing on your breathing and using it as an anchor, you can focus your attention on the present.
Although Stangenberg practices primarily Buddhist-rooted mindful meditation, she has tried other types and believes they can all help. Mindful meditation’s focus on breathing calms you down and slows down your busy mind. This is what Stangenberg addresses, who turns to breathing through meditation when she feels stressed or anxious.
Be anchored
The calming or centering effect of meditation works with Laura Fortune. Fortune was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder at age 12 and said she experienced obsessive-compulsive disorder “as something that exists in a breakup or gap”.
The gap separates her from her “ground, center, body, breath, self, inner testimony,” she says, but meditation centers her again.
This is known as anchoring. It means breaking away from what it’s fixated on, whether you are always worried about a friend or family member, or feel the urge to count things over and over again. It draws attention to your breath, a mantra, or images through guided meditation. If you focus on something else, you may find yourself expressing obsessive thoughts and compulsive tendencies.
Instead of worrying when you locked the door, you can focus your attention on your breath. Where do you feel it In your belly Chest? Your throat
Marriage and family therapist Jon Hershfield, who specializes in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder and related disorders, explains the process this way: When you can identify when you’re lost in thought and return to the present without having to get involved , you can break the cycle of obsession and coercion.
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Hershfield, who co-authored two books on mindfulness – The Mindfulness Workbook for OCD and Everyday Mindfulness for OCD – says the practice can help alleviate OCD symptoms.
He also emphasizes the importance of the anchor. Watch your breathing and notice when your mind changes, he says. Then go back to the anchor – to the feeling of breathing.
Over time, he says, you’ll be better able to notice when you’re triggered so you can reset your attention.
Part of a treatment plan
Meditation and other activities that promote wellbeing and feelings of calm can help alleviate your obsessive-compulsive disorder. But doctors and therapists say they are only part of treating the disease.
Hershfield likes the ability of meditation to play in anxious narratives and bring your attention back to the present. It can boost the effects of other treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which helps you identify and change bad thought patterns, or exposure and response therapy (ERP), which allows you to acknowledge thoughts that annoy you without approaching them react.
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Likewise, Grice believes in using CBT and ERP along with other activities that can promote health, relaxation, and positive wellbeing. The key is to find “a positive engagement”.
Meditation is one such activity. And anyone can do it.
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