I have always struggled with meditation. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to successfully meditate and the advice that people give me does not work.

I have ADHD (Inattentive), autism and OCD/CPTSD and I can’t stop the constant stream of thoughts, it’s like my brain has a problem with authority and is like “oh, you don’t want me to think? I’m just gonna think even harder” so folks advice of “just quiet your mind!” does not work at all.

The other advice I was given was “just let your mind wander” and that’s not an option either. If I let my mind wander, it pivots fast to dark, traumatic, intrusive thoughts and/or replaying every cringe and embarrassing moment of my life, so up to this point, all of my attempts to meditate have never worked out.

If there’s anyone with similar issues to mine that has been able to meditate with success, I’d very much appreciate some advice to help me along.

  • adhd_traco@piefed.socialEnglish
    4·
    2 days ago

    ADHD, OCD, and PTSD are among my diagnoses. Also ADHD subscores are super high on inattentiveness 🤟

    Guided meditation is pretty important for me. If it’s not guided I find myself trying and trying, but I keep standing up, or my mind wanders and I forget what I was doing. I go lie down again, but before long I find myself following through on some random thought. It’s a dance that rarely works well. Though it can during certain periods. Especially if I have integrated it well into my day - that is, I know when I’m going to meditate and ease off tasks before, and I know what I will do after.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQhYKN2L7oQ
    This video, which I found in the meditation community here, is a pretty good example of what works.

    Just focusing on my breath. Letting thoughts, sensation and all that come and whatever, but keep returning focus to the breath, without trying to change anything and just doing it until the end.

    I still have many days where I just can’t get into it, and don’t even manage to stay on the floor for the twenty minutes or whatever time I set. But other times it works great. I consider it a success if I manage to stay on the floor at least the entire time :)

    I think if you’ve been in a somewhat meditative state before, it will be easier to understand what it’s about and how to get there.

    I personally like to scan through my body too. Just focusing awareness in there, maybe starting with how it touches the ground. Which has a pretty strong relaxing effect.

    Last piece of info from my experience that might be worth sharing: I had a great yoga instructor to get started and her guided meditation was on point. She let myself do all the exploring, but supported it. So it’s more like “And when you are ready… ok I see maybe we wait a bit”. Whereas someone I met later wouldn’t notice much what was happening with me and just pushed me through their practice, which is pretty much the same as if I had a recorded meditation running.

    Good luck and hope you have some good sessions to enjoy :)