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Meditating with AuDHD: How do you do it? (lemmy.world)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/autism@lemmy.world
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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.

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[–] 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I like to sit under a tree near a creek in the mountains. The sound of the water rushing is really loud from that close; enough to put me into a kind of sensory overload state, but the general peacefulness of the situation makes it one that isnt distressing. The extremely complex path the various eddies and currents in the water help too, I can just stare at and try to follow them if "eyes closed next to the creek" isnt working. To generalize that a bit in case you don't have access to something like that, what works for me is lightly overstimulating my senses in a controlled and relaxed setting where it isn't scary that I'm a bit disabled by the overstimulation. That allows me to do meditation that's a mix of not thinking and thinking about neutral to positive things like fluid dynamics or water tables when I can't pull off mental silence

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    So you mean like, surrounding yourself with mild noise? That's an interesting technique I hadn't heard of for this use case.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago

    Mild to loud noise, and specifically white noise. The idea is to get something loud enough to drown out other stimuli but consistent enough to eventually mentally tune out. Idk what the professional consensus is on that method as a meditation aid (or if there even is one), but it works for me. I've also been able to use loud box fans or atmospheric metal like lantôs or *shels to similar effect

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