Brain scans prove Eastern philosophies can be effective in treating mental illness

Erica Crompton, Daily Mail: Meditation is sitting around trying to think about nothing and letting out the occasional ‘ommmm’.

They do lots of it in India and in parts of Islington where they eat granola, too. OK, those are sweeping statements but you catch my drift.

I’m open-minded, but if you had asked me a few years ago whether I believed meditation could be an effective treatment for serious mental illness, I would have laughed. However, that is exactly what some of Britain’s mental health experts now believe.

It has been almost a decade since I was first diagnosed with paranoid psychosis, a type of schizophrenia. It’s not as dramatic it sounds – I’ve seen a psychiatrist about once every three months since I became ill, and my medication is managed by the GP.

I needed to go into hospital once, for a week. I take an anti-psychotic drug called amisulpride. I’d rather not be dependent on tablets but if I stop taking them, I feel unwell again.

It happened just recently. I ran out of pills before the weekend and thought I would be fine to wait to see my doctor on Monday. By Sunday, anxiety had begun to creep up on me. My illness makes me feel I’ve done something terribly wrong, although I’m not sure what …

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