A meditative prayer by Fr Sam McNally-Cross

Introduction

This is quite a personal post for me to write, but it is something that I have been gradually putting together over the past few months, maybe even a year or so. A few Christmases ago I was at the doctors seeking help for a mental health condition of severe health anxiety. Hypochondria, once called, has been reclassified in more recent years as a legitimate mental health condition that can include physical as well as psychosomatic symptoms. Mine manifest in a crippling fear of death, belief that I had terminal bowel cancer and obsessive ‘checking’ behaviour. The only thing that seemed to help was having blood tests to rule out anything sinister occurring in my body. It stopped me sleeping, I fluctuated in weight dramatically as I went from overindulging to starving myself, scared of…