One of my many tattoos is a phrase on my arm. It is written in Tibetan and is, roughly, "Aum Mahne Padme Hum" - a meditative phrase that encompasses the sound of God in the universe. I have that phrase on my arm because I love sound; it is extremely meaningful to me; the idea that God communicates with the universe through sound is fascinating to me. The tattoo is there, too, because I have achieved tremendous benefit from sitting zazen (a type of Buddhist meditation).
Meditation, when done as it is intended, is not about controlling your thoughts, it is about not letting your thoughts control you.

That said, even for someone (me) who has practiced meditation for 30+ years, I have found that I cannot practice meditation at all unless I am quite stable on medication. To go there would be dangerous territory.

I'm wondering if part of what we're discussing - perhaps most of what we're discussing - is the difference between mental illness/emotional disturbance that is brought on by environmental factors and mental illness that is organic in nature. Mindfulness might be far more helpful for the former, not so much for the latter. With regard to organic MI I do believe that mindfulness (i.e, mindfulness meditation) can actually worsen symptoms.

An aside - jimi, you're post is terrific. You make an apt point about mindfulness being a meditation practice. My guess is that many (most?) mental health practitioners toss the word "mindfulness" around without truly understanding it's history and meaning.
Your post also gave me a good laugh. "Then I ask what it is and they just go very vague about it, usually they want us to go for walks in the woods for some reason to be mindful." hiLARious!!!!
Also..do tell, as I'm dying to know: why are the woods full of junkies?