Religious OCD: Understanding Scrupulosity & OCD in your Faith
Ever wondered: what is religious OCD? In this episode, you will learn about Religious OCD, also known as scrupulosity. Hosted by Erin, a licensed clinical mental health counselor and OCD specialist, the session delves into how OCD can impact a person's religious and spiritual practices. When getting treatment for your religious OCD, the therapist can approach your intrusive thoughts without challenging or invalidating your religious beliefs.
Erin shares her journey as a Christian counselor and emphasizes the importance of seeking professional treatment from OCD specialists. The episode outlines the nature of religious OCD, including symptoms like intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviors related to fear of committing religious or moral sins. It also covers strategies for treatment, particularly the significance of Exposure Response Prevention Therapy (ERP) and avoiding reassurance seeking. Erin concludes with personal anecdotes, emphasizing the need for empathy, understanding, and proper support in treating religious OCD. She encourages seeking evidence-based treatment through NoCD and stresses the importance of not allowing OCD to sabotage one's spiritual health or relationship with their higher power.
00:00 Introduction to OCD and Partnership with NoCD
00:50 Understanding Religious OCD
06:27 The Role of a Therapist in Treating Religious OCD
13:19 Examples of How Religious OCD Can Manifest
16:47 The Importance of Seeking Professional Help
20:04 The Impact of Religious OCD on Daily Life
27:05 Final Thoughts and Next Steps
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We're partnering with NoCD to raise awareness about OCD. OCD is more than what you see on TV and in the movies. Imagine having unwanted thoughts about your relationship stuck in your head all day, no matter how hard you try to make them go away. That's Relationship OCD. It comes with unrelenting intrusive images, thoughts, and urges about your partner or loved one.
Breaking the OCD cycle takes effective treatment. Go to N O C D dot com to get evidence based treatment.
Okay, happy Friday, and welcome to the month of March. I cannot believe it's March already in 2024. Where does the time go? All right, so today y'all are going to be talking about religious OCD. With religious OCD, we're going to be talking a lot about what it is and how it shows up. What I want to share, with the disclaimer is, this episode is not about what religion you should believe, but how OCD can show up in your religious and spiritual practices.
Hi, I'm Erin, licensed clinical mental health counselor and OCD specialist. I'm also a Christian, wife, mom to three, and small business owner, helping those who are overwhelmed by stress to climb out of that valley and enjoy the view. Reheat your coffee and pop in your AirPods to learn how to boss up to OCD.
In this episode, we're going to learn about religious OCD, or aka, scrupulosity.
Now, in general, in my work, I get a lot of questions, Are you a Christian? Or, are you a Christian counselor? And that answer is, yes. I have done extra coursework in my master's program, as well as just continued in my own personal and spiritual life in excelling my knowledge in the Christian faith.
And I will not push my religion on to you as a client. But if you do, if you did have that question, am I a Christian counselor? The answer is yes. So for general speaking purposes in today's episode, I may be referring to. Christian based practices when it comes to religion, but I am open to working with you if you are of a different religion.
Okay, now, y'all, if you like these episodes, please leave a five star review as this helps lift the podcast higher on search results, and by showing up higher on the search results, we can keep spreading awareness about getting the right kind of treatment for OCD.
, so religious OCD, also known as scrupulosity, is a mental health condition characterized by obsessive thoughts, fears, or doubts related to 📍 your religion or morality . And Individuals with religious OCD or scrupulosity, they often experience those intrusive thoughts. Remember, the intrusive thoughts are those thoughts, images, feelings that are stressful, they come out of nowhere, they're involuntary
and those thoughts are centered around worry, doubt, and fear of committing religious or moral sins. And then You know, with OCD, it's followed up with those compulsive behaviors. And with those compulsive behaviors, the individual might try to undo the wrong, or try to prevent the wrong, or try to make amends with their higher power,, or all sorts of things along those lines.
And ultimately, we know that OCD, there is no amount of reassurance you can give it to satisfy there's never gonna be The quote unquote perfect answer and I've even caught myself In that type of I've even caught myself in that line of thinking because even if someone is worried about heaven or hell, just giving them the answer of if you believe in Jesus, you'll go to heaven.
That's not enough for OCD. That's what makes it complicated and a sensitive issue because OCD will. Latch on to that and continue to invite doubt into your mind and it's really unfortunate, because your spiritual health is Absolutely a crucial part in your overall being so with the scrupulosity OCD it is a mental health condition now again OCD is what is going to be found in the diagnosis book and the scrupulosity religious part is Just the subtype that we refer to in general terms, and this does require professional treatment.
So again, go see an OCD specialist. And that way it's like dipping your toe in the water as far as gaining. and doing the exposures because OCD is not something that you can think your way out of. And just recently I was doing a consult with someone who said, yeah, like I know all of these fears and behaviors and things aren't rational.
I'm like, good for you. And the part with this patient was that They can't think their way out of it and they're realizing that they can't think their way out of it and they need that additional support. So again, kudos to that person for recognizing that additional help and professional intervention is what it will take to achieve that OCD remission and OCD remission is when you are no longer suffering from the OCD.
All right, and where religious OCD can be tricky is, let's say someone is intentionally doing wrong. That's different than someone who's worried about doing wrong. . But anyway, as an OCD specialist, I'll bring you compassion, and I hope you're Therapist wherever you're located does the same and it can be a very challenging disorder and It can get complicated with the religious practices.
So in today's episode. I want to give you some information to help encourage you to seek treatment from an OCD specialist.
So let me tell you about the five things I don't do in therapy. And in these things that I don't do, I'm totally fine with them. All right. So first of all, I'm not going to challenge your beliefs or invalidate what you believe in. There are plenty of people I've worked with who feel like they have to be a good enough person or they have to do Good deeds for others or they're of a completely different religious practice like Muslim, Judaism, et cetera.
And I am not going to force my religion on you. I want you to understand that your religion is, I acknowledge that it's important to you and we're going to honor that and I'm not going to force my beliefs on you
so my role as a therapist and therapists alike is to provide you support and assistance in managing your symptoms that are. associated with your faith. So we're going to do those things without undermining what you believe. The other thing, besides not forcing my religion on you, I'm also not going to judge you for your religion or what you believe in.
So we're not going to do a theological debate. We're not going to argue. over whose religion is better. We're not going to do any of that. So now when you're in treatment, what we'll do, we'll go through your religious practices. And that way, as your therapist or your OCD specialist, we'll get an understanding of what you believe and
And what we can do to maintain those beliefs as well as start to construct that exposure and response prevention plan so that it is not going to be You know, destructive to your faith or go against your faith in some way.
I think we can all agree that being in a theological debate or religious debate in therapy is not going to be productive. That's not going to help the therapeutic relationship. And that's not what we're there to do. We're. there to treat your mental health condition, and we don't want to exacerbate your stress at all.
We don't want to do anything unproductive. Now, another thing I'm not going to do, I'm not going to encourage you to continue to avoid,
because we know OCD likes to avoid things that makes us uncomfortable. And so sometimes people may avoid church, or prayer, or whatever practice. And with OCD, the more you avoid, the more your fear will grow. Alright, and If I were to encourage you to avoid, that's only going to make things worse.
So we're not going to be doing that. I'm going to be helping you gradually confront your fear and develop healthier coping strategies as you're facing those fears. And that is essentially what exposure and response prevention will help you accomplish as well. You're going to be able to tolerate those scenarios.
much better after you've done your therapy treatment. Now, the other thing I'm not going to do, I'm not going to provide you reassurance about your morals. As reassurance can be detrimental to your growth okay, so I'm not going to be providing you reassurance because as we know with OCD when you provide reassurance it only gives you temporary relief And so ultimately we don't want to reinforce the cycle of the obsessions or the compulsions. So if you come to me and ask, Hey, is this a sin?
Um, we're going to have that discussion about that's your OCD talking, and
I'm not going to provide you reassurance if that was a sin or not. And as uncomfortable as that may feel, It's ultimately what's going to be the best scenario for you in overcoming this and tolerating the uncertainty. And again, you're going to develop more ways to manage your intrusive thoughts.
And the fifth thing, which I feel like is one of the most important, is I'm not going to make you do anything against your religious beliefs or against your morals.
All right. So I'm not going to make you do anything against your morals. And while religious practices can be a source of comfort and part of your overall wellness, I'm going to support you and I'm not going to do anything that will harm you. And I'm not going to encourage that you do anything to harm your spiritual relationship with your higher power. So for example, I've heard of some. scenarios and situations where an OCD patient was asked to go in a church and say blasphemous things.
I don't agree with that and I don't know that is ultimately helpful. Is it an exposure? Sure, but is it an appropriate exposure that aligns with your beliefs? Eh, that's not, that's just not my style. So we would develop a system of exposures that align with your beliefs and because of the sensitive nature with religion, we may have that dialogue of, is this comfortable for you in the sense of your moral beliefs?
Now, Is it comfortable for you as far as your anxiety? No, probably not, right? Because that's what we're there to treat. And so it may absolutely challenge your anxiety, but what we don't want to do is avoid doing the exposures. So we're going to find that balance between what's appropriate for your religion and spiritual values, but also challenge that anxiety and the intrusive thoughts.
We're partnering with NoCD to raise awareness about OCD. OCD is more than what you see on TV and in the movies. Imagine having unwanted thoughts about your relationship stuck in your head all day, no matter how hard you try to make them go away. That's Relationship OCD. It comes with unrelenting, intrusive images, thoughts, and urges about your partner or loved one.
If you think you may be struggling with Relationship OCD, there's hope. NoCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. NoCD therapists are trained in Exposure Response Prevention Therapy, the gold standard treatment for OCD. With NoCD, you can do virtual, Live face to face video sessions with one of their licensed specialty trained therapists.
It's affordable and they accept most major insurance plans. Breaking the relationship OCD cycle takes effective treatment. To get started with NoCD, go to nocd. com slash savage.
Okay,
now, let me run through some examples of how religious OCD or scrupulosity can come up and the word scrupulosity, let me find it. The word scrupulosity was first used in the Roman Catholic Church to describe obsessive concern with sin and compulsive acts for the purpose of atonement. And a lot of times, and just speaking from the Christian perspective, a lot of times there's words in the Bible that we have to Translate or find the synonyms for to help it make more sense.
And we do this in Sunday school all the time. And so with atonement, that's like balancing things out as if no sin was committed. All right. And the word scrupulous, if you look at that definition, it's defined as Find distinctions of which makes perfect sense for OCD, because OCD is the king of doubt.
Yeah, so religious OCD can manifest in a lot of ways. But bottom line here is that there's going to be intrusive thoughts. doubts, or fears related to your religious beliefs or practices, and you're going to have some type of compulsion to try to make it right with your higher power. So here's some examples of religious OCD and how it can show up.
Okay. First of all, it could be like an obsessive prayer. How many times have you heard the prayer? Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord, my soul to keep, et cetera, et cetera. And like some kids just. Do that on repeat or you sit down for grace at the table and it's God is great. God is good.
Let us thank him for this food. And it's like such a robotic monotonous thing and, or like even the Lord's prayer. So all of these prayers, while they're, they can be perceived as no harm, no foul, or they're innocent, things like that. Again, for an OCD person, It goes above what's reasonable. And so someone with OCD and if they have the obsessive prayer, they may feel compelled and they may feel that urge to pray excessively or.
pray in a specific way, and they're afraid that if they don't do that in that specific way, then they're going to anger God or displease God. They may get some punishment. And the compulsion then would be to repeat the prayer until they get it, quote unquote. How many times have you been saying your prayers at night and you accidentally fall asleep?
Yeah, pretty common experience. But anyway, another way that religious OCD can show up is when someone feels like they are like going against God
It's a fear of going against God if they accidentally think of. Like curse words or words that go against God is like a form of blasphemy and blasphemy is when you go against your higher power, you go against your religious belief. And so they, the OCD individual may constantly worry about unintentionally saying or thinking something that is disrespectful towards their faith.
So an example there is let's say like a teenager, they get in trouble and then it's Oh, I hate my parents. Or the teenager gets in trouble with their parents and they get grounded or Cell phone removed and y'all know that is like world war iii trying to take a cell phone from a teenager and but the teenager thinks to himself.
Oh, I hate my parents then it's oh, but that breaks the commandment of thou shall respect your mother and father and so you know that could create fear and doubt and concern if they have This type of OCD subtype there could also be moral obsession. So they have, the person has like an intense preoccupation of worry about committing sins or some type of moral wrongdoing.
And if that's the case, they may. Really scrutinize really pay attention to the things they're doing and be excessive in trying to get constant reassurance or forgiveness for those perceived wrongdoings. And those wrongdoings may be Rational or irrational? Like sometimes people feel like, Oh, if I wear the color black is that disrespectful to God?
Or, if I
wear a t shirt that has a curse word on it, is that disrespectful to God?
All right. So the moral obsessions, it may be along the lines of just worrying that what they're doing is like a double standard or hypocritical to their faith okay. Religious OCD that shows up is like with confessions. So every time someone commits a sin or thinks they have committed a sin, then they will confess their wrongdoing to their religious authorities or seek reassurance from religious figures, like repeatedly, even for minor or imagined offenses.
Another example is a fear of religious consequences where They may think that they are doomed to hell. There's absolutely a huge fear with people suffering from religious OCD is that they may go to hell. Another way religious OCD can show up is like through excessive studying. Maybe that's a With the Bible, or some other material, or religious book, depending upon your belief system.
But they're going to do this excessive religious studying, so that They're getting that reassurance from the text or from their studying, and it's a way of just getting constant validation to try to alleviate their anxiety or doubts. So there's nothing wrong with studying if it's not for the purpose of relieving your anxiety.
intrusive thoughts. And so I think, and that's where it can be sensitive and a little bit tricky in diagnosing if your compulsion is religious study. And what we would want to look at is how much studying are you doing and how much is it interfering with your life? Personal, professional, things like that.
Okay.
So about the religious OCD, it reminds me of a time that our kids had a friend over and it was a neighbor friend. And we invited him to play and stay for dinner. And we asked his parents if he could stay for dinner and all was fine and they were having a good time. And so we asked the boys, Hey, what what would you guys like for dinner?
And we're ordering from this place. And so from the kid's menu, they've got coarse chicken nuggets. They've got the chicken nuggets. They've got pizza. They've got
quesadillas. They've got hot dogs. And our guest said, Oh, I want a hot dog. I want a hot dog. And it's cool. We'll get you a hot dog. So we enjoy our meal. We send him home and we're like, he ate good. He had a hot dog. And his mother looks at us and is he had a hot dog. And we're like, yeah. Come to find out, they were of a religion where they're not allowed to eat hot dogs.
That was a whoopsie. And it was, it was funny. But, apparently the kid knew not to have hot dogs and totally capitalized on the opportunity to have a hot dog. So things happen and now someone with religious OCD, if they were to accidentally even touch a hot dog, that may trigger fear.
And other ways that religious OCD can show up is if let's say you're constantly questioning your intentions. So now we're talking more along the lines of like moral obsessions and moral fears. And so you may be worried if like you have some hidden selfish motives, and you worry if your intentions are good and for the Lord, cause like I've heard so many times in church.
Do everything unto the Lord. And so it's am I excelling in this area or am I excelling at work for the glory of God or for my own glory? And so someone with religious OCD could really be wrestling with that in a way that causes them a lot of distress. There could be a fear of causing harm to other people by accident.
And so that kind of plays into your moral beliefs. Another. Example here is just feeling that guilt over a perceived wrongdoing, which I've already talked about. So maybe don't do that.
I don't know. Let me phrase it this way. So what about those times when things happen out of your control and for some reason you feel responsible for it? And so that guilt and shame over these events, that can cause maybe some minor distress, or in the case of OCD, normally it's more of an excessive or overwhelming feeling of stress.
So that's something that can absolutely be worked on in therapy.
And what about those times whenever you're doubting your own integrity? Am I a good person? How can I be sure I'm a good person? So you may be looking for a lot of reassurance or validation from others.
And I imagine a lot of us have come across people who strive for that moral perfection. And I bet a lot of church leaders or religious leaders feel this pressure because it's tough being a leader of a church when you're expected to be the example and be that role model for others. And so it could be easy to have a lot of self criticism and someone with OCD that.
Self criticism may come pretty constantly and also very rigid. I just want to remind everyone about the story of David. He was one of the greatest followers of God in the Bible and again, I'm not getting in a theological debate But just pointing out the information from the Bible in that he was a God follower yet He committed sins, even after being such a devout follower of God. He was the one that defeated Goliath and then he's, in his kingdom ship, but he also. had a rollercoaster of a spiritual life with ups and downs and and so no one's perfect.
Okay, now another scenario that comes up a lot with religious OCD is when someone is like mentally beating themselves up time and time again over past actions. It's like they can't let go of Things they've done in the past. And, sometimes when I'm working with people who are of the Christian faith and they say, yes, I believe that God forgives me, but I can't forgive myself.
Or sometimes it's a scenario of no, I don't believe God can forgive me for that. And so they're reviewing their past actions in a way that's trying to determine if they are morally acceptable or if they're going to find favor with God. And they do a lot of just mental repetition and that becomes like a ritual.
And you may often Do this, like if you're someone who has anxiety, you may do this in the evenings a lot. We call this rumination, where you're just going round and round in your mind of things you did that day and having regrets or I should have said this or I should have done that. And y'all, the shudder is full.
Don't should yourself.
So one of the quotes I'm going to leave you with comes from Martin Luther. And he says, you should not believe your conscience and your feelings more than the word. And he goes on to say, which the Lord receives sinners preaches to you.
So basically bottom line is Let's not give power and energy and attention to our feelings But let's put more of our emphasis on the word and what God says
overall
We're partnering with NoCD to raise awareness about OCD. OCD is more than what you see on TV and in the movies. Imagine having unwanted thoughts about your relationship stuck in your head all day, no matter how hard you try to make them go away. That's Relationship OCD. It comes with unrelenting intrusive images, thoughts, and urges about your partner or loved one.
Breaking the OCD cycle takes effective treatment. Go to N O C D dot com to get evidence based treatment.
Religious OCD or scrupulosity is a mental health condition and it will be treated with empathy, understanding, and appropriate support from your OCD specialist. It is a challenging disorder and not one that you should go through alone.
If you liked this podcast episode, please let me know by leaving a five star review and sharing the episode with your friends. In your review, write about the best tip or best advice you've learned from this episode.
The more reviews, the more we are spreading awareness, understanding, and promoting the right kind of treatment for OCD. Now that you know exactly what religious OCD is, please Do you still wonder, is religious OCD a sin? I've got that episode coming up for you next week. So stay tuned for that, and I'll see y'all next time.
Thank you for listening to today's episode. This information is intended to be helpful and not a substitute for professional counseling. Before you go, kindly leave me a five star review and check out the links in the show notes to see the products that can make your small business dreams happen. Take care and see you next time.
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