How do you guys cope with Scrupulosity?

[minamino21]

Long story short, I was raised in a Christian-like environment since primary school and took an atheist path around highschool. After I finished university I decided to get immersed little by little into Christianity.

The only issue is that this time I have some kind of OCD/Scrupulosity issues that weren't present the first time. I suppose these things were accentuated by stress and being tired. I managed to overcome some of my issues, but I still have problems with repeated prayer. I just can't convince myself that I say it properly. Or to keep concentrated when I pray. My mind flies away from time to time.
Or during summer last year I mistakenly crushed a snail and since then I feel I need to be more vigilent when I walk to not crush them.

I saw some people are encountering the same problems. How do you manage to minimise the effects of OCD? I spend a lot of time per day just trying to say them right. It's getting really tiresome...

 

[Dendy]

I had a very bad set back in 2009. I worried about the unforgivable sin so much that I made myself extremely sick and had to be taken for medical treatment. I can't remember everything I've said in the past but I said some things that made me worry that I could have committed the unforgivable sin. I realized that God is love and love would not hurt me. I realized that God knows my thoughts and what I really mean. I prayed very hard for days. I had a rose bush my husband had given me that I really didn't like. Every year for 13 years it had these peach/orange roses on it and I thought it was awful. During the days I was so sick with this thing in 2009 that rose bush began to bloom with beautiful deep red blooms. Every year since it has been the deep red with lots and lots of beautiful roses. For me praying and extra medication and the realization of what love is helped tremendously.

 

[Job405]

I get intrusive thoughts and have been diagnosed with schizophrenia. For the intrusive thoughts no medication has really affected it much but lexapro 15mg helps to keep me calm when I have them. For the schizophrenia hallucinations, olanzapine 10mg has done wonders by removing any hallucinations.

But the most important thing is prayer. When I pray to God I can sometimes feel the Holy Spirit. He gives me joy, peace and comfort during these mental infirmities. I already tried to commit suicide twice when I thought I lost the Holy Spirit. But if I know that I have God with me I can endure anything. God is the reason I am still alive, in so many ways.

 

[Mari17]

Long story short, I was raised in a Christian-like environment since primary school and took an atheist path around highschool. After I finished university I decided to get immersed little by little into Christianity.

The only issue is that this time I have some kind of OCD/Scrupulosity issues that weren't present the first time. I suppose these things were accentuated by stress and being tired. I managed to overcome some of my issues, but I still have problems with repeated prayer. I just can't convince myself that I say it properly. Or to keep concentrated when I pray. My mind flies away from time to time.
Or during summer last year I mistakenly crushed a snail and since then I feel I need to be more vigilent when I walk to not crush them.

I saw some people are encountering the same problems. How do you manage to minimise the effects of OCD? I spend a lot of time per day just trying to say them right. It's getting really tiresome...

Thank you for sharing! I've had obsessions/compulsions about praying before, too, and also have hyper-responsibility issues. Do you remember other obsessions that you've had in the past? Or do you feel like your OCD/scrupulosity is manifesting itself for the first time? I think stress can DEFINITELY play a part in triggering OCD and anxiety!

 

[minamino21]

Thank you for sharing! I've had obsessions/compulsions about praying before, too, and also have hyper-responsibility issues. Do you remember other obsessions that you've had in the past? Or do you feel like your OCD/scrupulosity is manifesting itself for the first time? I think stress can DEFINITELY play a part in triggering OCD and anxiety!

No I think it's the first time it got activated. But the past days when I looked back I think I was always like this (afraid to lose people, for example, my ex-girlfriend, I was trying to hard to make get out of my way to make it work, because due to some older things I messed us up. In the end I still messed up, because I was scared about the future, so yeah). I was never so frustrated by something, though. I never thought that I didn't wash my hands well (which now happens, prolly due to COVID and the thought of infecting my closer ones), I didn't think about misspelling my prayers when I was young, didn't think that "wow, I didn't donate to that charity, I think it's egoistical of me), or be obsessively "self-aware" about stuff.
I thought that my old job was the trigger, I worked in IT and had an on-call responsibility bi-weekly. And even though there weren't many incidents, I felt stressed that the phone might ring and I wouldn't be able to fix the issues.
I changed my job for a year though, and I still can't get out of this loop. I'm aware of my issue and I tried to look here and there for help (e.g. talked to a priest and he told me not to obsess about things, or another one that told me to not be so worked-up for this), but it's easier to be said than done.
I've been reading some of your posts before joining and they helped me a lot btw

 

[Mari17]

No I think it's the first time it got activated. But the past days when I looked back I think I was always like this (afraid to lose people, for example, my ex-girlfriend, I was trying to hard to make get out of my way to make it work, because due to some older things I messed us up. In the end I still messed up, because I was scared about the future, so yeah). I was never so frustrated by something, though. I never thought that I didn't wash my hands well (which now happens, prolly due to COVID and the thought of infecting my closer ones), I didn't think about misspelling my prayers when I was young, didn't think that "wow, I didn't donate to that charity, I think it's egoistical of me), or be obsessively "self-aware" about stuff.
I thought that my old job was the trigger, I worked in IT and had an on-call responsibility bi-weekly. And even though there weren't many incidents, I felt stressed that the phone might ring and I wouldn't be able to fix the issues.
I changed my job for a year though, and I still can't get out of this loop. I'm aware of my issue and I tried to look here and there for help (e.g. talked to a priest and he told me not to obsess about things, or another one that told me to not be so worked-up for this), but it's easier to be said than done.
I've been reading some of your posts before joining and they helped me a lot btw

Yes, OCD/scrupulosity can take many different forms. Perhaps it might help if you could identify each obsession, and then the compulsions you do (the things you feel "forced" to do to relieve the anxiety). So for example, one obsession would be "fear of killing snails" and the compulsion would be "watching the ground and trying to avoid snails." Then, the goal is to learn to ignore those anxious thoughts, and to NOT do what your OCD is telling you to do.

I'm willing to explain this process more, if it would be helpful, and also to link to some good websites about OCD and scrupulosity if you'd like. And thank you for telling me that you've been reading some of my posts - I'm so glad they've been helpful!

 

[minamino21]

Yes, OCD/scrupulosity can take many different forms. Perhaps it might help if you could identify each obsession, and then the compulsions you do (the things you feel "forced" to do to relieve the anxiety). So for example, one obsession would be "fear of killing snails" and the compulsion would be "watching the ground and trying to avoid snails." Then, the goal is to learn to ignore those anxious thoughts, and to NOT do what your OCD is telling you to do.

I'm willing to explain this process more, if it would be helpful, and also to link to some good websites about OCD and scrupulosity if you'd like. And thank you for telling me that you've been reading some of my posts - I'm so glad they've been helpful!

I am interested in what you have to say

 

[gingertail27]

Yes, OCD/scrupulosity can take many different forms. Perhaps it might help if you could identify each obsession, and then the compulsions you do (the things you feel "forced" to do to relieve the anxiety). So for example, one obsession would be "fear of killing snails" and the compulsion would be "watching the ground and trying to avoid snails." Then, the goal is to learn to ignore those anxious thoughts, and to NOT do what your OCD is telling you to do.

I'm willing to explain this process more, if it would be helpful, and also to link to some good websites about OCD and scrupulosity if you'd like. And thank you for telling me that you've been reading some of my posts - I'm so glad they've been helpful!

hey Mari can you PM me?

 

[Mari17]

I am interested in what you have to say

I'm sorry for the delayed reply! For starters, I'll post some links to a few of my favorite resources:
Overcome OCD: Recovery tips for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
OCD & CHRISTIANITY – CHRISTIANITY (The blog posts are good, too!)
The OCD Christian
Facebook Groups (FB support group managed by the author of the livingart77 blog)
A couple good books/ebooks on Amazon:
"Strivings Within: The OCD Christian" by Mitzi VanCleve (author of the livingart77 blog)
"Breaking Free of OCD: My Battle With Mental Pain and How God Rescued Me" by Jeff Wells

I feel like there's so much I could say about OCD; if you have specific questions after perusing the resources above, feel free to ask!

 

[Mari17]

hey Mari can you PM me?

Done!