Is this OCD or something else?

[Anonymous0210]

It seems like lately I've noticed that I feel as though I should be devoting more time towards God. Like a lot more. Now at first glance thats sounds like a good thing but the amount is what im curious about. Like I've gotten more i guess thoughts/feelings of not eating because I may be idolizing it because it tastes good and I wanted it. Then just now I wanted to play some minecraft but it's just this feeling of I should instead spend more time with God or that I shouldn't be playing minecraft and instead devote my time towards God or the bible. I do have a thing I try to do which is putting God first in my life and have tried to tell myself putting God first doesn't just mean reading the bible it can mean talking to God as well. This issue has just been more noticeable as of late and I don't know why. I have tried to improve my mental health and am wondering if this is a side effect. Hopefully I explained this correctly and sorry if I didn't I just wanted to talk about it and ask for some advice. I can also try to answer any of your questions so you can get a better idea of what I might be dealing with.

 

[trophy33]

It seems like lately I've noticed that I feel as though I should be devoting more time towards God. Like a lot more. Now at first glance thats sounds like a good thing but the amount is what im curious about. Like I've gotten more i guess thoughts/feelings of not eating because I may be idolizing it because it tastes good and I wanted it. Then just now I wanted to play some minecraft but it's just this feeling of I should instead spend more time with God or that I shouldn't be playing minecraft and instead devote my time towards God or the bible. I do have a thing I try to do which is putting God first in my life and have tried to tell myself putting God first doesn't just mean reading the bible it can mean talking to God as well. This issue has just been more noticeable as of late and I don't know why. I have tried to improve my mental health and am wondering if this is a side effect. Hopefully I explained this correctly and sorry if I didn't I just wanted to talk about it and ask for some advice. I can also try to answer any of your questions so you can get a better idea of what I might be dealing with.

I think you should get more familiar with the OCD so that you can recognize it yourself.

It is the OCD if there is anxiety attached to the thought and if the thought is returning like in a cycle, without a rational cause. And if you cannot find any rational answer to it which would satisfy your emotional distress about it.

 

[Anonymous0210]

I think you should get more familiar with the OCD so that you can recognize it yourself.

It is the OCD if there is anxiety attached to the thought and if the thought is returning like in a cycle, without a rational cause. And if you cannot find any rational answer to it which would satisfy your emotional distress about it.

can you explain what you mean by returning like a cycle? Do you simply mean your mind wont let it go all the while your anxious about it?

 

[trophy33]

can you explain what you mean by returning like a cycle? Do you simply mean your mind wont let it go all the while your anxious about it?

For example, somebody checked that the TV is switched off, before going to bed. After a minute, he must check again. And again.

It is similar with intrusive thoughts. You answer the thought with some response, but it comes back again so that you cannot focus on the activity you are doing.

 

[Mari17]

It seems like lately I've noticed that I feel as though I should be devoting more time towards God. Like a lot more. Now at first glance thats sounds like a good thing but the amount is what im curious about. Like I've gotten more i guess thoughts/feelings of not eating because I may be idolizing it because it tastes good and I wanted it. Then just now I wanted to play some minecraft but it's just this feeling of I should instead spend more time with God or that I shouldn't be playing minecraft and instead devote my time towards God or the bible. I do have a thing I try to do which is putting God first in my life and have tried to tell myself putting God first doesn't just mean reading the bible it can mean talking to God as well. This issue has just been more noticeable as of late and I don't know why. I have tried to improve my mental health and am wondering if this is a side effect. Hopefully I explained this correctly and sorry if I didn't I just wanted to talk about it and ask for some advice. I can also try to answer any of your questions so you can get a better idea of what I might be dealing with.

This sounds like OCD to me. I have had similar obsessions. Please be careful especially of obsessing about eating, because I obsessed about eating for a while and became underweight, developing health issues that are still affecting me several years later. It is really important to maintain a healthy body, because that has a direct impact on your mental health.

Jaimie Eckert has written some blog posts about these kinds of obsessions...
How to Avoid Gluttony Without Being Fanatical - Scrupulosity.com
Idolatry Obsessions: Another Intersect Between Faith and OCD - Scrupulosity.com
She has a lot of other posts on her blog as well!

These are some other OCD resources that I recommend...
OCD and Scrupulosity - ACCFS
Mark DeJesus
Christianity and Anxiety Disorders (private support group)

I have also found the following books to be helpful... Breaking Free of OCD: My Battle With Mental Pain and How God Rescued Me by Jeff Wells, and Strivings Within - The OCD Christian: Overcoming Doubt in the Storm of Anxiety by Mitzi VanCleve.

Feel free to message if you have any questions!

 

[Anonymous0210]

This sounds like OCD to me. I have had similar obsessions. Please be careful especially of obsessing about eating, because I obsessed about eating for a while and became underweight, developing health issues that are still affecting me several years later. It is really important to maintain a healthy body, because that has a direct impact on your mental health.

Jaimie Eckert has written some blog posts about these kinds of obsessions...
How to Avoid Gluttony Without Being Fanatical - Scrupulosity.com
Idolatry Obsessions: Another Intersect Between Faith and OCD - Scrupulosity.com
She has a lot of other posts on her blog as well!

These are some other OCD resources that I recommend...
OCD and Scrupulosity - ACCFS
Mark DeJesus
Christianity and Anxiety Disorders (private support group)

I have also found the following books to be helpful... Breaking Free of OCD: My Battle With Mental Pain and How God Rescued Me by Jeff Wells, and Strivings Within - The OCD Christian: Overcoming Doubt in the Storm of Anxiety by Mitzi VanCleve.

Feel free to message if you have any questions!

Thanks, I have listened to Mark DeJesus before.

 

[Mike Kh]

This sounds like OCD to me. I have had similar obsessions. Please be careful especially of obsessing about eating, because I obsessed about eating for a while and became underweight, developing health issues that are still affecting me several years later. It is really important to maintain a healthy body, because that has a direct impact on your mental health.

Jaimie Eckert has written some blog posts about these kinds of obsessions...
How to Avoid Gluttony Without Being Fanatical - Scrupulosity.com
Idolatry Obsessions: Another Intersect Between Faith and OCD - Scrupulosity.com
She has a lot of other posts on her blog as well!

These are some other OCD resources that I recommend...
OCD and Scrupulosity - ACCFS
Mark DeJesus
Christianity and Anxiety Disorders (private support group)

I have also found the following books to be helpful... Breaking Free of OCD: My Battle With Mental Pain and How God Rescued Me by Jeff Wells, and Strivings Within - The OCD Christian: Overcoming Doubt in the Storm of Anxiety by Mitzi VanCleve.

Feel free to message if you have any questions!

Hi! Mark DeJesus specifically talks about compulsive fasting - very similar to what you are going through - see link: Obsessive Compulsive FASTING
I once heard him mention he was helping a man who was about to start a 40 day fast and had done 2 of them previously!

Also, I wrote a book called "Waging War Against OCD - A Christian Approach to Victory." You may enjoy Chapter 8 which talks about how God speaks to us as His children. Which can be confusing when compulsions seem like the right thing to do. But God has given us a lot of wisdom on this.

I love how these verses directly speak to this issue:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)
But wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruit, unwavering, without hypocrisy.
—James 3:17
Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
—2 Corinthians 3:5–6

These 3 verses show us a picture of what it looks like when God speaks. It is full of love, peaceable gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, and not of the letter but of the Spirit. Do the thoughts sound like an exact and precise action that has to be done - like pray 47 times in an exact way at an exact time with just the right amount of genuineness, etc. Or is it more like "I love you child, come and spend time with me."

Jaimie Eckert interviewed me about the book. You can see the interview here:

 

[Gregory Thompson]

at the core of OCD is a propensity to idolize. (obsess)

Whatever replaces what it was using before will also be subject to said idolization.