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Oh yes, a friend flat out told me “why do you feel like this, you have God, right?” - Great…now I have OCD AND I’m a bad Christian, thanks. I’m always comforted that at least God knows what I’m going through. He sees exactly what happens in the brain. And after all the bouts of OCD and therapy my attitude is more like I know who I can talk to about this stuff and with who I can’t. (There’s christians in both groups btw) This is just a suggestion, so take or leave what you want from this: If this group is really important to you and you consider them part of your support system, and you think they’re a bit “coachable” then you could offer to tell them some information about OCD. (If you can do it in person or on video/audio that could probably help more than text) Keep it pretty factual and explain what happens in the brain and how obsessions and compulsions work. You could then share a bit on how it is hindering you in your life and, ideally, what you’d need from them. Like encouragement in your therap, for example. Then maybe there’s some guys who will listen and learn and maybe some that can’t let go of their prejudice about therapy. Not sure what kind of people they are. But maybe one or two would be able to understand you better and support you?

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You are accepted by Christ, my friend. I don't like to talk about my anxiety or ROCD with my church family because I don't think they would understand.

As a Christian man myself who’s still learning BUT still an imperfect sinner too, this has been one of the greatest…fallacies as you may, about the faith. I always viewed God as a taskmaster to be pleased, a leader who needs to obey the laws or else…and so on. And that’s now what it’s supposed to be! It’s not supposed to be about following orders, or in other words, a following based off fear, it’s about something that we preach in ERP, which is reliving control of what we cannot control to God and let Him transform us from the inside out to be more Christ-like as best we can, outside of our sin and falling short at times. I believe the Christian faith has been taught to follow what the church and the church leaders say as opposed to what the Bible says, and that creates this mindset of following God like laws needing to be followed or else, or a legalistic belief system to put into better words. I’m saying all of this because this way of either following God or those who look at Christians from the outside, believe things like that. “Where is your God when this or that happened?” “Your faith isn’t good enough if you’re bothered by anxiety so just pray harder”. That’s now how it is at all! Either you have faith or you don’t! There’s not supposed to be “levels” to it, no “good” or “bad” Christian, and even as we follow Christ, our faith will always be tested as we face temptations in our world AND we will still face hardships while here on Earth, too. And that’s okay, it’s all normal, albeit uncomfortable and scary at times. So my final point here is, don’t be discouraged by what your current Christian friends say. Just because they identify as Christians but make you feel inadequate as a Christian yourself doesn’t mean you need to keep hanging around with them. Think of it as someone who wants to leave a church because the leader or pastor is preaching a message that doesn’t align with the Bible

Look up Mark DeJesus on YouTube. He also has a website- Markdejesus.com. He's a believer who healed from all forms of OCD. He's awesome.

Hi. I just signed up for NOCD today and this is my first ever post. The issue you mentioned is so common it is sad. I just published a book called Waging War Against OCD - A Christian Approach to Victory. You can find it on Amazon and other places. Chapter 5 deals with this issue as well as how Christians are very quick to judge taking medication for OCD. Christians have no problem with people taking insulin to regulate blood sugar levels in the body for diabetes. However, taking a medication to regulate serotonin in the brain is somehow forbidden, even though OCD is a medically proven issue. Yes it is more complicated, as the brain and mind are related to each other - but large portions of the Christian Church is very uninformed on the issue. Anyways, I hope you find this helpful, and please check out my website WagingWarAgainstOCD.com

Hi! I am a christian and since not too long I have been having terrible intrusive thoughts that I have no intention to act on!! I feel so condemned though...