- Date posted
- 1y ago
ERP & Christian
I feel really scared doing my erp exercises because I am afraid I am offending God, can I please have some advice and help.
I feel really scared doing my erp exercises because I am afraid I am offending God, can I please have some advice and help.
Hi, I deal with this so much as well. And I sympathize with you. Checkout Mark DeJesus on podcasts. Great help to me on things you’re talking about. Also, I get the feelings of anxiety surrounding my faith in Christ and with my walk with Christ as well. Don’t engage with your compulsion to try to “make it right or alleviate the anxiety” starve it as best you can…because engaging with your obsession only makes you have more intense compulsions. Remember this above anything else, because I know how you feel exactly: those feelings, those thoughts, are not who you are or who God is. God is all knowing and all powerful and knows you have those intrusive thoughts and wavering feelings, yet that does not change His love for you one single bit. You haven’t blasphemed Him and your mind/emotions will never change how God loves you and cherishes you. Starve your thoughts by not engaging with them, even if it makes you uncomfortable. Doubt your doubts. God Loves you, you are his creation, and nothing you ever purposely or unintentionally do/say/think will ever change that.
Let’s say for a minute that you are offending God. Sit in that… you are offending God. Now… who paid the penalty of death for you?
Think about it this way: if God wanted you to suffer with OCD, he wouldn't have shown you erp. So, I'm sure it'll be fine 🙂
I keep getting blasphemous thoughts about hs. That if I do anything, like eat or anything it’s blasphemous. So I’ve been trying to ignore the thoughts but I feel anxious.
Hi everyone - I recently wrote a book about having OCD as a Christian - and also share some things God has taught me through the years that you may find helpful. You can see more at WagingWarAgainstOCD.com I had it reviewed by a Christian psychiatrist and psychologist (both who have published books on the subject) prior to publishing to make sure nothing was harmful or unwise. I hope you find some of it helpful!
Sit with the anxiety. If you think/ feel you're offending God say maybe, maybe not and just sit with the uncertainty. But keep doing the ERP.
I love this quote from Hannah Whitall Smith - she was speaking from a spiritual perspective - but it applies to OCD just as well: "It seems hardly worthwhile to say that temptation is not sin, and yet much distress arises from not understanding this fact. The very suggestion of wrong seems to bring pollution with it; and the poor tempted soul begins to feel as if it must be very bad indeed, and very far off from God, to have had such thoughts and suggestions. It is as though a burglar should break into a man’s house to steal, and, when the master of the house begins to resist him and to drive him out, should turn round and accuse the owner of being himself the thief. It is the enemy’s grand ruse for entrapping us. He comes and whispers suggestions of evil to us, – doubts, blasphemies, jealousies, envyings, and pride, and then turns round and says, “Oh, how wicked you must be to think of such things! It is very plain that you are not trusting the Lord; for if you had been, it would have been impossible for these things to have entered your heart.” This reasoning sounds so very plausible that we often accept it as true, and so come under condemnation, and are filled with discouragement."
Fellow sister in Christ here! What are your erp exercises and what reasons do you feel they give God to be offended by you doing them?
Happy Tuesday friends. Question for you all: I have recently started ERP therapy (about one month ago) and I feel in a way it has helped. But I also notice that I feel the thoughts I do have are SO intense that I feel like I’m gonna explode and then I’ll cry and get upset but then feel better after having a “freak out”. Does this happen to any of you guys? Also, I told my therapist yesterday some of the exposures we had been doing made me uncomfortable. Like really really uncomfortable. She made me feel a little bad about not doing it and stated this would prolong my progress if I didn’t do it. I’m not sure if I should push my self to do this exposure because she told me to or to stick up for myself and move at my own pace. Thanks everyone.
I’ll list some key things with my main subtype, and I hope that I can get some erp advice, but it’s okay if not, I know nobody is my therapist..! 1. I have this thing where when I feel false attraction about a k!d, I will be immediately convinced and say “that means I am?” “I am attracted” “I feel attracted?” “He’s attractive” not to be weird but I panic and say these because I don’t want them, and I feel like I agree with it, this makes me feel like a bad person when I say them (sometimes I can’t help it when I get really stressed) what can I do for this to be better? 2. My brain will give me an intrusive question, asking if I’d do this,this or that, and I feel like agreeing or saying yes to this, sometimes I will hear a yes and I’ll freak out 3. When I get triggered by a photo, I have to keep checking and checking (this will always last forever) till I’m sure that I think the photo is cute or adorable and not in any way that I feel false attraction Whenever I feel convinced, I feel bad that I feel convinced and it’ll say “well if you were a good person, why do you allow yourself to get convinced even if you know you aren’t this”
Hey guys- I don’t know if any of you with religion/spirituality ocd struggle with the “unacceptable thoughts” about like evil and stuff but I’m struggling.. it feels like I believe that I want the evil stuff because I had demon-like voices in my head as ahead where I went to talk to God when I was experiencing great distress and then these evil thoughts came in and I let them in and like “ok-ed” evil stuff. Especially because I felt so forced into my faith journey as a kid so it’s like that “feeling rejected -> rebellion thing) but I also know that but I also have such fond memories of feeling so close to God to leaning on Him for so many things. It’s so hard because 90% of my memories as a kid, I struggled with severe ocd and no one knew what it was or how debilitating it could be I’m trying the ERP with these thoughts but😭 have any of you gone through the same things? It’s so strong In my mind because I know there’s actual spiritual warfare so I feel like - pray for me guys
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