- Date posted
- 1y ago
Stepping away?
For those who have stepped away from religion, did your OCD and scrupulosity become more manageable? Where you able to stop thinking about spirituality?
For those who have stepped away from religion, did your OCD and scrupulosity become more manageable? Where you able to stop thinking about spirituality?
For me personally I can't give up on God because He doesn't give up on me. It feels like He has, but that's where I have to trust in what the bible says, He never leaves or forsakes. It's a struggle to go to church, pray, read the Bible, but I take it slow and give myself grace to the best of my ability, because I know it's OCD. That's just my journey, everyone's path is different. But I have to walk mine with God.
In some ways it does. Thank you for your honesty. I was majorly triggered by a spiritual event and I don't see how I can continue down this path. I'm tired and confused and not sure what to do.
For me it helped in the long run, it was very difficult leaving my religion because of the uncertainty of whether or not it could be true, but like with other erp practice that anxiety came down. I think my religion and beliefs contributed a lot to my ocd, so it was one less thing to worry about once I got through the pains of leaving ones previous faith
So you still consider yourself a spiritual person or are you an athiest?
@BrownBunE I consider myself an atheist, not because my ocd drove me away from believing, or that working through my ocd led me away either, I think that was the logical conclusion I would have come to eventually. I think it did help me in my ocd journey because religion just didn’t work for me personally, so being out of it I was able to better focus on my healing journey
It helped a lot. This was my first big ocd theme. It was ruining my life and making it hard for me to care for my family as I was in so much distress all day long. I decided it was better to be agnostic and hope that if there was a god he/she would understand. I had toayve maybe not the whole subject to be honest. After the theme went away I was able to logically decide I truly was agnostic
Hi there I talk about religion (but I'm not trying to force it down anyone's throat) So my main event (which is the one that truly bothers me) happened in 2015 when I was 14. I won't go into any details or anything. I will say that it got so bad once that I almost committed something detrimental to my health earlier this year. Not long after that I spoke to a doctor and basically confessed what's been happening to my brain and my mistakes, he mentioned things that really resonated with me, I'll paraphrase a bit: "Okay, so what you did was not good but it's not something to condemn yourself for. It falls into the grey area, you've apologized and have been forgiven (even though I apologized over text, which comes across cowardly)but it seems that you haven't forgiven yourself. There's a whole lot of difference between you at 14 and you at 23. Try to have some perspective." This really helped and it still does, but unfortunately ocd tries to find a way around this. I'll get a thought of "oh but you forgot to mention that other part of the event" and it magnifies it. Can anyone relate? I've done everything but fully move on because I sometimes feel like I don't deserve to move on. And I'm still worried over the future.
Looking back, my introverted nature and struggles to find belonging in high school may have set the stage for how OCD would later impact my relationships. I had my first relationship in high school, but OCD wasn’t a major factor then. It wasn’t until my longest relationship—six years from age 18 to 24—that OCD really took hold. The relationship itself wasn’t the issue; it was what happened after. When it ended, I became obsessed with confessing past mistakes, convinced I had to be completely transparent. Even when my partner was willing to work past them, I couldn’t let go of the intrusive thoughts, and that obsession landed me in the hospital. From there, my struggle with ROCD (Relationship OCD) fully emerged. For years, every time I tried to move forward in dating, doubts consumed me. I would start seeing someone and feel fine, but then the questions would creep in: Do I really like her? Do I find her attractive? Is she getting on my nerves? What if I’m with the wrong person? I’d break things off, thinking I was following my true feelings. But then I’d question: Was that really how I felt, or was it just OCD? I tried again and again, each time hoping I could “withstand it this time,” only to fall back into the same cycle. The back and forth hurt both me and the person I was with. By the time I realized it was ROCD, the damage had been done, and I still hadn’t built the tools to manage it. Now, at 28, I know I need to approach dating differently. I recently talked to someone from a dating app, and my OCD still showed up—questioning my every move, making me doubt my own decisions. I haven’t yet done ERP specifically for ROCD, but I know that’s my next step. Just like I’ve learned tools for managing my other OCD subtypes, I need a set of strategies for when intrusive doubts hit in relationships. My goal this year is to stop letting uncertainty control me—to learn how to sit with doubt instead of trying to “figure it out.” I want to break the cycle and be able to build something healthy without my OCD sabotaging it. I know I’m not alone in this, and I know healing is possible. I’m hopeful that working with a therapist will help me develop exposures and thought loops to practice. I don’t expect to eliminate doubt entirely—after all, doubt is a part of every relationship—but I want to reach a place where it doesn’t paralyze me. Where I can move forward without constantly questioning whether I should. And where I can be in a relationship without feeling like OCD is pulling the strings. I would appreciate hearing about your experiences with ROCD. Please share your thoughts or any questions in the comments below. I’d love to connect and offer my perspective. Thanks!
Hi guys! I’m new to the community and I’ve recently received my OCD diagnosis (tho I’ve known about it since childhood). I’ve been somewhat spiraling lately as I wait for my first ERP session (hooray!) I was just wondering if any of you guys have received ERP for existential OCD and if it was successful? My existential OCD compulsions are more so mental and have been affecting me in the sense of dream/memory flashbacks and giving me a sort of “uncanny” feeling about everything around me. Any advice is appreciated! Thank you❤️
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