Hi everyone. I have religious ocd and i am muslim and i pray 5 times a day. There is an ablution ritual where we wash parts of body in certain steps before prayer. I get doubts on purity, doubts on my ablution steps, doubts during prayer in each step. I also have tetribke intrusive thoughts where my mind curses god and anything related and it scared me and still does, especially since i hate hearing curses about god or even curses in general. All these things make me always spend so much time making sure i am clean...and make me repeat ablution and prayer. Most times i cannot even begin prayer because i doubt my intention, doubts if i even did a step, get terrible curses against god in my mind, and doubt every step. I try to ignore, especially the curses...but fail every time. I also know some things i do are not logical but still cannot help not doing compulsions like asking god for forgiveness and starting all over. I cant go to a therapist because i do not want to take medications and also do not have the money or means to commit to it. Also, not sure if they can help because it is very specific. Anyone with my type of ocd and muslim? Were you able to recover? How did you ignore and go on doing ablution and prayers? They have become extremely hard. Please be kind. I am in a very depressed and helpless state. Please dont tell me to do anything blasphemous or sacreligious. I love my religion and god and know this is a test. Thanks.

ocdillustrated

Date posted: 5y

I'm Christian, not Muslim, but as a teen had prayer rituals that got ridiculously long and repetitive. On strategy for me was to limit my religious prayer to communal settings. Having to keep up with everyone else's pace forced me to limit rituals. Maybe you could try doing the preparations and ablutions with someone that you trust to do it "normally"

ilovemylife

Date posted: 5y

Hi, my sister had this and she would spend hours in the bathroom just doing ablution. This was when she was 17. She also repeated her prayers over an over again because she thought she made a mistake or she forgot to say one of her prayers. Her OCD was very extreme but since I was only a child at the time I didn't really understand how bad it was until now. She is now 28 and she has recovered massively. It's still there but she is able to live her life without continuous compulsions. She did do ERP. Most of it is just to try to ignore your obsessions which is very difficult but it's really about the mindset you are in. If you believe in an all forgiving God, he will forgive you. He knows you have OCD. He knows it isn't you. He is putting you through a test and that test is to see how strong you can be to resist these obsessions. I know it's hard to accept as I myself have OCD but to be honest the reason why she recovered much faster than me is because she did it on her own. I have a lot of people I can turn to for reassurance but she didn't. At the end of the day it is you who can change it. Try to stay positive even if it's difficult, talk about it with people but don't ask for reassurance. Try to say slowly reduce the amount of times you wash yourself. One last thing, My mother would always tell my sister that there's a reason why you perform ablution 3 times because 3 times makes it perfect. Anymore times after that,it is the devil (ocd) telling you to do it.

Solomon

Date posted: 5y

You are enough.

simm

Date posted: 5y

Thanks so much everyone for your support. I read so much sbout recovery and yes it is so awesome that God is forgiving and i am convinced and try to prepare myself, but once i start perforning ablution and prayers my mind starts cursing and everything i know gets thrown out my mind and i get fear and anxiety and stop thinking logically. I have so many obsessions related to thus topic and i have to fight the compulsions for each.i also feel j offended god if i said something in a tone that i felt to be displeasing and keep on repeating. I also try to perform all my orayers with someone, but now it is impossible to complete it on my own due to my dependence on others to help me. It is extremely crippling.

ocdillustrated

Date posted: 5y

Perhaps there are prayer apps? If they exist, that could be a step inbetween doing them with someone and doing them alone

simm

Date posted: 5y

@NOCD Advocate - ocdillustrated Thank you for your help. The prayer needs to be done in person physically with no outside interactions. It can be joined with others or with someone who leads and I follow. But it is all without outside interactions...so no moving hands or speaking to anyone..other than reciting verses and other phrases specifically for prayer.

simm

Date posted: 5y

I have an upcoming meeting around a prayer time and i had to cancel because i will be trying to pray for hours and never make it. The pressure of the meeting will make it worse. Thus is so difficult. I also wait till my last prayer to eat dinner because i get indigestion (i have ibs, yoo, which has been worse since ocd) and cant even pray. So, i pray last prayer and then eat. I will never make it in time for meeting. I felt so bad and couldnt tell the real reason and had to make up an excuse.

suffererofocd

Date posted: 4y

@simm can I ask how you've been since you posted this. I myself am going through something similar.

rane75

Date posted: 24w

Ramadan

If any Muslims with OCD come across this, i would like advice. Other people are also fine to give advice too. Anyway i am not a Muslim but most of my friend group is Muslim. I never grew up religious my dad was an ex catholic but still had religious views ingrained into his brain and when i would go to say good night to him he would say things like “God Bless you have good dreams” plus he was always drunk so it would be way more emotional and in depth. Anyway that transcended into me as a child praying to god everytime i was in the bath even though i didn’t believe in him it was “just in case”, which i know now was my OCD. Ok back to the point sorry it is long but I told my best friend who is a Muslim that i’ve been thinking about converting which was true, and i’ve been thinking about it for about two years. Today is the first day of Ramadan and i told two of my friends that i would be fasting for the month because most of my friends are and also the fact i’m interested in Islam. I woke up at 4am today, ate enough food to be full by the sunrise, then i fasted until 2:12pm when i did a horrible thing and broke my fast. I was so tempted and i know it was wrong and i have to do something good to fix it. But i started feeling like all of this, everything i think about Islam, it’s all just my OCD, and i have a strong feeling about this. I pray to Allah in my head, learned some arabic, read part of the Quran, and i tried to fast but i know i wont be able to resist my temptation even though that is the whole point of Ramadan. I know in my heart i don’t have real religious beliefs and that all of my thoughts about Islam are intrusive. How do i stop my thoughts and how do i tell my friend that i am probably not going to convert because it is not right for me? She will be understanding but i will feel like i mislead her and also i will feel a little more uncomfortable around my friends because i know i have decided that i don’t believe in Allah or want to convert. Please don’t tell me to convert because it will influence me immediately and although i love the religion i know it is not what i believe in or want with my life. Please help i am sorry this is so long

Religion & Spirituality OCD

nunu

Date posted: 9w

Religious ocd

Hey everyone please help me I am suffering from religious ocd and it is so severe I am also suffering from death fear and this fear making my ocd worse I cannot explain which type of thoughts I am suffering I cannot sleep at night due to fear to go to hell. And this is making my days even more worse I started cry all day cannot do home chores due to fear irrational fears has been generated and my mind force me to say bad words about prestigious figures which I cannot imagine even then I start weeping and asking forgiveness to God and started to say I am not doing then feelings become more worse and all stuff become trigger I don't know i am doing it by self or not? Need help I cannot sleep even in day please save me.

Aly2010

Date posted: 6w

Religious OCD

Hi! I have Religious OCD, and have been recently needing some tips on how to deal with this painful disorder. I constantly feel like God is telling me to do certain things for example, “don’t go there,” or “don’t do this or else it will be against my plan for your life.” This causes me so much anxiety, and makes me question if I am doing the right things to live according to his will for my life. I’m constantly worried I’m disappointing Him. Also while praying I get thoughts in my head saying I should for example, add for religious practices to my routine. This also causes me stress because while dealing with this disorder, daily religious practices become very overwhelming. I’m worried that if I ignore these thoughts during my prayer, I am ignoring God. I have truly hit a limit where I don’t even know what to do, and am searching for some tips if anybody on here has any. Let’s overcome this OCD together. Thank you

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