Any Muslims with religious OCD here. Would like to know what you guys are doing on your own to overcome anxiety regarding religion (Islam) and how do you feel better when suffering high anxiety?

Anonymous

Date posted: 5y

Ziyah, May ALLAH Make recovery easy for you and May you have access and the ability to follow and use the best resources available for the treatment of OCD. May ALLAH Give us all shifa. Ameen. Stay strong. What helps me even now is just reciting all my prayers or reciting surahs or reading the Quran or performing Wuzu etc only once (by that, I mean not repeating actions again and again for eg reciting Bismillah again and again because your brain tells you, you are reciting it wrong( on purpose) and so ALLAH Will Be Displeased. ALLAH Knows that you have OCD and you are NOT doing things on purpose. He Is Most Merciful), in one go smoothly despite what my thoughts are telling me to do or saying so for eg: I used to do wuzu multiple times thinking I had messed up when in fact, it was just OCD. So now what I do is, before let's say, Zuhr, I'll do the wuzu just once ignoring all thoughts telling me that I have messed up- i.e. I did not wash my face with water thrice, I only did it twice etc etc and just offer my prayers. Eventually, the anxiety will reduce In Shaa ALLAH. Hope I was able to explain a bit better.

Snuggle 🤗

Date posted: 5y

Salam Alaikum I was diagnosed with religious OCD. I know the best way is 5 daily prayers. Plus OCD specialists. Whatever your thoughts are accept it and im not sure what your thoughts are but agree with sarcasm. Religion is not the problem. You love Allah and thats why its doing that. Don’t engage but let it pass. You have to get a therapist. No one understand it but you will know how to learn to cope with it. You found NOCD use it.

Ziyah

Date posted: 5y

I always have intrusive thoughts. Everytime and everyday. Like all times (when reading about religious content, when doing a simple mistakes, when I'm seeing other religion's symbol). I always pray/say any words to stop it. It comes over and over, every minute. Sometimes it is as if saying "You're...murtad!" and I quickly pray and I feel so bad. I'm afraid..really afraid tho. Those thoughts are just taking over my head and my heart. My heart beats so fast tho I'm so afraid if I did something wrong.

Anonymous

Date posted: 5y

AOA Ziyah. I know what you are going through to some extent. I too get really scared of the thoughts I have. I have improved a little. I had started reciting my prayers in a very strange way. What helped me then was that I started reciting my namaz Infront of my mother loudly. I had to do so quickly (in one go), even if I thought I made a mistake. Then I started reciting surahs on my own, alone. It is important that one does these practices alone after some help because we are the only ones who are going to beat it. It is going to be hard. Also for intrusive thoughts, when things were really bad, I started let the thoughts just pass, not fighting them and reciting Astaghfirullah at the end of the day (once). When things got smoother for me, I was able to come a little closer to normalcy. I would suggest you seek out a verified Psychiatrist if you haven't received any mental help yet and confide in someone you trust, who understands your problem and is willing to help you (It was my mother for me). Also search about your OCD online. Some great resources I found were iocdf and OCD stories (the latter is on YouTube). Read about ERP and work on your OCD. Most of all, I know it is hard but don't blame yourself because as Snuggles mentioned above, your OCD is only bothering you because you care about your religion and love ALLAH. Also, as a Muslim, we know that ALLAH Knows what is in our hearts and He is the Best of Planners and we will be tested with different tests in this world. ALLAH Knows that these thoughts cause you distress because you don't mean them and you don't want them. ALLAH Knows that practicing religion is hard for you because of the nature of this disease. So don't give up. Keep trying to manage your OCD. In Shaa ALLAH I pray that we all learn to manage our OCD. ALLAH Is Most Merciful.

Ziyah

Date posted: 5y

@Nijah Thank you Nijah. I surely will try to manage it. But yknow my family doesn't know about this and they don't even understand what OCD really is. So, I have no family support I can tell. But InshaAllah we all can overcome this all.

Anonymous

Date posted: 5y

Wa alaiykum Assalam. JazakaALLAH Khair for your help. The problem is that I am yet to find a healthcare professional that fully knows how to carry out ERP. I tend to avoid religious activity altogether atm since it causes me so much anxiety. Whenever you have the time and are comfortable informing, can you please outline what you did in your ERP treatment (exposures) so I can start practicing them? I don't want to share my thoughts here because I am afraid that they may trigger you. If that is not the case, I can give you a brief outline of the thoughts I have. Again, thank you. It is really reassuring to find that I am not alone.

Ziyah

Date posted: 5y

Aamiin

Noah Pollack

User type: Therapist

Date posted: 17w

Religion and OCD

Hello! It has been well documented that OCD can manifest itself in the form of religious rituals. There is a fine line between genuine piety and OCD. For those of you who have struggled or are still struggling with this, have you sought the guidance of a religious figure in addition to a therapist? Meaning, that you attend therapy with a therapist who works with you on ERP exercises, but also have a rabbi, priest, or imam who you use for guidance in determining what is actual piety versus behavior that is OCD?

Aly2010

Date posted: 4w

Religious OCD

Hi! I have been struggling with ocd for many years of my life, however, I have recently been struggling with religious ocd. Currently my ocd has been putting thought into my mind like, “you shouldn’t go to that party, because “God” doesn’t what you to” or “don’t do this or else it’s going to make “God” mad.” These thoughts have been overall causing me so much anxiety, and truly I don’t know what to do. I’ve been struggling to identify it’s actually Gods voice or not. Also, my ocd has been also making my prayer a very stressful part of my day, which is not how it should feel at all. Now finding peace in prayer feels more like a chore, than a conversation. Does anybody else have ocd like this? If so, any tips?

Religion & Spirituality OCD

Anonymous

Date posted: 12d

Religious OCD Christian

Please help anyone else here with Religious ocd and is a Christian? My brain is going hay-wire and want to know I'm not alone... what do your thoughts say and how do you overcome compulsions? Im going through a rough moment and feel sick with anxiety and stiff. I want to obey God but my thoughts won't stop. I surrender to the Lord and then I have peace with the compulsions and they go away but the thoughts are the scary part please - is this spiritual or is it mental? Or is it both? Would love to hear a Christians opinion on this... because my thoughts latch on and won't dissappear but I know that the Bible commands us to take control of our thoughts and to renew our minds...yet God has grace for this and mercy for our every need... I know God is in control (completely) and my mind creates a lot of the issues for me without any spiritual stuff (it's a very powerful thing) but it's still scary. Lord help me, I surrender myself to you Jesus, counsel my soul and help me.

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Any Muslims with religious OCD here. Would like to know what you guys are doing on your own to overcome anxiety regarding religion (Islam) and how do you feel better when suffering high anxiety?

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