Any Christians on here? Can we have a conversation about God and how he has helped you throughout your journey ?

I’d like to add to the overall conversation that along with trusting God and praying for healing, we need to do our own part as well to bring ourselves to the road of recovery. When my OCD first appeared, I was convinced I was being attacked by the devil with these thoughts/feelings/urges. I decided to dedicated myself hardcore to improving my faith, in hope that God would see how close I was to Him and provide me with a miracle. However, even though I read multiple chapters a day of my Bible, prayed looong prayers, listened only to Worship music, and so on, my OCD remained. I burst into tears multiple times asking God why He was allowing this mental torment to go on. One day I went to my pastor, already sobbing, and confided in him my situation and what was going on in my head. I expected some holy and preachy answer of how I needed to push harder and God would answer me. Instead, he recommended I go to therapy. Now when I got this answer, I wasn’t very happy. I was shocked and mad. I thought why would my pastor, this man of God, tell me to see a man for this problem and not seek out God. Nonetheless, I decided to take his word for it and search of a therapist. That was when I started learning I potentially had OCD, a mental illness. When I later connected myself with an actual OCD specialist and starting doing ERP, THAT is when I finally started seeing progress. THAT was when I started to heal. Now for a while after that, even a little now (I’m working on it), I felt somewhat betrayed by God. Why didn’t He listen to my prayers before when I was on the ground sobbing, begging for relief. Why did I have to seek out man for help, when I constantly asked my Heavenly Father. It killed my desire to sought him out as much as before. I was confused and hurt. Now I’m starting to see that God placed it in my pastor’s heart to have him tell me to go to therapy. He knew this was the best path for me to heal. God blesses these therapists and doctors with the skills and tools to help others who are hurting. I just couldn’t see that at first. He wanted me to do my part as well, to seek out a therapist, to put in the work, to learn how to overcome and make myself stronger. So remember, above all ask the Lord for strength, peace, happiness, and so on. But do your part to seek out therapy if you can (or self-taught if you cannot), learn tools to cope and manage, find outlets to connect with others who need love and support, medication if need be (it’s okay to need it!!) and self-care!! And a tricky thing I’ve noticed in my own walk with recovery and others who are religious, to not fall into prayers or actions that could become compulsions. I would say the same prayer constantly, and then I realized I wasn’t saying it to connect with God, but saying it to relieve my own anxiety and pain. That’s a compulsion. Compulsions make OCD worse. We have OCD, we need to be educated on what spikes it. God bless you all on your roads to recovery 💛

When you walk with God the enemy will try to stop you in every way to prevent you from fulfilling you’re purpose, the cure to OCD is honestly in the Bible! Resist the devil, submit to God and he will flee from you! Resist compulsive behavior, that’s what the devil wants so he can keep feeding you a lie

It's really hard, every day. But He knew this would happen, He has allowed it for a purpose. Psalm 18:34 says For You equipped me with strength for the battle; Jesus will not leave us to perish in this, even though some days feel utterly dark and hopeless. Even in THOSE moments the love of God for you is there just as much as a day when you feel things are going better. He will teach us a lot from this time, and already has. It's so hard, but the only way to get out is through it. I spent a lot of years praying for a miraculous healing, like a 'one night it will be gone' or to go up every time for prayer at a service /event in hope of a miraculous healing. But I realised this is not the will of God. I must go through it. Just like distress of an instruisve thought, the only way out is to go through. To sit with the distress, not engage, and let it be there. Eventually the distress will leave as we don't 'talk back' to the thought. So glad to meet other Christians. A lot of the church do not understand and see it as only a spiritual problem, not a disorder.

Awesome! Nice to know there is a community of us Christians on here to support one another ❤️

Yes! Jesus is my all ❤️ He has been my lifeline during this whole ocd journey

i’m obsessing a lot (every day) that God doesn’t want me with my boyfriend. and it’s oullled me away from God a little.

If you are genuinely seeking help for Scrupulousity I highly recommend watching this: https://youtu.be/KuLdbWTt_bQ So much of what we have discussed on this thread is spoken about on this streaming. Different topics covered- Past OCD recovery stories Hurt from the church Not receiving the right help The feelings of a broken relationship or confusion with God when battling OCD Perfect prayers compulsions The role of ERP A VERY great podcast for all of us to watch I'm sure you will have many 'ME TOO!!! " moments watching it. This organisation also hold free bi-monthly zoom calls where you can call in and be live on this streaming, or you can catch it after on YouTube.

So last night I had a super anxious moment, and decided to just sit with the thoughts and let them be there without engaging, like people here keep talking about. So I did and it was...amazing actually. I realized a lot of my fears come down to this terror that one day I’ll meet God and he’ll say “Sorry, you didn’t try hard enough, I don’t want you.” And when I said that, I realized that’s bullshit, pardon the language. I’m sure the fear will come back but it was very freeing, and humbling, and just...thanks to everyone here.

hello!

Hey! Yes. I'm so thankful for how many more Christians are on here. At the start, a few years ago there seemed to be none!

hi:))

I'm good thank you. Today was good, praise God. It's been very tough years, and each day is different. But He has truly done a miracle in my life regarding OCD itself. I'm still on the journey of recovery. Every day is different. How are you doing?

That’s nice to hear! I’m doing okay, I’m currently debating on whether or not to go through with a compulsion, I want to stay strong with hopes that it won’t bother me again, but it’s really hard. I try to read my bible every day and pray and just hope that God will deliver me from this .

Hi I’m a Christian 👋

Hey guys! *TRIGGER* I'm not well. The thoughts bombard me. They are truly terrible. I dont know what to do. I feel guilty like I caused them. Especially when 1 comes and then another right after. I feel especially responsible for the 2nd one because I feel like bc I was somehow focused on the 1st the 2nd thought came (whether it's the same as the 1st or not) I try to trust God, but I'm worried I need to ask forgiveness for the thoughts because I feel I caused them and if I dont ask forgiveness I could be guilty of the unpardonable sin and God will leave me forever. Any words of advice?

PS for any Catholics/Anglicans on the thread: St Dymphna is patron saint of the mentally ill! She’s basically my entire family’s patron lol.

How are you all doing ?

AMEN! Thank you SO much for pointing that out! That is why I’m trying to stop , so that he will leave me alone ! The devil is lying to me every time

I’ve struggled a lot with my faith over the years. Most of my anxieties stemmed from or circled around religion, so at this point I feel pretty disillusioned, for that among other reasons. Has anyone else experienced loss of faith, uncertainty or doubt after a long struggle with ocd?

There’s like this constant feeling in my chest 24/7 that makes me think I’m attracted to men. I’m also getting intrusive thoughts of “he’s cute” or “he’s attractive” about actors in the movie I’m watching “HONEST THIEF”. I’m trying to fight it. I’m also trying to think of a girl I knew from high school and trying to imagine a relationship with her and stuff like that while the movie is playing. But this HOCD keeps making me think of men and I hate this so much. I’m trying to fight it and the urge.