Anyone else with religious OCD? How do you cope? I have blasphemous thoughts, and pray compulsively for forgivness. On bad days it can take up my brain space for 8+ hours. I'm 100% pure O as well. My prayers usually have to be perfect and can be quite complicated, and I can get so frustrated and feel so defeated because I want to pray for forgivness but I keep messing up and more bad thoughts add on to the list of things I need to ask forgivness for and it can get overwhelming. I try sometimes to just trust in God and ask forgivness for all of my sins, but feel like that doesn't count when I know I can ask forgivness for them all individually and perfectly. I feel like I'm being lazy and choosing my own comfort over doing everything I can to be forgiven. I know God doesn't hold me to the same rules I hold myself to and try to remember that but my brain makes it very hard.

Hi Kristina! I have also suffered with really bad religious ocd (as well as other themes it’s contamination for me now) where it would consume my thoughts and I would pray compulsively for forgiveness. I know it is hard but try to trust that God knows your heart better than anyone. He knows your struggles are from ocd and he forgives you for every sin real or imagined. I know that my ocd always made me feel like I was responsible for the thoughts and I would feel really guilty, sad, and anxious. I would obsessively pray as a way to feel better and feel forgiven. Just know God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows your negative or blasphemous thoughts and feelings are not your own but caused by the lies ocd is telling you. He doesn’t hold you accountable for them. For me it was always really hard to try and separate the ocd thoughts (lies) from my own moral conscience and what I know to be real and true. Know that God is just and doesn’t blame you for the thoughts and things that are out of your control. He knows you do not want to have these thoughts. His Son dying for us covers every sin you could ever commit past, present, or future. You don’t have to pray perfectly to be forgiven. You don’t have to live in fear. God knows we aren’t perfect and loves us anyway. When you pray, just say please forgive me for all of my sins I’ve committed instead of listing everyone you’ve committed. He already knows what ones you are talking about and forgives you. Your sins are already removed. By listing every sin perfectly and repeatedly it feeds the ocd and it makes the compulsions and anxiety stronger. If you get a bad or blasphemous thought try to ignore it. I know it is really hard to do that but it helps. Just because a thought comes in your head it doesn’t have to mean anything. It doesn’t mean it’s true or you believe it’s true just because you think it. It doesn’t mean you like the thought or you are sinning. Just say that is an ocd thought and don’t give anymore time to it. Don’t start obsessively praying because it just feeds the fear and makes the thoughts more frequent. Eventually you’ll see that you can be uncomfortable with the thoughts and not like them but you don’t have to do anything about them (worry or compulsively pray) or assign meaning to them. When I pray I always try changing it to praise by listing all the things I am thankful for and blessed with instead of all the things I’m sorry for, so it turns it away from the fear and compulsion of feeling like my prayers have to be perfect to be forgiven. God sees where your heart is. Try to live by faith instead of ocd reasoning. I’ve always been told to try and sit with the feelings. Sit with your anxiety and bad thoughts instead of doing the compulsions and eventually it’ll get easier and not have as much of an effect on you. I know it doesn’t feel like it now but it does get easier. Praying for you and everyone else suffering with ocd. ❤️

All your sins: the ones you committed, the ones you commit and the ones you will commit in the futre are already forgiven without you asking for it. ALL OF THEM. And you don't owe God anything. It's unconditional