- Date posted
- 4y
- Date posted
- 4y
Hi there, I had this exact type of OCD as a child. I would experience intrusive thoughts of harming Jesus or cursing God’s name and then I would need to have a “holy” thought or pray to neutralize it. What’s important to remember is the content of your thoughts is meaningless, it is OCD that is your enemy- not your thoughts and not yourself. I’m not a religious person now, but I remember how much distress the thoughts brought me and the fear that would follow of the potential consequences. With practice, you’ll be able to separate the thoughts from yourself and recognize them as OCD. Resisting the compulsions will increase your discomfort, but in time will allow for long-term tolerance of the thoughts. The OCD likes to prey on what you value most, but it is not a reflection of your values. Be gentle with yourself and remember a higher being can recognize you’re suffering, so please be compassionate with yourself.
- Date posted
- 4y
You’re in quite the meta ocd loop here: your compulsion is now associated with an intrusive thought so you want to avoid it (which is another compulsion!) Avoiding your compulsion to prevent the intrusive thought from happening again will not work. My bet is you will have this thought again. And I know that’s sounds scary. BUT it’s actually okay! In fact, if you’re up for a great exposure, I’d have you say this intrusive thought again on purpose next time you do this compulsion. Once it stops being such a trigger, then you can cut out the initial compulsion, since cutting out all compulsions is important obviously. You may also was to write down “I hate God” on a piece of paper 50 times a day. And/or record yourself saying it and play it on a loop. Most importantly, when you do these exposures: no more compulsions! You cannot respond with anything to analyze, neutralize, or push away any uncertainty or intrusive thoughts that arise as a result. Just sit with the anxiety and let it pass on its own without doing anything.
- Date posted
- 4y
Oh this sounds terrifying! I would love to do this and I let the words pop into my mind, but then my mind automatically switched it to I love GOD so I'm not sure what to do at this point.
- Date posted
- 4y
@Vannafaith Like I said, you could try writing it down, saying it out loud, or recording it. The point is to say/think these words on purpose and then refrain from doing compulsions. Like correcting it to “I love god.”
- Date posted
- 4y
@Vannafaith I’m not religious, so I dealt with this problem a little differently, but I just wanted to tell you I’m so sorry you’re going through this! I grew up learning about Christianity, and if you believe in God, God is omnipotent, and you know that he knows your heart. Your thoughts are not you. You can think about whatever you want. If God is omnipotent then he knows your truth, then it’s okay for you to think as many “bad” sentences and images as you want. Thoughts are just thoughts, you are you. Intention matters.
- Date posted
- 4y
@booba Thank you so much! This really makes me feel so much better about these things.
- Date posted
- 4y
@Vannafaith ❤️❤️ be gentle with yourself, you are loved and your intention to be good means you are good. I’m so so glad you feel better
- Date posted
- 4y
Asking if you’re not alone IS a form of reassurance. So, you’re saying the fiancé and God is a compulsion? It’s not an exposure?
- Date posted
- 4y
No it is a compulsion to help "stop" scary thoughts from coming in.
- Date posted
- 4y
@Vannafaith Oh, okay. I didn’t understand. Well this is a great form of exposure! To answer your actual question though, if the compulsion (like mental correction) is automatic it will be tricky to stop but you can! Do an exposure (think the words, I hate God or something similar) and set a timer immediately after to see how long you can go without doing a compulsion. It may be 5 seconds, 10, keep going until you can get up to 1 minute. At that point you will have much more control of it. 5 minutes is the actual goal, and once you can do that it’s much easier to carry on without the compulsions automatically happening.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 16w
The compulsive praying for harm on others is back. I know compulsions are a choice, but right now, it feels impossible not to do them. I was spiraling because I thought about losing my boyfriend, and that scared me so much. But then, my brain twisted it with thinking that I would feel liberated and find comfort and new love if my boyfriend were “out of the way” and to this I almost felt excited? I don’t want to lose him. I don’t want him to die or go away. I don’t want him to be gone. But then, that spiraled into these awful thoughts where I felt like I had to pray for harm or death on him. I don’t know why I feel the urge to do this. It doesn’t feel like it will make anything better; it just makes me feel like it’s more likely to happen. I feel trapped in them. I don’t understand why my brain keeps doing this, can anyone help? Please
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- Date posted
- 16w
im scared. I keep compulsively praying for bad things or death on the people I love. I don’t understand why. It doesn’t make anything better. I’m scared that these prayers count. I seal them as I do with most of my prayers in Jesus name and with a double amen. I’m scared God will want to teach me a lesson and make something come true. I’m scared I mean these prayers, I’m petrified. If something happened, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself :( I don’t know where to go from here
- Students with OCD
- Relationship OCD
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- Date posted
- 13w
I need help everyone. My thoughts have been getting worse… I haven’t used my ERP because it feels too scary and too real and so I am caught in this spiral of doing compulsions with every other thought that I have. I have thoughts about that bad guy that are so horrible and then I think that the bad guy is talking to me so I do compulsions and desperately want GOD to believe me when I say I don’t mean the thoughts, but then it creates doubt about whether or not I actually do mean the thoughts. And now I am afraid of my own thoughts This makes me want to fix ALL of the thoughts and feelings that I have to prove even more to myself and to GOD that I don’t mean these thoughts. On top of all of this, I am trying to convince myself that it’s OCD and not me at all. Does anyone have this and can anyone help? I am so tired and scared and burnt out…
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