- Username
- Vannafaith
- Date posted
- 3y ago
Explore more posts
- Username
- adaptocdadaptocd
- Date posted
- 3y ago
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.
- Username
- pureolifepureolife
- Date posted
- 3y ago
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.
- Username
- VannafaithVannafaith
- Date posted
- 3y ago
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.
- Username
- pureolifepureolife
- Date posted
- 3y ago
@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.”
- Username
- boobabooba
- Date posted
- 3y ago
@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.
- Username
- VannafaithVannafaith
- Date posted
- 3y ago
@booba Thank you so much! This really makes me feel so much better about these things.
- Username
- boobabooba
- Date posted
- 3y ago
@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
- Username
- Stronger. Stronger.
- Date posted
- 3y ago
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?
- Username
- VannafaithVannafaith
- Date posted
- 3y ago
No it is a compulsion to help "stop" scary thoughts from coming in.
- Username
- Stronger. Stronger.
- Date posted
- 3y ago
@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
- Username
- KAD.98
- Date posted
- 2y ago
Weird compulsion.
Okay this is going to sound VERY weird. But please it’s effecting my health and I need ways to stop this compulsion before it gets really bad. Btw I’ve had this compulsion since I was about 8 or 9 years old (I’m 24). Every night I have 2 prayers I repeat for almost 20 mins. One prayer in particular is praying for my health, my puppies health, and my boyfriends health. Before I pray for my health I pray really really really hard by applying pressure to my head and then I continue my little prayer and pray for my lungs, my stomach, breasts, butt, skin, etc while I touch each body part. Then I put pressure to my head and pray for my teeth. Then I put pressure to my head and pray for my eyes. And then I pray really really really hard and put pressure to my head and pray for my puppy and boyfriend. It’s gotten so bad I get a headache by the end of prayer and it’s hell if I keep messing up and have to completely restart my prayer. I do this EVERY night. EVERY night for almost more than a decade and my prayers have only gotten longer and added more compulsions to it. Please please help. It’s getting irritating and I’m dreading every night when I have to pray!!!! 😫😫😫 please don’t judge idk why I do this I just need to to make sure my prayer is the way I need it. I guess I have this compulsion where I feel the need for God to understand this prayer is really important to me so I’m showing him by inflicting pain on myself. Idk I’m weird and have weird habits and compulsions related to OCD. Just please help. 🤦🏻♀️🥲 I also am so embarrassed I haven’t told anyone this my entire life until I was just recently diagnosed with severe OCD, I thought it was normal. I’m embarrassed to do this in front of my boyfriend (I don’t want him watching me in the corner doing my little ritualistic prayer and touching my body like a crazy person)
- Username
- sidneyrae7
- Date posted
- 2y ago
Intrusive thoughts
I'm religious, so anyone else who is religious I need to know if this happens to y'all. When I read the Bible, which I want to do twice a day, I feel like I have to reread and reread stuff bc if I didn't comprehend it properly, something bad would happen, or my fears would come true. I also have intrusive thoughts that come into my head about what I'm reading and the thoughts will say something bad about the Bible or about God, and it's like I know God knows I didn't say it but I have to "undo" the thought by getting up out of my seat completely, and saying something that "undoes" it then I can sit back down and read. Sometimes I also shake my head or hit myself in the head trying to rid of the thought. And say "no, no, of course not" and stuff like that trying to undo the thought that intruded...
- Username
- nvrstop
- Date posted
- 23w ago
Has anyone else experienced this (religious ocd)
I’d like to preface this by saying I know this is really niche but it’s been effecting me extremely bad since the moment i woke up today and for many days. Every time I start to like anything a lot no matter what, for example if I’m with a good friend and I’m in the middle of laughing, I will feel the need to specify that I love God over this moment and person, and if it doesn’t feel *just right* I will punish myself like by slapping my leg a certain amount of times etc. If it doesn’t feel *just right* it feels like I am putting them over God and then I feel extreme guilt. With every thing that I love I end up stopping it because I feel like that’s me saying I’m putting it over God. Even now, I was talking to this person I liked and had the thought come up again and it didn’t feel right so I blocked them because I want to prove to God that I love him more than anyone else. I convince myself that I’m putting things over God when I feel intense joy, and that God will punish me for that. Anyone have any tips or been through something similar? Thank you for reading it you did.
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