Vannafaith
- Date posted
- 4y
adaptocdadaptocd
- 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.
pureolifepureolife
- 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.
VannafaithVannafaith
- 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.
pureolifepureolife
- 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.”
boobabooba
- 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.
VannafaithVannafaith
- Date posted
- 4y
@booba Thank you so much! This really makes me feel so much better about these things.
boobabooba
- 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
Stronger. Stronger.
- 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?
VannafaithVannafaith
- Date posted
- 4y
No it is a compulsion to help "stop" scary thoughts from coming in.
Stronger. Stronger.
- 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
Anonymous
- Date posted
- 24w
Religious OCD
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…
Anonymous
- Date posted
- 20w
Religious ocd?? bad luck ocd??
first post on here, and i almost feel ashamed that its come to this point.. but i really need help. i have a constant fear that everything is bad luck. my brain has decided that certain numbers or words will cause something bad to happen to my family or me, and i really dont want anything to happen. my brain tells me that all of my compulsions are signs from God, and that if i dont listen, He will be disappointed in me. and i become afraid that every small mistake i made results in bad things happening to me. even posting this is terrifying to me, but im running out of options at this point.. i dont want to feel like this anymore, i want to believe in God without these thoughts.
Godisincontrol
- Date posted
- 17w
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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