OCD and Religion

copyright, 1999

With Easter and Passover right around the corner, this is a good time to look at a type of OCD that often involves religious beliefs. I never had scrupulosity. Or at least I didn't think I did until I read Joseph Ciarrocchi's book, The Doubting Disease. I read it only to round out my knowledge about OCD. I had been a Christian for over 20 years and had and still have an unshakable belief in eternal salvation through accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. How could I have scrupulosity? Imagine my surprise when I found myself in the pages of Ciarrocchi's excellent book.

Even unbelievers can be affected by scrupulosity. Instead of religious guilt, they experience ethical and moral guilt. Hyper-morality is a good term to describe this. The easiest way to illustrate hyper-morality is to describe an obsession I had. Recognizing it and similar obsessions as OCD symptoms was my first step in breaking free from hyper-morality.

. . . I woke up several times during the night wrestling with the problem. By morning I was tired and still worried, so I made an appointment to see my pastor. I had told my husband about it, and he had reassured me there was nothing to worry about, but still I dwelled on it. I was afraid I had hurt someone. What was my worry? The Lord's Supper had been served at church. We should come away from this experience refreshed, renewed, and feeling clean, but that feeling had escaped me that evening. I had touched one of the other wafers when I picked up mine!

I obsessed about this all through the night . . . I'm not ill now, but maybe I'm catching a cold, maybe I have an illness I don't know about. I touched the wafer and if someone takes it they could get sick. It would be my fault. That wafer is contaminated . . . No, germs don't live more than a few seconds so no one could get sick by taking that wafer . . . Well, it's done now. There's nothing I can do about it . . . But wait! What happens to the wafers after the service? Do they put them back in the box? . . . It doesn't matter, the germs couldn't survive long . . . but maybe they could. The whole box would be contaminated! I've got to make sure . . . I'll ask the pastor what they do with the left over wafers. I'll call him now . . . no . . . he'll think that's crazy. I'll talk to him tomorrow.

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