I imagine this is common since having OCD entails constant obsession on very upsetting topics. For me personally, I keep having vivid nightmares of being in hell. My religious beliefs and my ocd with it have been been a huge problem for over a year. It has been very hard, and I fear sleeping. I havenât started my OCD specific treatment yet, but I hope this can get better soon
Same here, I started to have pocd nightmares in which I couldn't control my body and I would see my self in third person (I was floating while watching myself) It's hard to sleep when ocd starts to attack even your dreams. I recently discovered that having music while I sleep helps me with those nightmares, I always sleep with Elvis Presley music (I luv him) and since then I haven't had any of those nightmares (or well, most of the time I don't have them tbh) You should try it with your favorite artist, it may help you đđ!!!
Iâve had night terrors about being in hell. It was the worst experience of my life. If you donât mind me asking, what are your dreams like?
I have obsessions and dreams about hell too. But I promise it will get better
May I ask your religion?
@julianofnorwich I donât really know because ocd has made it difficult to make decisions or approach faith in a healthy way. I used to be Protestant Christian as a child but stopped for years after bad experiences in my upbringing and now I feel that Catholicism seems true. However, I am not baptized and I havenât really been able to go to mass or anything because it causes severe ocd problems
@Anonymous I understand. Its healthy to question our beliefs and faith because it helps us get used to uncertainty. And without uncertainty we cant really have faith anyway! Ill tell you what helped me with the concepts of hell and fears. I did some researching on different beliefs around hell and the afterlife from different Christian theologians. Did you know many Christians do not believe in a literal hell that lasts forever? Or many believe that we just end and dont go to an afterlife? Or that God will forgive everyone in hell eventually? Or that there is no literal fire in hell? There are so many different theories of hell. And if theologians throughout the centuries dont know and can interpret the Bible differently so can we! This increased my tolerance of uncertainty and helped me realize that all faith is speculation and no one, NO ONE knows for sure if we are all going to hell or if no one is. And we have to accept that we will never know for sure in this life time.
I had sleep paralysis for a while in high school so i understand being scared to sleep. It sucks. I would say a good practice is to pray before you go to sleep that God protects your mind. I think i was dealing with a real demon and had to tell it to leave me tf alone. I dont think thats your deal here but if it feels demonic or heavy in a way thats not from God just know that has no power over you and ask God to protect you from whatever it might be. Remember you donât need some fancy prayer for this it can be simply God please protect me. I donât know if thats helpful but im not scared of anything demonic now and it more so just pisses me off so I hope that gives you hope for getting over these dreams!
@Emmba Thank you, I will try that more and do try it sometimes. I just donât know if it is effective for me because my faith has been all over the place because of my ocd and just fear and despair I guess. Could you read and maybe respond to my most recent post? Maybe I should delete it though because it might be blasphemous. I just donât know how else to explain everything and itâs feeling really hopeless.
@Anonymous I only see this one post but please try to believe that you donât have to work for God or try to earn his love and support. God meets you where you are and holds your hand through the process. Itâs okay to question religion I do it all the time. Itâs something at my college ministry we do all the time. Itâs actually encouraged to question what God does in the Bible. Back when the Bible was being written when they would question something it was celebrated because it was a sign to dive deeper into what they were looking at and study it. The Bible is meant to be studied and youâre going to have moments of doubt, confusion and question your religion. There are stories in the Bible of people who had a hard time having faith (I canât remember any right now). Itâs okay to question things I do all the time. I have so many âis any of this even realâ moments all the time. But when you choose to have faith through that, thatâs what matters. And you donât have to do that right away either. I think the perspective you have of God is some almighty ruler whoâs ruling with an iron fist and doesnât care about you. (Itâs hard for me to let go of that image too) but he cares about what you want and he also gave you free will to make your own decisions. I donât know if any of that helped but I hope you can find what God really feels like and accept that love (itâs already given to you, you donât need to do anything for it)
At Catholic confession, the priest once told me that God welcomes our questions. It is okay to question, bring those to Him.
@alan87 Thank you. I canât go to confession as I havenât been baptized and officially brought into the church. I think I should but I have to go through the whole ocia process and this last year I felt that just couldnât keep going with my severe ocd.
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