For Christians

Just want to offer this- God loves u and wants a relationship with you even when you’re not “doing your best”. Also, struggling with your mental health does not mean you are lacking faith. God can certainly meet you in times of anxiety and help you through them. But just because you experience anxiety does not mean your faith isnt genuine. Sending support

Hey there, I have religious OCD and frankly the whole thing that jumpstarted the OCD in the first place WAS this whole stuff about prophecies about end times. I can't really speak for yourself in this situation since you know yourself better than I do, but guilt, shame, anxiety, those feelings are not from God. Those are feelings that come up to paralyze you in your thoughts. I sound like I have everything all together with my faith but frankly I do not. It's taking me a lot of time to reprogram my perception of God as someone who's not a dictator with a clipboard but rather the embodiment of love who wants to share love. He is not just love, He IS love. Perfect love casts out fear. Look at 1 John 4:18. Seek a spiritual director to help you work with your vices. Above all, keep watchful, keep praying, cling to the Lord above all things and pray to God that He reveals His capacity of love for you and where your areas of sin you easily fall into. I will keep you in prayer as well as the others who battle this horrific disease of scruples. Take care and God bless.

Doesn’t have to mean anything. Trying to figure out the meaning of every bad feeling is actually what keeps OCD alive. Embrace that you don’t know. Embrace that often coming to Jesus means things get worse or feel worse before they get better, cuz He wants to clean you out of what can no longer stay. Romans 8:28 I think of often and did at beginning of my OCD faith journey: God works all things out for good for those who love and are called by God according to His purpose. In other words, no matter what feeling you are experiencing, pray and trust that God is using it for His glory and for your ultimate good, and then move on. Don’t ruminate, do compulsions, or think about what it means. Just give it to God, again and again. And your brain will literally rewire itself, not immediately but over time Best of luck you got this

One of the only things that helped me tackle my religious OCD was deconstructing. I used to endlessly ruminate on concepts like Hell and Sin and for a long time, it ruined Christianity for me. Now I take comfort that at the end of the day, none of those grandiose concepts really matter. Jesus loves you no matter what you believe, feel, think, etc. His love isn’t conditional.