Evidence-based treatment for religious and moral OCD
I help Latter-day Saints who struggle with a kind of obsessive compulsive disorder called scrupulosity find peace in their spiritual lives. My clients want to have good experiences at church, in the temple, or on a mission, but their OCD and anxiety always gets in the way. They are worried that they aren’t worthy, that the Church isn’t true, and that they aren’t going to be with their families forever.
They believe that their testimony isn’t strong enough and that they will never be able to serve a mission and stay on the covenant path. They wonder if their OCD and anxiety would get better if they left the Church even though they desperately want to be able to stay in. They think everything would be better if an angel would just appear to them as a sign from Heavenly Father, and they struggle with the fact that that probably won’t happen.
They don’t think that they are repenting correctly, and they feel like they need to talk to their bishop every week. They dread going in for a temple recommend interview because they are convinced their efforts to live in the gospel are never enough.
They have delayed submitting their mission papers or returned home early from their mission because of their OCD and anxiety.
They are interested in returning to their faith after realizing they had left for a time because of scrupulosity and not a faith crisis.
They also struggle with other OCD themes in addition to scrupulosity. They feel uneasy in their most important relationships and never feel like they measure up as husbands, wives, sons, daughters, and friends. They worry that the people they are closest to are annoyed that they are constantly checking in to see if everything is ok. They sometimes wonder if their memory is failing them and they hurt someone they love and now can’t remember.