For people of faith, OCD can take on religious themes. This can be especially painful because obsessions and compulsions can touch what is at the very core of a person’s faith and moral life. When contending with OCD, individuals can experience a wide-range of symptoms. For Catholics and people of faith, these can include (but not be limited to): blasphemous or sacrilegious thoughts, doubts about the sincerity of their belief in God or salvation, uncertainty about whether they have fully or adequately repented of sin, worry about having confessed sins ‘properly’ or validly, rumination about potentially having committed a mortal sin, repeating prayers until they feel adequate. Some people with OCD may spend long periods of time wondering if they are in a state of grace or whether they have been contaminated by moral or spiritual impurity – even without any real basis. These symptoms are not signs of weak faith or spiritual failure. Rather, they are symptoms of OCD attaching itself to what is most important in a person’s life. Therapy provides a way to distinguish between genuine matters of conscience and the distortions caused by OCD. It allows individuals to learn how to live their faith more freely as well as without the constant burden of doubt and fear. Therapy is not about setting faith aside but practicing faith without the interference from OCD.
