Religion and pure-OCD

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Anyone else experience purely obsessional OCD in relation to religion? When I was young and was pious I was absolutely tormented by blasphemousness and immoral thoughts. Ever since I learned that a single thought could send you to hell it became my obsession. I would have to stop what I was doing and mentally recite a prayer every time I had one of these thoughts otherwise I might get hit by a car, die and go straight to hell. Sometimes I would have to start back at the beginning if the thought returned in mid-prayer. You get the picture.

So now I am 21 and on the agnostic side of atheism and have been so for several years. I pretty much had to shed my Christianity out of necessity. Although I still get pure-o obsessions they just take other forms not related to religion.

When I was in 3rd grade, I was prescribed Ritalin. My OCD went through the roof. Not only did I "collect" facial tics, I also prayed constantly. Not any significant prayers. Just blathering or reciting written prayers I had memorized.

I get what you're saying about OCD-style piety, I was very heavily caught up in that at one point. The OCD rigamarole became very controlling about five years ago, which is about the same time that I gradually started to walk away from it.

Been reading the Bible for about 5 years since that time, and today am regarding my personal works as a matter of God's grace.

I went from about fifteen years of atheism, then OCD-style agnosticism, to believing upon Christ.

My obsession with religion was the opposite. Once I realized I had been lied to about Santa Claus by the very people whom I was supposed to be able to trust the most, I began to obsessively analyze the religious beliefs they had taught me and quickly realized their dogma was full of loopholes, inconsistencies and logic failures. So I spent the next twenty years of my life absorbing and dissecting every belief system and school of philosophy or mysticism that had ever existed to determine whether and where any real truth existed. I'm satisfied that I ultimately found my answers and was able to let the obsession go for the most part, though I still argue long defensive rants about it to myself on occasion for no constructive purpose.

Yes, one of the main forms of my pure obsessional OCD is religious/blasphemous thoughts. With me, though, it only makes my religiosity stronger, because I've read that OCD takes the form of the things you value the most. So, even though I hate the obsessions, every time I have one shows me how much I love God.
-OddDuckNash99-

I have the same issue. I always have this image of the devil handing my a contract to sign. I try to imagine throwing ink on it and lighting it on fire. I also have issues with saying GD in my head all the time.

Aplogies for reviving this thread but I didnt want to start another one since it would just duplicate this. I was a devout christian from about 16-18 or so, but my OCD became so focused and intense that I had to give it all up. I would feel an irresistible compulsion to preach to people in the streets, I would be tormented by thoughts that if I didnt said person would die and go to hell or I would suffer terrible punishments.
There were times where I even unsuccessfully wrestled with the urge to actually knock on peoples' doors (im a young man and these were sometimes women) and evangelise. Add to that a collection of other religion related oobsessions with accompanying compulsions made compelling by "threats" of damnation and punishment and I was essentially tormented into agnosticism. I have returned to the fold somewhat but my faith is unfortunately predicated on these fears and compulsions so I can never pursue my spiritualitty in that naive open honest way which is totally essential

Seems to be some examples here of the damage Religions have done to Christians relationship to God, made by religions to feel that God is itching to find some excuse to throw you in the lake of fire, this really isnt the case, God paid a very high price for your salvation, just as you wouldn't destroy a new car you bought cause it had a flat battery or something, God isnt going to destroy you just because the Human mechanism is showing signs of failing as devolution due to sin takes its toll.

God is bigger than all this, and knows your hearts, that you feel bad that you cannot control what goes through your minds.

I get this blasphemous Tourettes, for ages when ever I have a piss Iam thinking, "Drink this God", Ive managed to sway my mind away from this particular blasphemy by saying in my mind, "Drink this Tony Blair", instead.

I read that quite a few of the Saints suffered from this, Martin Luther as well I believe, they didnt let it stop them, by having such an affliction and not letting it turn you away from God, you prove yourself more righteous than the man for him Spirituality is an easy walk in the park.

When I was younger I had this. I used to recite prayers whilst sitting on the toilet, which is funny, but the constant fear of sin was debilitating. I think it stemmed from the fact that I had serious doubts and felt guilty about them.

I'm now an agnostic (close to atheist) but I'm not especially obsessive about there not being a God as I was about there being one.

What a shame that so many get religion all wrong, and then they get confused so they give it up.

God just wants to love us; and he wants us to let him love us. That's the basis of religion. No OCD. The Holy Spirit does the work to free us from obsessions and the things that bind us.

Can anyone relate to this or am I just preaching in the dark?

I was obsessively devout when I was a child. I prayed over every last bit of food that I ate, whether a full meal or a single cookie. I would even pray over individual types of food (for example, if I ate a cookie and then went and got a bag of chips, I would pray over the chips in addition to the cookie). This got to the point when even my Christian Mom told me I didn't have to pray over every single last thing I ate.

I also had an incredibly intense fear of saying the Lord's name in vain, so I never spoke any words that could be construed as religious. For example, I refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance because of the phrase "under God", and I also refused to sing part of "Jingle Bells" because of "making spirits bright" (I took the phrase literally and construed it as evoking the name of The Holy Spirit).

And once when a magician came to the school, I thought he was practicing witchcraft and had a meltdown, crying inconsolably until the school called my mom to come pick me up.

Even as an adult who no longer practices Christianity and whose faith dangles by a thread, deep in the back of my mind I am still extremely terrified of going to Hell. My brother, who became an atheist, is puzzled as to why it's taking me so long to shed my faith. He says he lost his faith within the first 100 pages of Dawkins' "The God Delusion". I tried the same book but it gave me such horrid anxiety that I couldn't get past 50 pages.