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Old 11-09-2018, 10:31 AM
 
Location: Elsewhere
88,099 posts, read 83,961,306 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tired of the Nonsense View Post
Intense religious belief is one of the main causes of OCD.

Religious OCD: 'I'm going to hell'
By Elizabeth Landau, CNN
updated 7:33 AM EDT, Sat May 31, 2014

(CNN) -- "When she was 12, Jennifer Traig's hands were red and raw from washing them so much. She'd start scrubbing a half an hour before dinner; when she was done, she'd hold her hands up like a surgeon until her family sat down to eat.

Jennifer Traig was obsessed with cleanliness and avoiding pork fumes when she was a teenager.

Her handwashing compulsions began at the time she was studying for her Bat Mitzvah. She was so worried about being exposed to pork fumes that she cleaned her shoes and barrettes in a washing machine.

'"Like a lot of people with OCD, I tended to obsess about cleanliness,' said Traig, now 42. But because I was reading various Torah portions, I was obsessed with a biblical definition of cleanliness.'"

"First I had to get rid of all my sins, ask forgiveness, do it in the right way, and then I had to pray for protection," said Barbour, now 50. "Or, if something bad happened to my family, it would be my fault because I had not prayed good enough."

"The women come from different faith backgrounds: Barbour is Methodist and Traig is Jewish. But as children they believed fervently that they needed to conduct their own rituals and prayers, or else disaster would befall their families.

Both women say they suffered from a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder known as scrupulosity. A fear of sin or punishment from deities characterizes this condition, said Jonathan Abramowitz, professor and associate chairman of the department of psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD, involves unwanted thoughts ("obsessions") and accompanying behaviors called compulsions that patients use to reduce anxiety. In scrupulosity, the obsessions have a religious or moral underpinning."

"How common is this condition?

Scrupulosity is an understudied subcategory of OCD. Attempts at characterizing how many people might have this disorder, from the 1990s and early 2000s, suggested that somewhere between 5% and 33% of OCD patients have religious obsessions. Scientists are not sure what causes OCD, but they believe a combination of genetic and environmental factors may be at play.

In societies where religiosity is more stringent, the numbers are higher: 50% of OCD patients in Saudi Arabia and 60% in Egypt said they had religious obsessions, according to studies from the early 1990s."
http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/31/health...html?hpt=hp_t3

My late aunt had OCD, as does the wife of one of my oldest friends. The obsessions can become so severe as to be debilitating. It's because they believe that God is watching them 24-7, and judging everything that they do.

Religious belief is a form of mental illness which becomes more prevalent in the lives of religious people in direct relationship with the person's level of religiosity.
Yup. I have OCD, and it definitely came from my religious upbringing. Started when I was six. I didn't pray correctly, or so I believed, for my same-age cousin, and she died. I figured God was going to get me next, and I "knew" this Dark Thing was following me around just waiting to get me. I would turn my head really fast to see it, but it always disappeared before I could. Nevertheless, I knew it was there.

One day the thought came into my head that if I took exactly 18 steps down the hallway when I went to my bedroom, it couldn't follow me in there. And that's how it began. It grew and permeated all parts of my life. It was my secret world inside my head, and I didn't know what it was until I was in my 40s, was talking to a therapist after my marriage ended, and he picked up on certain things I said and identified it.

I am a counter, as well as a person who sees things in certain words and signs and has to feel as if something is "right". Never had the germs/handwashing thing, but I have stood in a bank of six elevators letting three pass before the "right" one came, because if I got on the wrong one, who knows what disaster I might set in motion. You might laugh, but this one is fairly common: I have been driving, hit a pothole, and became convinced I ran over and killed someone. I've turned around to look, can't find the person I killed and figured they crawled off to die or someone took them to the hospital, and then checked the newspapers for the next three days looking for the story of the hit and run. I'm better now and that hasn't happened in years (the thought might come, but I know it's a pothole and can tell my mind to shut up and keep driving).

I have missed trains because I am sure I left my coffee pot plugged in and my house will burn down and my cats will die, and it was so strong that I turned around and went home to check. Of course, it was always unplugged, and then I was late to work. Saying "I AM UNPLUGGING THE COFFEE POT" out loud helps me remember. I did come home once and found to my horror that the coffee pot was still on. There was burnt coffee, but that's about it.

One of the reasons I went back to a church in my older years, besides for the social aspect of it, was to face and minimize that old fear of a judgmental God just waiting to trip me up and get me. I didn't consciously think that until later, but it seems to have worked out that way. Plus we get to do ritualistic stuff like eat wafers and wine as a means of connecting with one another, have to have certain colors on the altar on certain days, and there's a good gory tale of torture and death behind it all.
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Last edited by Mightyqueen801; 11-09-2018 at 10:44 AM..
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Old 11-10-2018, 12:19 AM
 
Location: USA
4,747 posts, read 2,330,716 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801 View Post
Yup. I have OCD, and it definitely came from my religious upbringing. Started when I was six. I didn't pray correctly, or so I believed, for my same-age cousin, and she died. I figured God was going to get me next, and I "knew" this Dark Thing was following me around just waiting to get me. I would turn my head really fast to see it, but it always disappeared before I could. Nevertheless, I knew it was there.

One day the thought came into my head that if I took exactly 18 steps down the hallway when I went to my bedroom, it couldn't follow me in there. And that's how it began. It grew and permeated all parts of my life. It was my secret world inside my head, and I didn't know what it was until I was in my 40s, was talking to a therapist after my marriage ended, and he picked up on certain things I said and identified it.

I am a counter, as well as a person who sees things in certain words and signs and has to feel as if something is "right". Never had the germs/handwashing thing, but I have stood in a bank of six elevators letting three pass before the "right" one came, because if I got on the wrong one, who knows what disaster I might set in motion. You might laugh, but this one is fairly common: I have been driving, hit a pothole, and became convinced I ran over and killed someone. I've turned around to look, can't find the person I killed and figured they crawled off to die or someone took them to the hospital, and then checked the newspapers for the next three days looking for the story of the hit and run. I'm better now and that hasn't happened in years (the thought might come, but I know it's a pothole and can tell my mind to shut up and keep driving).

I have missed trains because I am sure I left my coffee pot plugged in and my house will burn down and my cats will die, and it was so strong that I turned around and went home to check. Of course, it was always unplugged, and then I was late to work. Saying "I AM UNPLUGGING THE COFFEE POT" out loud helps me remember. I did come home once and found to my horror that the coffee pot was still on. There was burnt coffee, but that's about it.

One of the reasons I went back to a church in my older years, besides for the social aspect of it, was to face and minimize that old fear of a judgmental God just waiting to trip me up and get me. I didn't consciously think that until later, but it seems to have worked out that way. Plus we get to do ritualistic stuff like eat wafers and wine as a means of connecting with one another, have to have certain colors on the altar on certain days, and there's a good gory tale of torture and death behind it all.
Ironically, at least in my opinion, I have often been criticized by believers for not indoctrinated my own children with a religious upbringing. Against all odds, apparently, they grew up to be remarkably well grounded in spite of not being infused with irrational fears and phobias. Go figure.
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Old 11-10-2018, 06:17 PM
 
18,823 posts, read 27,261,264 times
Reputation: 20174
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801 View Post
I light a candle when I consult my runes for something important.

Don't tell the other Christians!



Isn;t that what they do going to church and listening to sermon in Latin? Same difference as reading runes, no idea what it means... but candles lit...
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Old 11-10-2018, 10:27 PM
 
Location: Louisville KY
4,857 posts, read 5,776,637 times
Reputation: 4341
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tired of the Nonsense View Post
Intense religious belief is one of the main causes of OCD.

Religious OCD: 'I'm going to hell'
By Elizabeth Landau, CNN
updated 7:33 AM EDT, Sat May 31, 2014

(CNN) -- "When she was 12, Jennifer Traig's hands were red and raw from washing them so much. She'd start scrubbing a half an hour before dinner; when she was done, she'd hold her hands up like a surgeon until her family sat down to eat.

Jennifer Traig was obsessed with cleanliness and avoiding pork fumes when she was a teenager.

Her handwashing compulsions began at the time she was studying for her Bat Mitzvah. She was so worried about being exposed to pork fumes that she cleaned her shoes and barrettes in a washing machine.

'"Like a lot of people with OCD, I tended to obsess about cleanliness,' said Traig, now 42. But because I was reading various Torah portions, I was obsessed with a biblical definition of cleanliness.'"

"First I had to get rid of all my sins, ask forgiveness, do it in the right way, and then I had to pray for protection," said Barbour, now 50. "Or, if something bad happened to my family, it would be my fault because I had not prayed good enough."

"The women come from different faith backgrounds: Barbour is Methodist and Traig is Jewish. But as children they believed fervently that they needed to conduct their own rituals and prayers, or else disaster would befall their families.

Both women say they suffered from a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder known as scrupulosity. A fear of sin or punishment from deities characterizes this condition, said Jonathan Abramowitz, professor and associate chairman of the department of psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD, involves unwanted thoughts ("obsessions") and accompanying behaviors called compulsions that patients use to reduce anxiety. In scrupulosity, the obsessions have a religious or moral underpinning."

"How common is this condition?

Scrupulosity is an understudied subcategory of OCD. Attempts at characterizing how many people might have this disorder, from the 1990s and early 2000s, suggested that somewhere between 5% and 33% of OCD patients have religious obsessions. Scientists are not sure what causes OCD, but they believe a combination of genetic and environmental factors may be at play.

In societies where religiosity is more stringent, the numbers are higher: 50% of OCD patients in Saudi Arabia and 60% in Egypt said they had religious obsessions, according to studies from the early 1990s."
http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/31/health...html?hpt=hp_t3

My late aunt had OCD, as does the wife of one of my oldest friends. The obsessions can become so severe as to be debilitating. It's because they believe that God is watching them 24-7, and judging everything that they do.

Religious belief is a form of mental illness which becomes more prevalent in the lives of religious people in direct relationship with the person's level of religiosity.
Hmmm... I'm religious, have no OCDs, and my insanities are not from religion, nor has it gave me any sort of irrational nuerotic tendancies.
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Old 11-11-2018, 12:05 AM
 
Location: USA
4,747 posts, read 2,330,716 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JaxRhapsody View Post
Hmmm... I'm religious, have no OCDs, and my insanities are not from religion, nor has it gave me any sort of irrational nuerotic tendancies.
Catch-22 informs us that insane people are invariably the last to recognize it.
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Old 11-11-2018, 08:27 AM
 
Location: Elsewhere
88,099 posts, read 83,961,306 times
Reputation: 114376
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tired of the Nonsense View Post
Ironically, at least in my opinion, I have often been criticized by believers for not indoctrinated my own children with a religious upbringing. Against all odds, apparently, they grew up to be remarkably well grounded in spite of not being infused with irrational fears and phobias. Go figure.
Sometimes it's just a matter of passing our own bad genes. Other than having her baptized and taking her to Sunday school at the Episcopal Church when she was pre-school, I didn't raise her to be religious, either. I quit attending church when she was around 4. She went to my mother's church's Sunday school for a few years because some of her friends went, and she dated the son of a preacher man from a fundamentalist church all through high school, but she actually didn't buy in, she just thought she was in love and liked playing her sax in the church band. She is not a Christian.

But her OCD (a gift from me) started to manifest when she was about 13, and her bipolar disorder (a gift from her dad) when she was around 24. However, for all that, she is also remarkably well-grounded, as long as she maintains her mental health and sobriety.

I don't think my OCD was caused by the religiosity. I think the tendency was there, but my sin/death/hell-centered religious upbringing certainly fed and watered it.
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Old 11-11-2018, 09:49 AM
 
Location: USA
4,747 posts, read 2,330,716 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801 View Post
Sometimes it's just a matter of passing our own bad genes. Other than having her baptized and taking her to Sunday school at the Episcopal Church when she was pre-school, I didn't raise her to be religious, either. I quit attending church when she was around 4. She went to my mother's church's Sunday school for a few years because some of her friends went, and she dated the son of a preacher man from a fundamentalist church all through high school, but she actually didn't buy in, she just thought she was in love and liked playing her sax in the church band. She is not a Christian.

But her OCD (a gift from me) started to manifest when she was about 13, and her bipolar disorder (a gift from her dad) when she was around 24. However, for all that, she is also remarkably well-grounded, as long as she maintains her mental health and sobriety.

I don't think my OCD was caused by the religiosity. I think the tendency was there, but my sin/death/hell-centered religious upbringing certainly fed and watered it.

"In societies where religiosity is more stringent, the numbers are higher: 50% of OCD patients in Saudi Arabia and 60% in Egypt said they had religious obsessions, according to studies from the early 1990s."
http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/31/health...html?hpt=hp_t3

Is it really reasonable to attribute these high percentages to "bad genes?" If you believe that God is watching every move you make your entire life, doesn't developing OCD make perfect sense? I'm surprised that many people don't just die of complications arising from acute constipation by the time they are fifty.

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Old 11-11-2018, 11:39 AM
 
Location: Elsewhere
88,099 posts, read 83,961,306 times
Reputation: 114376
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tired of the Nonsense View Post
"In societies where religiosity is more stringent, the numbers are higher: 50% of OCD patients in Saudi Arabia and 60% in Egypt said they had religious obsessions, according to studies from the early 1990s."
http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/31/health...html?hpt=hp_t3

Is it really reasonable to attribute these high percentages to "bad genes?"
If you believe that God is watching every move you make your entire life, doesn't developing OCD make perfect sense? I'm surprised that many people don't just die of complications arising from acute constipation by the time they are fifty.
Nothing like minimizing/restating what somebody says, alas, a favorite and all-too-common Internet game. And tiresome.

I've been dealing with this for more than fifty years, so I know a bit about it. Lots of people grow up with stringent religiosity and never develop OCD. People develop it who have the tendency in the first place. It's an anxiety disorder and a matter of brain function. Religiosity is the perfect conduit for obsessional thinking and the need for the compulsions to relieve them, but it is not the cause. There are non-religious people with OCD also.

I'm one of seven siblings, and the only one with OCD. We all grew up in the same house with the same religion (and none of us stayed with it.) Looking back, I believe this came to me from my paternal grandmother, who had some very odd thought patterns, in retrospect.
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Old 11-11-2018, 12:54 PM
 
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Here's another "superstition". Back in my 'ol culture, it is believed that inclinations transfer into the 3rd generation. Into the grandchildren. I surely took much after my grandfather.



Looking back, I believe this came to me from my paternal grandmother, who had some very odd thought patterns, in retrospect.
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Old 11-11-2018, 01:13 PM
 
Location: Elsewhere
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Originally Posted by ukrkoz View Post
Here's another "superstition". Back in my 'ol culture, it is believed that inclinations transfer into the 3rd generation. Into the grandchildren. I surely took much after my grandfather.



Looking back, I believe this came to me from my paternal grandmother, who had some very odd thought patterns, in retrospect.
Interesting, haha.

We've got other genetic patterns, including a disease called PKD (polycystic kidney disease), which my mother has. She will turn 90 tomorrow and has to spend her birthday at dialysis. Fortunately, I missed that one, but my sister has it. It's not third generation, though. If you have one parent with the disease, you have a 50-50 chance of inheriting it. It does not skip generations and appear further down.

As far as cultural superstitions, my mother said her Dutch-born grandmother urged her to buy "a big green shade" for her bay window when she and my father bought their first house. She just thought that was weird. Years later I met a woman from The Netherlands who told me that there will still country people there who painted their doors green to keep out evil spirits. Suddenly my great-grandmother's notion of buying a green shade for a big window made "sense".
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