Understanding and Healing from Religious OCD (Scrupulosity)

Funny enough, it wasn’t until years after completing a graduate-level course in the assessment of psychological disorders—and after becoming a licensed clinical social worker— and after quite a bit of therapy—that I began to realize I was experiencing what’s known as scrupulosity, or religious OCD. For a long time, I genuinely believed I was simply being faithful to my Christian convictions. Looking back, it’s no surprise—religious OCD is known for clouding insight, making it incredibly hard to distinguish devotion from obsessional doubt and compulsion.

It was only as I began working more with clients who had OCD, and started specializing in it myself, that I recognized the signs of religious OCD in my own life.