Anyone here overcome scrupulosity?

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I’ve struggled to a greater or lesser degree for years – I know I’m not the only one on the forums who has, and I offer you my prayers. Anyone here overcome it entirely (or almost entirely), and how did you do it?
 
Mine got much better and almost went away, but in all honesty that could be just the varying severities of mental illness and differing trajectories they take across one’s lifetime. My OCD symptoms were way worse in childhood and seemed to decrease, but I know I didn’t do anything to deserve that decrease compared to others whose worsened.

I will say that finally being more part of a faith community, finally finding fellowship and friends in the church helped me grow spiritually in ways that scrupulous me alone with overthink and a stack of books never could. Having a group of Catholic friends for the first time helped so much.
 
I haven’t overcome it, but with help from a priest, a doctor and God of course I’ve found ways to cope with it.
 
I struggled with scrupulosity in my high school and early college years. I’ve overcome it through the advice of good priests and confessors who really helped me to trust in God’s mercy over my own sins. As par for the course, I couldn’t go a day without thinking that I slipped into mortal sin, even when I would do things that weren’t sinful at all. Some advice that I received was only to go to confession when I was 100% that I committed a mortal sin. Most of the time, I was unsure. In those times, I just prayed, “Jesus, I trust in your love and mercy.” After that, I did what I prayed and moved on. It took time, but over that time, I began to really see God not as someone over my shoulder waiting for me to fall into sin again, but as a loving God who wanted to help me.
 
B79 said:
Anyone here overcome it entirely (or almost entirely), and how did you do it?
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Heavy metal and weight lifting.

What I do is is put some Iron Maiden on the speakers and chug my protein powder + creatine then blast out a bunch of overhead presses on the ez curl bar and some bicep dumbbell drag curls, or maybe pushups and Romanian dead lifts, or some other combination, and then say the Nicene Creed plus the Our Father and Glory Be.

The point is, if you’re amped up on testosterone and adrenaline fueled by wild guitar solos and heavy weight lifting then scrupulosity goes straight out the window for the whole day. It gets your mind off the scrupulosity and onto other things–for example, how big your biceps are going to be in a couple months.
 
Interesting, I have scrupulosity and other forms of OCD, but I’m not a guy. I’m tempted to just workout incessantly and see if the OCD goes away 😂. Maybe it would help. I know that exercise is great medicine for the brain, but I don’t do it like I need to.
 
I think that’s a temptation you should consider succumbing to.
 
Mine has not “gone away” but has become MUCH more manageable after a little under a year.

Mine hit me almost overnight about a year ago, but with a some spiritual direction, and a LOT of prayer, it has gotten much better. Ping me if you would like someone to talk to about it. I would love to help.
 
I talked to my priest and he handed me a folded piece of paper that said “There is only one Savior of the world. He is not you. All of us fall short, so we can call on the Savior.” It really helped me to realize that I can’t control everything and to put my trust in God.
 
Thank you, Ryan – that’s very kind! Any suggestions? I know you said spiritual direction and prayer… That’s helped me as well but I wonder if I will ever be totally free of it. I’ve had it on and off for 14-15 years.
 
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - for those who are not currently in it. The gold standard for anxiety/OCD/scrupulosity treatment. By itself, drug free and can even be done over the phone.
 
I thought I had, but then I wasn’t quite sure I had done it right.
 
Depends. It is actually possible to workout to an unheathly extent.Most people don’t have that problem of course.
 
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Scrupulosity is a symptom of OCD. OCD is a biochemical condition of the brain and associated bodily functions. OCD can occur with great row lesser ‘compulsions’. If scrupulous Catholics stop being Catholic they are likely to find their OCD will manifest in other ways. Religious advice, other than to go to a professional able to treat OCD, as far as I know, has no evidence-based benefits beyond those associated with any talking therapy.
 
I don’t know about severe cases, but I think I had what might be considered more mild scruples as a newbie Catholic back in 2015, and mine went away just by immersing myself and educating myself more about the faith, so that I had a better conception about what is and isn’t sin. This is known as formation. A conscience needs to be properly formed otherwise it can be overly sensitize or - much worse and far more widespread - desensitized. I was zealous and had a tendency to be overreactive and get irate and I’m told this is actually quite common in converts and reverts, at least at first. Many go spiritually undiagnosed, which isn’t good, because then it forms into a habit of thinking.

If it’s really bad, just keep working with a combination of priests and therapists and do cognitive behavioral therapy to try to weed out those toxic thought patterns. God loves you.

Peace.
 
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Hi,

I was too scrupulous last year to the point that
  1. I couldn’t eat well because of fear of gluttony. I lost so much weight.
  2. I fear having conversation with others because they might be sinful. And I thought
    talking to them was sinful too.
  3. I always was cautious of what would I say because it might be mortal sin.
  4. I confessed too much.
I have OCD with patterns and numbers. I wanted to break it last year but I couldn’t because I wanted to finish my routines that year. This year, I started my year breaking it. I do still have OCD while praying Rosary because I want it to recite perfectly but gradually inculcating to my mind that is fine to say with flaws.

My advice is to break it NOW. Read also the 10 Commandments for Scrupulous by Scrupulous Anonymous.

🙂
 
Thank you, Micciloi. I’ve experienced the four points you listed above as well, to some extent. I will pray for you as you try to break free of it this year – little by little, changing your mindset, seems to be manageable.
 
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