Why is scrupulosity a bad thing?

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EasternCelt

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I’m having a hard time understanding why scrupulosity is such a bad thing. God makes some very clear and high demands and punishes severely, especially in the next life. Given this, I’ve begun to wonder if the scrupulous aren’t the more reasonable sorts of people given the stakes, probabilities, etc.

Thoughts?
 
Because a sense of proportion is a key part of moral discernment.

Imagine someone who is severely OCD about hygiene and germs. They wash their hands obsessively, hundreds of times a day, to the point that their hands are cracked and bleeding. When you point out that this is obsessive, they go “hey, I’m just trying to look after my health. Don’t you know germs are bad?”

That’s true enough, but because they’ve lost all sense of proportion, they’re actually undermining their overall health in pursuit of some imaginary, microscopic germ. Same for the scrupulous. They’ve completely lost the ability to make reasonable moral judgments because they’re obsessing about whether every mundane thing under the sun is a mortal sin. It’s going to undermine their ability to actually go out into the world and live the Gospel if they’re too afraid to get out bed because they’re terrified that they forgot to floss last night and that’s a sin.
 
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To add to both of the above posts, scrupulosity is often a manifestation of OCD or another anxiety disorder that needs professional treatment. Living with scruples is never what is intended - this is why if people suffer with them, they need to seek the guidance of their Priest and also their doctor.
 
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Real scrupulosity is generally a mental health challenge. I had a round with it, it is definitely different than a “sensitive conscience”. The mental health challenge isn’t a good thing in my experience, and treatment may truly be warranted.

Unfortunately I’ve seen a tendency, and often on this forum🙁, to label many questions as scrupulous when in my POV they are really just struggling with a doctrine, or not sure what the faith basedanswer is. That’s very different from true mental health concerns. Seeking council is a point of wisdom. The challenge is that true mental health issues can look like doubtful, or questions of understanding sometimes. But I think the terms get conflated sometimes and everything just gets lumped into scrupulous.
 
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Well, because of covid-19 some might think I am OCD about washing my hands multiple times a day and using hand sanitizer so much. I am following the guidelines and there are some days my hands are red and bleeding and dry from so much washing. I am looking out after my health by listening to the experts
who are advising about the hand washing and sanitizer.
 
Scrupulously is a mental illness.

It is treatable, as are all mental illnesses, with a variety of methods.
Sadly, our culture treats mental illness differently than other diseases. People suffering from mental illness are often ridiculed, dismissed, isolated, and scorned.
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People with mental illness should be treated no differently than those with other diseases, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, etc.

The trouble with scrupulosity is that the constant second-guessing drives sufferers to places like these forums; which, more often than not, exasperate, rather than relieve, their suffering.

Simply reinforce the need for such brothers and sisters to seek therapy and counseling for help.

Deacon Christopher
 
I have aspergers, which often comes with OCD (I haven’t been diagnosed with OCD, but I have the former, and I act like I have the latter). Religious scruples will leave you doing nothing at all, due to the persevering doubts and despair about what you did or didn’t do. It is an attitude fundamentally opposed to trusting in God, and it is implicitly an act of severe pride since you believe that you can do anything, or things can be done right without God, that the principle of perfection is in yourself, and even worse it is pelagianism and opposed to the doctrines of grace etc. It caused me to literally leave the faith for such an extended period of time due to the ridiculous doubts that led me to not trust multiple priests, or even when God Himself assured me. It has also made me suicidal in the past since when you have it you can not see a single good thing and the doubts lead to extreme despair. Yes mine were/are probably worse than most peoples, but it is still bad for everyone.

The only way out is acts of faith and love and trusting in the divine mercy against any doubt (pray the chaplet) and listening to the priest as if to God. Scruples are terrible and are from the devil. When God frees a person from it through grace, that is one of the greatest possible things to happen this side of death.
 
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Scruples takes away common sense, stagnates spiritual growth and could be dangerous if it leads to obstinacy or causes more sin.

A scrupulous person needs to be placed under the guidance of a priest.
 
7_Sorrows said:
Well, because of covid-19 some might think I am OCD about washing my hands multiple times a day and using hand sanitizer so much. I am following the guidelines and there are some days my hands are red and bleeding and dry from so much washing. I am looking out after my health by listening to the experts
who are advising about the hand washing and sanitizer.
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Just an analogy.
 
I’ve been diagnosed with OCD, what lead to the diagnosis was my scrupulosity that destroyed any sense of peace in me.
It started with me, trying to make really good confessions. Preparing for long time, writing down everything… After 3 years something caused it to get from mild, to full blown in 1 day (I was actually driving my car towards church, I still know which turn to the right it was, when it happened). After that in a few months I had my drawer full of long (multiple A4 pages) of confession notes, because it was no longer good enough to write it down, but it had to be written down, word for word, so that later I could go back to the paper and made sure that everything was confessed in the blackest way possible. I made general confessions (took like 40 minutes), weekly, to a very patient priest, that became my spiritual director until his death - I miss him dearly. He gave me an absolution in latin and I was for some reason sure that he could have made a mistake and the absolution was invalid, so I insisted that I must reconfess everything again - I did not told him why.
The problem became nightmare when I was unsure if I confessed sins that randomly popped in my head and I was not sure if it was sufficiently confessed. One instance was when I was again preparing for confession and I remembered something… I wrote it down… and it was emberassing to say the least. But then I was thinking “this sin is so bad, that nothing could make it worse”. My mind came up with what would indeed make it worse…and the pathetic part was that I was no longer sure if it is just my mind making it up (the part that would make even that sin, worse), or I actually did it, and I remember it just now… (which I was 99.9% sure it is not the case). But to be on ‘the safe side’ I did confess as though I did it. Now, I know that I did not do that, and that it was just a part of the psychosis I was in.
Now, almost 5 years later, I am doing much better. I am still under spiritual direction, but since the first spiritual direct has since died and went to God, I had to look for a different one. I found a lot of peace by obeying what the spritual director tells me - he is also my only confessor. Though OCD is sometimes hitting hard and my mind is trying to convince me that I am lax and even makes me doubt my spiritual director. But I already know what happens if I obey my thoughts. I don’t like to talk too much about it, but I’m just giving my feedback as someone who went through and is still going through it.
There is nothing good in scrupulosity. It retards the growth of a soul, completely. Some priest once told me that, after fanaticism, scrupulosity is the worst that can happen to a soul. If soul is a flower, then scrupulosity is an umbrella that prevents rain (Grace) to reach the poor plant. It’s deadly.
 
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I’m prone to scrupulosity and agree that it’s a bad thing.

Firstly and foremostly because the Church says it is, and I trust Her judgement more than my own.

Secondarily, as it’s been explained to me, scrupulosity can be a manifestation of a lack of trust in the love of God.

For me it sometimes takes an act of the will to trust God’s forgiveness and love for me instead of being scrupulous, and I offer up that sincere wrestling to God. I know that He knows that the orientation of my heart is to confess everything appropriate to confess, and that I just sometimes get confused about what that is. So I trust that He’s tolerant and forgives me when I err on either side (while aiming to ‘err’, if at all, on the side that seems closest to what valid Church authorities counsel).
 
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Thank you all for the responses. I think I do have at least some scrupulous tendencies: my biggest one is not knowing if I’m sorry enough in confession and thus remain in my sins. I’m trying to produce sorrow, but it seems futile.
 
EasternCelt said:
I think I do have at least some scrupulous tendencies: my biggest one is not knowing if I’m sorry enough in confession and thus remain in my sins. I’m trying to produce sorrow, but it seems futile.
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I sometimes say this to the priest:

“I don’t feel sorry for this one. I am sorry— I mean, I want to be sorry — but I’m not as sorry as I want to be.”

Confession is still valid. We need the sacraments ESPECIALLY when perfect contrition is beyond our weak abilities. God is the one who gives us the grace to be whoever and however He wants us to be. If you’re offering Him everything you have, that’s everything you have. The widow’s mite. Even if it looks poor to you, He knows it’s everything you have to give.

Side note, it’s not necessary to try to ‘manufacture’ a ‘feeling’ of sorrow. Contrition isn’t primarily about feelings as such. It’s about recognizing that we have broken our relationship with God and wanting to repair it, including firmly resolving not to sin again (even when realistically, God allows us to keep encountering our weaknesses as we grow in Him, and we’ll usually find ourselves returning to Reconciliation again and again).
 
Just use soap and water. Hand sanitizer does not work as well as plain old soap and water. Hand sanitizer can be irritating, and dries out your skin. My son had to stop using antibacterial soap as a child for the same reason.
 
A little story and background: Like one of these who have commented, it sort up popped up one day when I wanted to make good and honest Confessions… fearing that I may have forgot something or that I was justifying a sin, excusing myself, that I didn’t confess the correct number of times I committed it and the like would haunt me (perhaps an oppression from demons?). I too had past evils pop up after my Confession and then feared I wasn’t forgiven etc. I thought in pride that maybe other people weren’t making good confessions because of how often the impulses of the heart tend to this creature and that while I saw so many people freely not considering God in their thoughts, words and actions. I slowly, through prayer, the Eucharist, and a holy and gentle Priest began to be healed of it.

The Church does say that if you go to Confession because you fear hell, you are doing well and the Confession is valid and acceptable; this is called imperfect contrition. Perfect Contrition is that kind of Contrition that stems solely out of love of God… that you are sorry for your sins because God loves you infinitely. Take peace in knowing that if you go to Confession and confess your sins that are on your conscience without lying or withholding sin, you walk out of the Confessional clean.

Something that was a genuine help for me was knowing that as long as I made a Confession of everything I could think of that was on my heart and didn’t think of anything else when I was done telling the Priest everything on my heart (I was sort of blank after confessing) that is enough. Go to one Priest only who knows you and knows your difficulties as this will help him guide you much better and give you words of peace according you specifically since he knows you. I advise you to listen carefully to the Priest and the words of Absolution. Yes, if a grave sin comes up after your Confession that you didn’t think of before while in the Confessional, consider it forgiven and simply mention the issue to the Priest next time you go to Confession. Yet do not let it rob you of peace; it is forgiven since you did what you could with the Grace given you in the Confessional and you will obviously intend to confess it next time you go (which you should make it a routine or habit to go no more than once a week (I know what it feels like to want to go Confession every day even!)).

Pray that God heal you and trust that He will absolutely heal you because of His love for you.

Three conditions for a sin to be considered mortal: it must be of grave or serious nature, you must know or firmly believe with certainty that it is of grave nature PRIOR to committing the act, and finally full consent to it. If any of these 3 conditions are not present when you commit the sin, it is venial at worst. If you commit a grave sin, you absolutely know it, these are the sins that you must go to Confession for. Venial sins are good to confess but are not required in order to receive Holy Communion; venial sins do not bar you from Paradise in the event you die.

I hope this helps, truly I do.
 
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Great to see the number of posters stating clearly that ‘scrupulosity’ is indeed a form of Obsessive-Compulsive disorder. It’s not a religious problem; it’s a religious manifestation of a mental problem. Change religious and your obsessions will change. But you’ll still have them. Get treatment and in most cases you can have your beliefs without the scruples.
 
While it’s true scrupulosity can be a manifestation of or part of a mental health issue, that is not always the case. Sometimes it can be the reverse. Scrupulosity can come from a bad understanding of what the moral law actually is, just like laxity (a far worse and more prevalent problem in general). Scrupulosity imprisons the subject, tying him down in unnecessary fears of sin, which prevents him ultimately from pursuing the true good with freedom, thus preventing him from flourishing - and possibly stirring up real vices in him in the meantime (a lack of affability, pride, anger, etc.).

In this case, the OP is struggling with understanding the efficacy of confession - which is an intellectual problem. While it is true you must be sorry, the fact that you can honestly state that you want to be sorry and dislike that you don’t feel sorry or sorrier suffices for attrition at least, if not perfect contrition. So the sacrament is valid. Were there no purpose of amendment, or no hatred for your sins on account of their due punishment or (ideally) because they offend God, then there would indeed be a problem…

Scrupulosity, and disorders in the OCD family, seem to be an affectation of the cogitative faculty. The memory and imagination become imbalanced with respect to the faculty, and the intellect and will can’t bring it into line easily but only with real effort. That’s why a two-pronged approach can be best: things like CBT, which trains the intellect and will primarily to bring the cogitation into line (although the memory is also being affected), and then also medication or changes in diet, sleep, and exercise, which help the brain.
 
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