Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Religion

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Obsessive Disorder and Religion

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) affects up to 2.1% of adults and features pervasive and intrusive thoughts that lead to repetitive uncontrollable behaviors aimed to reduce anxiety (APA, 2000). Further, these thoughts and behaviors impede and disrupt daily living and cause marked distress in the lives of the sufferer. The recurrent thoughts often center on fear of contamination, harming self or others, and illness (Himle, Chatters, Taylor, and Nguyen, 2011). Those who experience the compulsive behaviors associated with OCD report feeling as though they cannot stop or control the urge to perform the compulsive behavior and that the urge is alien or from outside conscious control. Behaviors often involve washing the hands or body, repeatedly checking, and mental acts such as counting and repeated prayers. (Himle, Chatters, Taylor, and Nguyen, 2011) According to Obsessive-Compulsive Working Group (1997, 2001, as cited by Abramowitz, Deacon, Woods, and Tolin, 2004) OCD can be classified into six domains. The domains include inflated responsibility, beliefs about the importance of thoughts, importance of controlling thoughts, overestimation of threats, intolerance of uncertainty, and perfectionism. Inflated responsibility involve excessive feelings of responsibility for actions seen as harmful or failing to take action to prevent harm, whereas the domain of importance of thought involved attributing excessive authority or power to unwanted thoughts and beliefs. Similarly, the importance of controlling thoughts entailed the belief that one should be in control of every thought at all times. The unrealistic belief that unlikely events will always occur and bring with them extreme consequences characte...

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...rurinsky, S., Rosmarin, D. H., & Pargament, K. I. (2009). Community attitudes towards culture-influenced mental illness: Scrupulosity vs. nonreligious OCD among Orthodox Jews. Journal of Community Psychology, 37(8), 949–958. doi:10.1002/jcop.20341

Rosmarin, D. H., Pirutinsky, S., & Siev, J. (2010). Recognition of scrupulosity and non-religious OCD by Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 29(8), 930–944. doi:10.1521/jscp.2010.29.8.930

Siev, J., Baer, L., & Minichiello, W. E. (2011). Obsessive‐compulsive disorder with predominantly scrupulous symptoms: Clinical and religious characteristics. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 67(12), 1188–1196. doi:10.1002/jclp.20843

Yossifova, M., & Loewenthal, K. M. (1999). Religion and the judgment of obsessionality. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 2(2), 145–151. doi:10.1080/13674679908406343

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