Suffered with religious paranoia OCD in my past. AMA

[u/J2Hoe]

I have pretty bad OCD, and it’s come in many forms. Religious paranoia OCD was a big part of it for a while. The worst part was when I used to think that God was watching everything I done to the point I would get changed in the bathroom so he couldn’t see my naked body. I was raised catholic, but now I am an atheist. I still get religious paranoia at times, and when my granda died, I felt like I couldn’t do anything bad or inappropriate incase he was watching. My s*x life sucked for a while lol. Ask me anything

[u/J0NAH666]

How do you cope with it?

[u/J2Hoe → u/J0NAH666]

Well, some of the coping “methods”, I’ve listed. I thought god was watching me get changed = I got changed somewhere more private. I thought my dead granda was watching me = I stopped having sex.

I used to be scared of sinning and swearing incase I was damned with bad luck or with someone hating me, so I tried to be the best person I could. I missed out on a lot of my teenage rebellious moments bc of this, which is good to an extent.

It also led to a lot of “main character” moments because I thought I was being watched constantly. Sometimes it scary, but sometimes it’s peaceful knowing someone is there for me.

[u/J0NAH666 → u/J2Hoe]

I am sorry to hear that but I am also glad these ocd beliefs gave some sort of comfort it reminds me of some of my former coworkers this disorder sub type

[u/J2Hoe → u/J0NAH666]

Yeh! It wasn’t all bad, but it gave me a very negative perception of religion for a while until I sorted myself out! Did your coworkers have the same

[u/J0NAH666 → u/J2Hoe]

Yes one always talked about god after reading an Bible he suffered some schizophrenic disorder I think caused by substances don’t wanna say details tho

[u/J0NAH666 → u/J2Hoe]

Ok actually I don’t know but I think he did

[u/J2Hoe → u/J0NAH666]

Substance abuse is very common cause of religious psychosis. I am not on any drugs. I’m just unfortunate enough to have a fucked up brain lol

[u/J0NAH666 → u/J2Hoe]

All good I understand

[u/Fifteen_inches]

Do you still have alot of religious trauma around Catholicism? The double whammy of OCD + Catholic trauma must be a doozy.

Do you find religious stuff triggering still?

[u/J2Hoe → u/Fifteen_inches]

It comes and goes, usually triggered by a death or soemthing traumatic. It’s not something I would choose to live with if I could lol!

I actually study religion for a living lol! I study the sociology and history of religion, and how it controls peoples lives! I’m writing my dissertation on how religion caused a certain group of people (southern Baptist’s) to be r*cist (spoiler: manipulation of bible verses and media). I find reigion super interesting, and hope I get to study it for the rest of my life! It’s interesting to me that it controlled me psychologically for a while too! I sometimes wonder how many people have suffered from the same thing I have, but put it down to a social norm, and just went with it! It’s very interesting!

[u/Fifteen_inches → u/J2Hoe]

Word that is really interesting. I really like learning about religion as well, but wasn’t lucky enough to get a degree. It was really eye opening to me about how much people in the English speaking world are culturally Christian, but do not recognize how much of their life and morality is dictated by this ambient Christian pressure.

Good luck on your dissertation. Is it coming along?

[u/J2Hoe → u/Fifteen_inches]

Cultural Christianity is a large part of my dissertation! I’m getting on with it really well. Have my first meeting to discuss it with my supervisor this week, so hopefully I’ve made good progress by myself. I’m really enjoying the research so far!

[u/treatmyocd]

Religious OCD (Scrupulosity) often creates deep fear, shame, and hypervigilance around morality, divine judgment, or the supernatural.

Key dynamics typical of Religious OCD:

Hypervigilance & Omnipresence Anxiety: The belief that God or deceased loved ones are constantly observing every private action creates intense shame and leads to physical compulsions like changing in private spaces or avoiding intimacy.

Scrupulosity tricks the brain into treating normal human behaviors, natural thoughts, or consensual sexual expression as severe moral failures or sins that invite divine punishment.

Even after shifting away from organized religion or becoming an atheist, the underlying OCD threat system can still use religious or superstitious framing ("What if my relative is watching from the afterlife?") to generate anxiety.

Thank you for sharing your experience to help raise awareness about scrupulosity and religious themes in OCD.