Link between OCD and fundamentalism?

[Clivedurdle]

Another way to look at this area?

from Walkaway (http://www.aimoo.com/forum/postview.cfm?id=319472&CategoryID=28325&startcat=1&ThreadID=60465)

I was wondering whether there is a correllation between Obsessive Compulsive Disorder & other psychological disorders and Fundamentalism. I had never had any pyschological problems until I was born-again. Within months, I had to be placed in a mental hospital for 5 days and then go to therapy for 2 months after. I no longer am in therapy but I still rely on Paxil to calm me and help.

When I was in the hospital, a professional pychiatrist diagnosed me as showing signs of OCD, schizophrenia, and bi-polar disorder along with other psychotic symptoms. None of this had ever happened until I professed faith in Christ.

[Jedi Mind Trick]

I was a fundy and I have OCD. I take Zoloft, but I was on Paxil for a while. I'm much better now. I used to obsess over the hell issue so much that I could a hardly function in my life as a father, husband, and employee.

I had obsessions as a child, my mom used to call me her "thinker" and at times a "worry wart." It was after I became a believer at 17 that my OCD really began to show itself, though. There's nothing like having totally imaginary, unverifiable and contradictory concepts of a religious nature to feed OCD.

I have encountered other x-christians who have OCD, so I think it is common.

[Clivedurdle]

Is there another, unrecognised way to become "mentally ill"?

Can we damage our own brains by carrying out certain activities? Are there features of religious behaviours and belief sysyems that are actually damaging?

Physical self harm is well recognised - mental self harm though? Is the current emphases on drug therapies missing the point, because if we can damage ourselves with our own thoughts, solutions are around replacing those thoughts or talking therapies!

[hagiograph]

I was not raised to be a fundy, nor did I ever really become fundamentalist, I was raised in standard Midwestern methodism, so I was pretty much middle of the road, but my OCD really helped me obsess on concepts such as hell and the unforgivable sin and blasphemy. It was a constant battle in my brain about thinking the "right" thoughts.

I tell my religious friends that while they may be "social drinkers" at the fountain of faith, I was a binge drinker and could not afford to go on that way.

OCD+religion really is the worst of all possible combinations, imho.

But the other side of the aisle will say "lookit Martin Luther, a prime case of what the Catholic church called 'scrupulosity'! He parlayed his obsessive religious thoughts into a new path to God!"

Fine. Bully for him. Maybe he just found a new way to "get through the doorway with a different set of hand motions".

-h

[Berthold]

But the other side of the aisle will say "lookit Martin Luther, a prime case of what the Catholic church called 'scrupulosity'! He parlayed his obsessive religious thoughts into a new path to God!"

Maybe I'm not quite sure of the full meaning of "scrupulosity". Luther, besides the many other things he did, also promoted witchhunting and antisemitism.

[hagiograph]

The Catholic Church was one of the earliest groups to recognize a disability that is now known as OCD. Scrupulosity was the tendency to obsess over religious topics to the point of being unable to function. It is actually one of the few examples where the Catholic Church did something right.

Martin Luther was clearly obsessive-compulsive in his religiosity. The Catholic Church had met other people like that in its ranks and in its adherents, they attempted to make these obsessives feel better by taking a moderation-type stance on the issue. They clearly recognized that obsessive-compulsive actions were not a valid form of worship, but hid an underlying disturbance in the person's thought process. They called it "scrupulosity".

Marty et al just introduced a new way to worship God, rather than realizing that all religion is just a moderate form of "magical thinking".

-h

[David B]

There seems to be a high correlation between autism and OCD.

David B (just thought he's throw that into the mix)

[Clivedurdle]

I wasn't sure whether to expand the autism thread or start a new one, but a high correlation between autism and ocd seems to contradict a correlation between autism and atheism if religion might cause ocd.

What has happened to religious approaches to madness? - "scrupulosity" - I'd never heard of it - does sound like a useful concept, histories of psychiatry do not seem to look at these ways of thinking. Monasteries and convents may have been very useful institutions for managing the mad and allowing them to live reasonable lives.

This (http://www.diligio.com/dark_ages.htm) although bitty and in note form, is fascinating. There is a comment in there about the muslim use of cannabis to treat depression for example.

Bromberg notes:

‘The monastic tradition of treatment through loving care and gentleness was particularly applicable to mental cases. The early hospitals conducted by The Sisters of the Society of Hospitalers did not attempt any physical treatment, principally because of the injunctions by the Holy See against monks’ engaging in healing by worldly means. These "sick houses" provided good food, rest, and spiritual calm for their patients in an atmosphere of humility and service.’

Does this reflect the modern arguments between the "doers" and "talkers" in psychiatry? Are both needed together?

[Corey Hammer]

Another way to look at this area?

from Walkaway (http://www.aimoo.com/forum/postview.cfm?id=319472&CategoryID=28325&startcat=1&ThreadID=60465)

Interesting question: I would think that it might have more to do with possessing an authoritarian worldview (right-wing authoritarianism) and behavioral rigidity.

[Clivedurdle]

Interesting question: I would think that it might have more to do with possessing an authoritarian worldview (right-wing authoritarianism) and behavioral rigidity.

I suppose this is really a variation on the which came first question - the chicken or the egg.

OCD may be there in people in a latent form and then religion brings it out, or religion may be the cause of ocd.

Autism feels different, it seems to be recognised much earlier. It seems to lead to questionning attitudes to the world, I don't like this, I'll do it my way, i'll be an atheist, whereas OCD seems a very trapped response to the world, very repetitive, anxious. Are there examples of idiot savants with OCD?