Mindset | Blog

Allie seemed to enjoy her friends and extracurricular activities. She was a busy teenager but preferred to spend more time engaging in religious behaviors (e.g., praying, singing religious songs, and reading scriptures) than her friends. Allie’s parents had noticed her altruist behavior and dedication and often praised her for it. Allie’s behaviors were driven by her guilt, shame, and uncertainty. The urge to serve others did not seem to satisfy her doubts. Allie and her parents had not realized that her excessive devotion to follow her moral and religious beliefs were actually an indication she was struggling with scrupulosity OCD. “Do I deserve God’s blessings? Am I good enough? Didn’t Jesus say to be as perfect as he is? These

Julia loved her children more than anything else, but the intrusive thoughts about possibly harming them were relentless. She felt a great deal of shame. She didn’t dare share her thoughts with anyone for fear of being judged, or worst yet, losing her children. She had heard horrifying stories about mothers who lost their children because of abuse. “Will I be one of those moms? Am I going to harm my children?” The more she tried to get rid of those tormenting images and thoughts, the longer they seemed to stay. If you struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder, your OCD may be targeting what and who matters most to you in your life. That’s what the OCD mind does, and it is very painful. When those thoughts show up, you probab

Do we need a holiday about love to be reminded to love others? Probably not. How about a reminder to be kind and loving to ourselves? When things go wrong and we make mistakes, our natural reaction may be to beat ourselves up, but this response doesn’t provide the joy we all yearn for in our lives. Some people have a list of reasons for not loving themselves. The belief that “even a crumb of love” will lead them to become selfish and uncaring human beings might be included on that list. This assumption may be based on their mind’s unhelpful advice and negative experiences. Though this approach is ineffective, they become stuck with these views. According to research, in order to experience better mental, physical and emotional we

Last October, Madeline Johnson, a video producer for BBC Reel, reached out and asked if she could interview me about Scrupulosity OCD. There isn’t enough awareness about this type of OCD, so I was glad to be a small part of this excellent BBC Reel presentation: Scrupulosity: The obsessive fear of not being good enough. Many individuals throughout the world often ask themselves in confusion, “Why are my faith and moral values causing me so much pain and suffering?” Eventually, through friends, relatives, or internet searches, they find out that their anxiety related to their faith and moral values actually has a name: scrupulosity obsessive-compulsive disorder. They feel great relief that there is actually a name for their anx

There is clearly opposition in all things. The pain you experience with your current challenges wouldn’t be there if you didn’t care. What can you do when what you are doing is not working? You can learn how to respond to your unpleasant thoughts, feelings, and sensations. You can find the joy and peace you used to enjoy despite your emotional and mental pain. You know, it is possible!

Faith may be a value that matters most to you. Yet, you may feel that you are not living up to it. You may believe that you are not deserving of God’s love. You may also think that your religion is too rigid, and may want to abandon it to find respite from uncertainty, anxiety, guilt, shame and other unpleasant emotions. No matter how much you try to change how you feel and think, you may have noticed that you keep getting stuck with those emotions and thoughts. Is your faith causing you to suffer? On one side, you value faith; on the other side, it may be causing you emotional and mental pain. Don’t despair. It is how you view your struggles that can make all the difference!

When things don’t go as expected, we can learn to respond in a flexible way. There are some days though, when we simply get stuck with our thoughts and feelings and react rigidly. That is just how it goes, even when we “know better.” For example, a few weeks ago, I had scheduled an appointment to have a standard medical exam that didn’t take place because “it got cancelled.” When the receptionist told me it was cancelled, I said, “I didn’t cancel it. If I had, I wouldn’t be here!” She didn’t seem empathetic. I asked her to check who may have cancelled it, and to see if I could still have the test. She called the lab and they said I could come back in two hours. After looking in the computer, she discovered their “system” had auto

We are all traveling on the same train of humanity and are very familiar with pain. However, it may be our dream to someday be free of a particular challenge. “Someday I’ll be free of this thing,” we may say. Yes, we can all hope this will be the case. However, when we begin to hyper-focus on getting rid of something that afflicts us and that we can’t control, have you noticed what happens? What does it feel like when you’ve done everything you possible can do and yet, the pain persists? It is frustrating and suffering is magnified because we may be insistent that this challenge has to go so we can move on with our lives. The solution? Do not give up and lose hope. It has been said that when hardships come our way, grit, purpose

Not long ago, I decided to adopt a puppy and excitedly told my sister about it. She said, “Annabella, you are not a dog person. You are too busy. You really shouldn’t.” I responded, “Says who? Your mind? I can choose to be a dog person if I want to.” Her obvious disapproval most likely was related to her concerns about my future pup. I shared with my sister, my reason –the higher value that motivated me to become a dog mom. She understood, but continued to discourage me to do so. I said, “I am not going to let that label get in the way of how I choose to live my life.” She then agreed to coach me through the training months as I began to fall in love with my puppy. Are you stuck with a label? As you grew up and experienced mul

I recently attended the online Faith and Mental Health Conference organized by the International OCD Foundation. Valerie Andrews, one of the speakers, shared her story. She acknowledged that the mental illness stigma in our society is decreasing little by little, thankfully. That being said, we still have further to go in some areas of our society. For example, misconceptions still exist among many faithful individuals who mean well, but misconstrue their faith’s teachings. Leaders, relatives, and friends of individuals afflicted with a mental illness may believe the person just needs to abandon sin, pray harder, be better, etc. and their suffering will decrease or be gone. It’s great to be devoted to one’s faith and religion, it