Scrupulosity

26 thoughts on “Scrupulosity”

1. I note, BTW, that it is possible for a religious person to have OCD and not have it manifest in the form of scrupulosity.
   One can, for instance, check four times in the night to ensure you turned your car headlights off, even though your car would have gone ding, ding, ding if you hadn’t.

2. HEY… What do you have against PDF. I love PDF!

3. I suffer from both OCD and scrupulosity and found the book by Fr. Thomas Santa, Understanding Scrupulosity, and found it extremely helpful

4. I once went through a period of scrupulosity, which lasted until someone said to me: “Do you REALLY think that your sins are greater than God’s Mercy?” I cleverly replied: “Uh…no.” Now, whenever I’m tempted to scrupulosity, I say: “Okay, my sins ARE greater than God’s Mercy. See how dumb that sounds, Bill?” (Understand that I’m not trying to make light of scrupulosity. I know that some people struggle with a much deeper form of it than I do. I just offer this as one method of dealing with it, in hopes that it might help someone.)

5. I don’t have OCD, nor do I have any problem believing that God can forgive all my sins. But I have occasionally wondered if I am being scrupulous in certain ways. How do I know? I am embarrassed to just ask someone I know, and I also don’t want to reveal some very personal parts of my prayer life, etc.
   Is there a good (Catholic) definition of scrupulosity out there, with some examples? (and not just really obvious examples…)

6. I’d like to if I may, make the distinction that if one has scruples that does not mean one will get or even has OCD. While there is a greater likelihood that the symptoms of OCD may spill over into a form of scruples there isn’t a direct corilation of people with scruples getting OCD or people with OCD getting scruples, that I am aware of. Just thought I’d add that.

7. FYI I thought people may be interested to know that you can read quite a few pages of the beginning of the Fr. Santa book online from the link Jimmy gave.

8. Very timely. I’ve had an attack of scrupulosity myself this week, and I don’t think I’ve had such a thing before.
   Is spiritual direction a better medium for aiding the scrupulous than regular confession?

9. Pim, I don’t know if I can give a textbook definition of what scrupulosity is, but in a general sense, a scrupulous person has a somewhat disabled conscience that causes them to see mortal sin where there is only venial sin, and sometimes venial sin when there is no sin at all. The scrupulous person also suffers very often from doubt and fear, because they have such a limit on what constitutes mortal sin that it would seem to them that simple things could put their salvation in jeopardy. How do you know if you are scrupulous? It’s quite hard to tell right off the bat. A person is not scrupulous if they do not want to commit the smallest venial sin. Scrupulosity is more apparent when you encounter an individual who is emotionally and spiritually paralyzed out of an excessive and counter-productive fear of sin. This is no expert definition, of course. The scrupulous anonymous newsletter does a much better job of describing it.
   I started suffering from scrupulosity a little over a year ago. For a while, it was quite manageable, and I didn’t really see any connection with OCD. Then, in the summer, it got way worse, and I started doing things obsessively and compulsively (ie: washing my hands with hot water over and over). I’m no psychology expert, so I’ll stop here before I make some stupid generalization that I can in no way back up.
   For relief, I strongly recommend the book suggested, “Understanding Scrupulosity.” There are two makor reasons why: (1) The book is written in a “question and answer” format, taking a lot of frequently asked questions and giving answers. The scrupulous tend to be burdened with a fearful doubt, and are always asking “is this a sin? is that a sin? is this ok to do?” etc. (2) The book relies on the advice of saints. An extrmeley scrupulous person could potentially doubt the advice of every single person that they seek help from. At least in my experience, hearing the advice of saints (most notably St. Alphonsus Liguori and St. Ignatius Loyola) seems to confer instant credibility. If you are scrupulous and you are reading this, I hope that, someday, you feel better. It’s a very difficult phase.
   Anyone is also free to disagree with what I posted. Cheers

10. I am embarrassed to just ask someone I know, and I also don’t want to reveal some very personal parts of my prayer life, etc.
    “Embarrassed” — that would not point at scruplousity as such.
    It could be everything from pride, not wanting to reveal yourself as a mere human being like everyone else, to humility and an admirable disinclination to gossip.

11. Just one thing I’ll add: I suffer from a certain amount of scrupulosity, although I’m much better than I used to be. I often saw mortal sin where there was no sin at all.
    Now, it comes and goes, and I have a tendency towards obsessive compulsions, but I’ve greatly improved, partially by taking those Ten Commandments for the Scrupulous to heart.

12. Wow, thanks so much to the reader who sent you that link. I had found it some time ago and lost it, and just reading over the “10 Commandments…” brings so much consolation!

13. On the Catholic.com forums, someone who goes by the name “Lux_et_Veritas” had some great stuff worth reading, about
    one situation often mistaken for scrupulosity, and two good snips from newadvent.org here and here which pertained to a recent helpful discussion over there.

14. One book I’ve found helpful is:
    “The Doubting Disease: Help for Scrupulosity and Religious Compulsions” by Joseph W. Ciarrocchi

15. I agree with the Julia. OCD has particular dianostic critera that a person with scruples or scruplosity may not meet. Scruples does not simply = OCD. A person may not have scruples but have OCD and vice aversa. However Scruples can be very simular to OCD and at least the non-medical treatment can be the simular or the same for both. In any case they both have to do with anxiety and fear.

16. Scruples does not simply = OCD.
    I’m not altogether sure where people are getting the idea that they are. *I* certainly didn’t say that.
    I said that OCD causes (I probably should say “frequently causes”) *chronic* scrupulosity *in religious individuals.*
    That implies (a) there *is* such a thing as non-chronic scrupulosity that is unrelated to OCD, (b) that there *may be* chronic scrupulosity not caused by OCD, and (c) that that either OCD *or* chronic scrupulosity may occur unrelatedly in people who are not religious.
    A concern I have about SA is that they seem to too closely identify OCD with scruples, and that may be where this is coming from, but I’d appreciate it if folks take note of the qualifiers above.

17. Thanks for the responses.
    🙂

18. But what if you aren’t sure that the assurances are -right-? “The heart is deceptive above all things, who can know it?”

19. What is the opposite of scrupulosity?
    Whatever it is, I think is is a more common condition.

20. I have suffered from scrupulosity as a part of OCD, also including hoarding as a symptom, for over thirty years. I can tell you that, at the root of the problem is a fear, no a terror, of hell, and a lack of trust in God’s love. For me, this may stem from an abusive and punishing father who, although he loved me fiercely could not control his temper. For me, the picture of a God who may love me but whom I cannot trust NOT to harm me in His wrath or in His thirst for Justice is a very real and frightening image. I wonder how many other people with scrupulosity have this image of God. What then can we do to change this image when it is imprinted on our earliest memories? How can we relive our childhood and fix this horrible image?

21. here’s a reasuring thought!!!
    Scruples are merely God’s tender punishment for believing in them!
    be free!

22. I think the opposite of scrupulosity would be a person with NO conscience whatsoever (ie a socio-path?)

23. Can you be so worn out from scrupulosity you are completely demoralized? You don’t sleep well. Your boss gives you job burn-out at a place where you loved to work beforehand, so you must look for another job. You find you’ve been driving too fast and cussing when you drop something and you don’t remember when that started. You try to beat scrupulosity, but feel you became to lax and get anxious about it, leading to sleep deprivation and hoarding of websites (as bookmarks) and books in the process of doing personal research (likely to see if you are being lax or have a disorder–or breakdown). You have massive feelings of guilt about doing EFL in a foreign land while the worst winter of snow hits your town and your dad could use your help. You feel useless as you realize you really do need teaching experience. You feel yo are no use to God, much less anyone else, but you’re certainly not going to go suicidal from the weight of guilt, so you pretty much fall apart (it doesn’t help your pity party makes you go irresponsible as it goes into late hours. If you feel you can do something really well, you can’t express yourself well and so you don’t get a favorable hearing. Yes, you don’t want to commit venial sin, but can’t scrupulosity be trying to survive this life with hope you’ll die without mortal sin, but feeling that chance is slim? I feel I’ll be happy enough not going to Hell. I don’t know if a religious community would save me or put more responsibilities on me that I’m not sure how to understand, but it would keep me safe from the world. Now, whether the community has become worldly or is going that way and not having enough theological knowledge to discern that makes finding one another concern.
    Yahoo does have a scrupulosity OCD group, but I don’t know if it’s Catholic-friendly. If only these scrupulosity books or books helpful with it (like Fr. Jone’s “Moral Theology” would be put online for free, so I don’t have to use my credit card, which uses the abortion funding Chase Bank, to pay using the abortion funding Paypal (both discovered as such by Life Decisions International) to pay for those books.

24. Can you be so worn out from scrupulosity you are completely demoralized? You don’t sleep well. Your boss gives you job burn-out at a place where you loved to work beforehand, so you must look for another job. You find you’ve been driving too fast and cussing when you drop something and you don’t remember when that started. You try to beat scrupulosity, but feel you became to lax and get anxious about it, leading to sleep deprivation and hoarding of websites (as bookmarks) and books in the process of doing personal research (likely to see if you are being lax or have a disorder–or breakdown). You have massive feelings of guilt about doing EFL in a foreign land while the worst winter of snow hits your town and your dad could use your help. You feel useless as you realize you really do need teaching experience. You feel yo are no use to God, much less anyone else, but you’re certainly not going to go suicidal from the weight of guilt, so you pretty much fall apart (it doesn’t help your pity party makes you go irresponsible as it goes into late hours. If you feel you can do something really well, you can’t express yourself well and so you don’t get a favorable hearing. Yes, you don’t want to commit venial sin, but can’t scrupulosity be trying to survive this life with hope you’ll die without mortal sin, but feeling that chance is slim? I feel I’ll be happy enough not going to Hell. I don’t know if a religious community would save me or put more responsibilities on me that I’m not sure how to understand, but it would keep me safe from the world. Now, whether the community has become worldly or is going that way and not having enough theological knowledge to discern that makes finding one another concern.
    Yahoo does have a scrupulosity OCD group, but I don’t know if it’s Catholic-friendly. If only these scrupulosity books or books helpful with it (like Fr. Jone’s “Moral Theology” would be put online for free, so I don’t have to use my credit card, which uses the abortion funding Chase Bank, to pay using the abortion funding Paypal (both discovered as such by Life Decisions International) to pay for those books.

25. I developed scrupulosity and OCD including hoarding as the result of an injury to the left temperal lobe also causing epilepsy. I have lately been reading about a disorder or syndrome called Waxman-Geschwind’s or just Geschwind’s and it describes a form of personality disorder resulting from such an injury including hyperreligiosity and a generally negative view on life. Just in case anyone is interested or has more info to share on this subject, I thought I should mention it. A good book to read on this condition is Seized by Eve LaPlante. I’m also curious to know if others who suffer from scrupulosity might also suffer from temporal lobe epilepsy and/or have had a head injury. Love, Siddigfan.

26. Geschwind’s Syndrome is not neccesarily caused by head injury. It does seem to be linked to abnormalities of the temporal lobes, but it may or may not be epileptic Geschwind’s. The most common traits are:
    1. Overinclusiveness; Where one tries to “identify” with everthing everyone else is going through
    2. Hyperreligiousness or Hyperspirituality; extremes of this condition can be seen in those who think their morals/ethics are better than everyone else, but most just spend alot of time thinking about religion and philosphy. I can think of way worse vices than this.
    3. Overemotionality; this is linked to the previous symptom but also includes violent outbursts. This range of emotions can sometimes be mistaken for bipolar (of varying degrees)
    4. Hypergrahpia; Excessive writing, everything from gibberish writings to some world renowned authors.
    5. Abnormal Libido; I’m not trying to offend any one on this website. That really is the fifth personality trait of people with Geschwind’s Sydrome.
    Obviously, the 2nd and 3rd traits would explain the neuroscience of people who have and are able to stick to their scruples. But that’s just biology. I haven’t found any books dedicated to Geschwind’s Sydrome exclusively (yet), but “The Midnight Disease” by Alice Flaherty makes good mention of it in Chapter 1. Obviously, I’m hypergraphic.

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