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Navigating Religious OCD
Religion has long been a means of supporting connection to God.
But what of times when a religious experience, previously hoped to bring connection and peace, becomes a source of serious anxiety and deep fear?
This podcast creates space to discuss the journey of navigating religious OCD by sharing experiences, resources, and practical tools.
Navigating Religious OCD
What real OCD can look like: Part 1
In this podcast episode, Sariah explains many different types of OCD including checking OCD, contamination OCD, hoarding OCD, and just right or perfectionism OCD. She shares examples for how some of these have shown up in her experience with OCD. She also shares an experience with Religious OCD that happened this past week after giving a talk in church.
OCD can be so debilitating! At the end of the episode, Sariah discusses a super common misconception that she believed & shares how this was a big barrier in recognizing her experience with OCD as OCD.
YouTube “What real OCD can look like” Video: https://youtu.be/vDPj6jMSWew
Website: Navigating Religious OCD https://www.navigatingreligiousocd.com/
Email: navigatingreligiousocd@gmail.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/navigatingreligiousocd/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/navigatingreligiousocd
Contents of this episode:
00:00- Intro
00:34- Episode Overview
00:44- Quick Review
01:15- The Brain: Protecting from ANY perceived threat
01:33- A need for safety in every aspect
02:47- OCD about my talk in church? My experience this past week
06:41- What my therapist helped me see
07:15- The difference between subtypes of OCD is…
07:50- Resource to find an OCD specialized therapist in your area
08:34- OCD affects MANY areas of someone’s life
09:02- OCD Subtypes article
09:10- What is Checking OCD?
10:16- What is Contamination OCD?
11:15- From the outside looking in vs. from inside looking out…
11:42- What is Hoarding OCD?
12:44- What is “Just Right” (Perfectionism) OCD?
13:09- How Just Right OCD has shown up for me since starting the podcast
14:02- How Just Right OCD showed up for me in college
15:09- How Just Right OCD has showed up for me at work
15:33- OCD can be so debilitating
15:40- I believed this super common misconception
16:50- Conclusion
Resources:
Johnson, J. C. (2018). Silent souls weeping: Depression- sharing stories, finding hope. Deseret Book.
Therapy in a Nutshell. https://therapyinanutshell.com/
McGrath, P. (2025, May 22). A quick guide to some common OCD subtypes. NOCD / Treat My OCD. https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/a-quick-guide-to-some-common-ocd-subtypes
Music: Vlad Gluschenko — Waiting for this Moment
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en