If you struggle with OCD, I’d highly recommend Psych Central’s quick explanation on the “black-and-white” thinking that’s common in people with OCD.
It goes hand-in-hand with our struggle to accept uncertainty and tendency to catastrophize and then, essentially, give up, after we’ve drawn dreadful conclusions about ourselves.
Psych Central gives the example of someone with OCD who feels guilty about getting sick and passing it onto their family.
That person says: “I risked getting my family sick, so I’m a terrible person.”
You can see how that thought can send someone into a spiral.
For Christians, you can see how this can get even worse.
If I’m a terrible person, then that means I’m not demonstrating fruit of the Spirit, which means – uh oh – Christ might not have redeemed me.
You think your salvation might have been just a false flash in the pan, and since you’re a “terrible person” and everyone at church says you have to “show fruit” to be a Christian, you’re doomed.
The 18th century poet William Cowper is the most famous example of a Christian with OCD who applied that thinking to his Christianity.
He extolled the virtues, the salvation of Christ, but he got so down on himself that he told his close friends that Christ had died for everyone but himself. That he was unredeemable.
That is catastrophic thinking stemming from a “black-and-white” view of his battle with sin and what that meant for his Christianity.
In fact, his despair was so great that he tried committing suicide at least three times.
Now I’m not saying everyone’s battle with OCD will lead them to that.
But when you come to the conclusion that you can’t possibly be a Christian, you can’t possibly be loved by God because you sinned again — that’s black-and-white thinking and catastrophic conclusions that destroy your spiritual peace.
What makes all this worse?
There are loads of churches out there, urging you to continually “examine yourselves,” prompted by that terribly wearisome urge by Paul in 2 Corinthians.
Those of us with OCD are constantly examining ourselves, and if indeed, we’re still sinners (as Paul recognizes, we are and always will be), we will almost always use that as an example to condemn ourselves, worry that Christ’s death wasn’t enough, and disappear into our worst fears about ourselves and death and all that.
There are two things we have to do:
First, we have to recognize that the root of our problem isn’t our sin, it’s our medical disease of OCD.
Do you have OCD about other things in life?
Ask yourself that and then draw the natural conclusion that your OCD will probably extend to your spiritual life.
My hunch is that when you get professional help for your OCD, you’ll find that you’re not obsessing about work or your spiritual salvation.
In other words, you’ve stopped black-and-white thinking about yourself in every arena of your life.
Treat the root of the problem. That comes first.
Second, remember. Everybody sins. And the ones who pretend they don’t are just pretending.
Mr. and Mrs. Good Church live a life that’s more about staying in the church’s good graces than proclaiming that God’s good graces are enough for anyone and everyone.
You know the perfect Christian family? The ones with ten kids and the happy Instagram photos?
They don’t exist except in photos.
We’re all sinners, but for all of us and all our sin, there’s Jesus.
He doesn’t want you to obsess over your sin, he wants you to experience his easy yoke, and be the happy recipient of his Good News.
So once again, if you see “black-and-white thinking” infecting your Christian life (or any sphere), look first and foremost for professional help for OCD.
And for that, I include this, as always…
Find a psychiatrist here.
Find a therapist here.
[Photo: Pexels, free stock photography].
