I don't know your guys thoughts on this...as it seems to be more used in Catholicism but this is still a problem for me regardless of "denomination"
I'm going to post something I wrote at a different forum because I'm not getting the kinda help or advice about it right now.
so what kind of advice do you guys have?
This form of over-concern and over-responsibility leads to excessive anxiety and guilt. It has been referred to by some as having an excessively tender conscience. There are historical references to scrupulosity among monastic priests as they struggled to please God.
Scrupulosity can include:
* excessive prayer,
* worry that one might say or do something blasphemous,
* fear of having sinned (forgotten the sin) and not having repented of it,
* fear of having committed “the unpardonable sin”,
* difficulties with doing confession or rituals “correctly”,
* over-analysis of what “moral behavior” entails, and
* intrusive thoughts that the person considers blasphemous or sinful in nature and lead to tremendous uncertainty, anxiety, guilt, disgust, or shame.
Scrupulosity is obsessive concern with one's personal sins, including "sinful" acts or thoughts usually considered minor or trivial within their religious tradition. The term is derived from the Latin scrupulus, a sharp stone, implying a stabbing pain on the conscience.
In modern times, scrupulosity is often considered to be a religious expression of obsessive-compulsive disorder, or the unrelated obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. The scrupulous person lacks a balanced religious outlook, veering to the extreme. Often the person has a morbid feeling that they are rejected by God and doomed to damnation despite rigid adherence to rituals or rules of conduct. The over-scrupulous person may refuse to acknowledge the verdict of otherwise accepted religious authorities that he or she is being excessively concerned with moot religious points.
I'm going to post something I wrote at a different forum because I'm not getting the kinda help or advice about it right now.
me said:I myself suffer from this. I have suffered for most my life. Heck as an example today I was cleaning my bedroom. I found a pencil and couldn't get myself to throw it away because I thought for some reason God was going to pour out all his judgment on me for it. It was a pain cleaning the room today....I thought with most everything I was doing that I was doing something sinful and was going to get terribly punished for it. I honestly try to ignore it....but I cant. Every time I say to myself something like "I will" I fear that I had just made a vow to God somehow....so I spend a good while chanting "I NEVER made a vow, and God knows I NEVER made a vow" I say that...sometimes for up to a minute then I cant feel "secure" without finishing it up with "God knows I never have, and God knows I never will" I feel like God is going to strike me down because I didn't hold up my end to some "vow" that never took place. Heh...I'm frightened of my own thoughts and the kind of judgment they will cause God to bring down on me. There is soooo much more...but I just can't put em all down.
so what kind of advice do you guys have?