OCD & Christianity

As a graduate with a Counseling/Psych major, I tend to think of myself as having more knowledge that the average person when dealing with different issues. Someone will mutter something to me about PTSD or about cutters, and I nod my head knowingly.Even though I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to counsel people, I never lost the interest. I DVR Dr. Phil daily. Not due to his stunning therapy skills, but more so because I just love watching all of the different people and their issues. I enjoy identifying what Dr. Phil is doing with his people. 

I wouldn't consider myself a stellar counselor, but just knew that I had more knowledge than the average person. When a close friend to mine told me that she had OCD, I nodded my head knowingly. She began sharing with me what she has gone through and I realized that my huge head didn't hold a lot of facts about counseling at all. 

The main truth that I gleamed from her was how hard OCD interacts with Christianity. Jackie didn't struggle with cleaning her hands so many times or needing to repeat a phrase. Jackie struggled with blasphemous, involuntary thoughts. These thoughts wreaked havoc on her. Jackie believed that she had created the unforgivable sin. That she would be cut off from her Savior. 

Now, she has freedom. Between CBT and meds, she has found freedom. I am so incredibly proud of her. She has written a novel about this whole period in her life and maintains a blog. If you would like to check her out, you can go to http://lightsallaround.wordpress.com/ If you would want to read snippets of her novel, go to the novel tab.