What if I offended God? What if I am immoral? What if I'm practicing my faith imperfectly?
For some, these are not questions of devotion, but symptoms of OCD sending you into an endless loop of "what ifs". If you have spent countless hours battling intrusive thoughts, then performing compulsions (repetitive prayer, ritual washing, confession, rumination, reassurance seeking, and more) to ease your fears, you might be struggling with scrupulosity.
Scrupulosity is a presentation of OCD that latches onto religious and moral values. Because OCD targets what matters most, faith and morality make excellent targets. These behaviors may look like genuine religious or moral practices, but beneath the surface, they are driven by a desire for certainty and relief from distress rather than authentic connection with the Divine or the world.
The Endless What Ifs is a bridge between psychology and spirituality, bringing hope for a way out of those endless spirals. This book addresses scrupulosity and moral OCD through an evidence-based lens while embracing the rich diversity of global religious and spiritual practices that OCD can distort.
Written by an interfaith chaplain who hid her own struggle with OCD, this book weaves together vignettes from her own journey and from individuals across traditions, capturing both the struggle and the beauty of uncovering faith in uncertainty (with a few ice cream metaphors along the way).
This book is for individuals with OCD and the clinicians, clergy, and family members supporting them. It offers hope for living faithfully without certainty while navigating all of the what-ifs in between.