Scrupulosity

Scrupulosity is a distortion in the God-given voice of conscience in the direction of being abnormally sensitive to one's own faults and sins. It is a difficult condition to deal with and often very painful to the one suffering from it. The person with a scrupulous conscience will tend to think there are sins where there are none, and that small sins are grave ones. There will be difficulty in believing that sins have been forgiven and a tendency to repeatedly go back over old sins. A legalistic attitude often emerges that is obsessed by proper rule-keeping, tending to see the letter rather than the spirit of the law of Christ. The practice of confession can become almost obsessive, leading the scrupulous person to want to go to confession constantly.

The unfortunate state of the scrupulous person is one of always feeling guilty and disapproved of by God. This can cause deep discouragement, sometimes even leading to despairing of the promise of grace and salvation.

Some causes of scrupulosity:

There are three broad causes of a scrupulous conscience. It is important in helping the person to understand which of these is the root cause. They are: (1) fear; (2) pride; (3) psychological disorder.

1. Fear

Most young people in our time who deal with scrupulosity are under the influence of some kind of fear or insecurity. They have a poor opinion of themselves, they do not easily think themselves worthy of another's love, and they have a hard time believing that they do not need to earn the love of God by their good qualities. Their anxiety leads to a lack of faith in the love and mercy of God.

This can sometimes be the result of bad experiences with important people in their lives: parents or mentors who have been the "impossible to please" type, who have been finding fault with them since they were young. The same problem will usually arise in relationships with other people: they will have a hard time trusting others, constantly apologizing, being over-anxious to please.

The medicine for fearfulness is engendering courage and confidence. A person in this state needs to see that their response to God (and maybe to others) is not accurate, and that they have a vulnerability in this area that they need to be aware of and to keep at bay.

It helps to:

• Meditate daily on the reality of God's love, such that it becomes a mental habit. Find passages in the Scriptures that speak of God's love and forgiveness, and memorize them or read over them regularly. Formulate a short prayer, a phrase or a sentence, that expresses confidence in God's love, such as "Jesus I trust in you," and repeat it often, especially in times of temptation to scrupulosity.
• Give oneself the benefit of the doubt in all uncertain questions. If it is not clear that there has been a sin, assume that there has not been. If there is a question as to whether a sin is grave or light, assume it is light.
• Attempt to master and better control patterns of thinking that dwell on mistakes and sins, and try to turn the mind away from them.
• Refuse to feel guilty for behavior that does not involve any moral fault (for example: not pleasing another person, or committing a social gaffe, or making an honest mistake about something).
• Do not go to confession too often. Develop a pattern and stick to it, unless there has been a (very) clear mortal sin.
• Refuse to wallow in self-pity, and deal with self-pitying thoughts as a temptation.
• Develop a sense of humor around the whole area, and learn to laugh at self and at the devil when the scrupulous temptation shows up. A good laugh can often chase the scrupulous demon away. The enemy wants the scrupulous person to be very serious all the time. "The devil, that proud spirit, cannot endure to be mocked" (St. Thomas More).

2. Pride

A rarer but more serious source of the scrupulous conscience in the young is spiritual pride. The prideful person is angered by personal faults or sins because they fall so short of perfection. For such people the temptation is to be more troubled by not pleasing themselves (and measuring up to their own standard of behavior) than by not pleasing God. They are tempted to rebel against the fact of original sin, and to refuse to accept peacefully the reality of their fallenness. This leads them to be constantly disappointed in themselves, and they find it hard to believe that a perfect God could put up with such imperfection.

Signs of this kind of scrupulous pride include the following:

• A tendency to a moralistic attitude of the faith and an overconcern for following rules, resulting in a legalistic framework for relationship with God. Sometimes there is an attempt to "make deals" with God.
• A ritualized rather than relational approach to God, Mary, and the saints.
• A tendency to moral perfectionism, and a consistent surprise that patterns of personal sin are not more easily overcome.
• Inability to forgive oneself for past sins.
• Anger at others who live by sinful ways, rather than sadness and compassion for their plight and desire to see them cured.
• A dominant grief at one's fallen condition, rather than gratitude for the hope of salvation.
• Obstinacy in preferring one's own opinion concerning one's moral state to that of a confessor or spiritual advisor.

The main cure for this kind of scrupulosity is obedience to a spiritual authority whom one can trust, whether a priest or some other spiritual director. Obedience gets at the root problem, and it provides the only effective medicine for overcoming the nagging scruples.

A spiritual director's usual role is to assist a person in following the voice of conscience and the movements of prayer. Scrupulosity complicates this, as the conscience itself is distorted or wounded. Someone afflicted with this kind of scrupulosity will often go from confessor to confessor, disregarding the counsel they receive, especially if it seems too lenient.

The person must decide to follow the directions and attempt to gain the mind of the spiritual director or confessor, putting aside personal judgment in these matters. Again, confession should be regulated according to another's direction, and should not be practiced too often. Of course, even for the person suffering from this prideful scrupulosity, a spiritual director's role is never one of control or some kind of domination but of steady encouragement and wise counsel from the moral and spiritual teaching of the Church.

It helps to meditate regularly on the fallen state of humanity, and to insist with oneself on a deep acceptance of that reality, even as it is being cured by Christ. Jesus himself is the great exemplar: he was never surprised by the sinfulness of the human race, only saddened at it. Think of his attitude to his good friend, Judas, who betrayed him. Think of his conversation with Peter after the Resurrection (John 21).

Those dealing with a person of scrupulous conscience should not be shy in giving clear directions concerning the frequency of confession, or judgment about specific behavior. This will be a source of freedom and relief for the one battling scruples.

3. Psychological disorder

This is mentioned here mainly to note that there is a particular manifestation of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) known as scrupulosity. OCD is an anxiety disorder. Typically, the form OCD takes is that people have one or more areas of intense and irrational fear. These fears, which are thoughts or images, are "obsessive," intrusive, unwanted, and unrelenting. In order to find relief from these obsessive thoughts or images, individuals engage in behaviors that we call "compulsions" in order to decrease the anxiety that results from having these obsessive fears. With OCD, the freedom of the will is severely curtailed if not negated, and to the degree that this is the case, the problem needs to be dealt with psychologically rather than morally.

Making the distinction as to whether fear, pride, or a psychological disorder such as OCD is driving the scrupulosity is not always easy. However, the following three criteria can provide assistance:

1. What is the chronicity of the scrupulosity? How long has this pattern been occurring in the person's life? OCD usually begins in the teen or young adult years. Symptoms usually begin gradually and tend to vary in severity throughout life. The more chronic and enduring the scrupulosity, the more likely OCD is implicated.
2. What is the intensity of the scrupulous symptoms? How intense, intrusive, or unrelenting are these obsessions? How often does the person engage in the compulsions? Daily? Several times a day? Research indicates that OCD symptoms generally worsen when experiencing greater stress in life.
3. Lastly, and most significantly, what is the degree of impairment upon this person's overall level of functioning? Everyone experiences intrusive thoughts and compulsions at times; simply having them does not mean a person has OCD. There is a significant difference between being a perfectionist or experiencing stress in having to recheck one's work versus having OCD. OCD thoughts are not simply excessive worries about real problems in one's life or liking to have things clean or arranged in a specific way.

For people who do have OCD, obsessive thoughts and compulsions are quite debilitating and consume considerable amounts of time and emotional energy, leading to extreme anxiety and discomfort. Individuals with untreated OCD often begin to experience symptoms of extreme discouragement, feel overwhelmed, and frequently develop depressive symptoms as well.

Consultation with a confessor, a spiritual director, or trusted adult about these three factors can aid in determining if there may be the presence of an anxiety disorder such as OCD. If so, working with a mental health professional competent in the treatment of OCD is important in order to devise a plan of treatment. This treatment might also include periodic consultations with a spiritual director and the possibility of medication management if needed.

It is important to note the OCD differs from other types of scrupulosity because of the moral and spiritual dynamics at play. Thus, working with a therapist who has a proper respect for the spiritual and religious dimension of the human person is essential.

It is a central truth of our lives that God is tender and merciful towards us in our weakness, and we are in continual need of God's merciful kindness. Scrupulosity in its various forms is a serious obstacle to knowing this truth and rejoicing in it. May God grant relief and freedom to those who struggle with scrupulosity and patient wisdom to those who guide and assist them.