Dealing with Waswasa in Faith: My Struggle
Assalamu alaikum, I'm a medical student and for about four months now, I've been going through a really tough time with religious OCD. It's been a nightmare. I keep checking if everything I know, see, or think is haram, spending hours searching online and reading different scholarly opinions. This drains me and leaves no time for studying. I get constant tension headaches from the stress and overthinking-it feels like my brain is always suppressing thoughts, which makes the headaches worse. I get paranoid that I might die while busy with something like studying and then be punished for sins I haven’t stopped. If I don’t sleep or eat well, the overthinking gets worse. I have sins I struggle to quit because they need a change in my environment. Even in a Muslim country, the hospitals I train at are mixed and some sisters don’t dress modestly, so I think about moving somewhere with less mixing or more modest dress. I also worry about pursuing further training in the US because of mandatory meetings where alcohol might be served and I’d have to sit there. I haven’t been able to let go of that dream, and the guilt eats me up. I used to be a hardworking student but now I barely study. I’ve had OCD since puberty, but it was easier to ignore when it wasn’t about religion. Now, if I ignore a religious thought, I feel like I’m rebelling against Allah-like knowing I’m sinning but not wanting to sacrifice to quit. If anyone has advice, especially those who’ve overcome religious OCD, please share. Even talking to someone who understands would help, because my friends and family don’t get it and that’s really hard.