My struggle with religious OCD is growing harder
Assalamu alaikum. First off, English isn’t my first language, so please forgive any mistakes, and jazakAllah khair for reading this. I used to dislike Islam and tried to prove that no religion is true, even though I considered myself Muslim. Then Ramadan arrived, and I fasted like usual, but something shifted. Before, I’d pray only once a day, but a feeling inside pushed me to pray more. I went from three prayers a day to five, and it became a regular practice. I also began reading the Quran daily, even if just a page. Looking back, I realized how wrong I was, hating and wanting to leave. So I renewed my Shahada, started studying Islam deeply, changed my outlook, and kept up my prayers. Alhamdulillah, I’m back as a Muslim! I’m so grateful I didn’t pass away before that Ramadan. But along with this change came another issue. I’ve always been an overthinker since childhood, and everyone treated it as normal, so I did too. Now it’s not just overthinking-it’s obsessive thinking. After taking my Shahada, I feel more stressed and sick than before. Unwanted thoughts about Islam and violence pop into my head, and I started washing my hands excessively and taking very long showers. The hand washing has improved, alhamdulillah, but my skin was once dry and damaged. I still spend too much time in the bathroom redoing things because I feel impure. My family even put a clock in there to help me manage time-honestly, it’s helped! So the repeating actions are getting better, but the obsessive thoughts are worse. I have so many unwanted, hateful, disgusting thoughts. I can’t tell if they’re just intrusive or my own. I’ve started deleting everything from my past, feeling like I must. The stress keeps building. I say the Shahada almost every 15 to 30 minutes, and I get anxious if I can’t say it aloud-sometimes I can only whisper. At night, I leave my bed about twice to find a quiet spot where no one hears me, so I can recite the Shahada without worrying my family. Today, while praying, a hateful thought came to mind. I tried to ignore it but ended up fighting it, which made me nervous again. I said the Shahada right after salaah, but I don’t know if I should repeat my prayer. It feels better to redo it, but when I do, I keep redoing it over and over.