Posted on 05/29/2002 3:06:56 PM PDT by blam
Devout Catholics show symptoms of compulsive disorder
A new study claims devout Catholics are more likely to show symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
It compared nuns and priests with committed lay Catholics and others with virtually no religious involvement.
Volunteers were asked to list symptoms like intrusive mental images and worries.
Researchers from the University of Parma in Italy found the more devout Catholics reported the more severe symptoms.
But they admit the study doesn't prove religious devotion in early life causes symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Claudio Sica and his team say it's equally likely people with those character traits feel more drawn to religion and devote themselves to God.
Patients with OCD can become convinced that everything around them is dirty. In extreme cases, sufferers spend up to eight hours a day cleaning.
The results of the Italian study support the theory that a God-fearing upbringing may contribute to obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Lynne Drummond, a psychiatrist at St George's Hospital, London, says many OCD patients say they had a strict upbringing where actions were either right or wrong.
Other theories on possible causes include a link to genes, head injuries and emotional trauma. The results of the Italian study are reported in New Scientist.
Story filed: 19:00 Wednesday 29th May 2002
I am Catholic. I am much more devout now than I was as a child or young adult. However, I am just as much of a slob now as I was as a kid.
:-)
We have it too, also we are suspicious. LOL. Hope you knew that already....They call the Orthodox suspicious all the time. Buncha paranoids in the making, we are.
I don't buy the Catholic guilt stereotype. The way I see it, Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I thank God the nuns put the fear of God in me!! I need it!!
No. I am O/C though.
Obsessive/Compulsive (Frequently called OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)
I'll bet if they study O/Cs in the rain, they will also tend to find they get wetter than non O/Cs. Makes about as much sense.
patent
I think the person doing the study is all wet. Sounds like a conclusion looking for data.
However obsessive compulsive personality is a trait found in responsible people, such as nurses and doctors etc. Like all traits, when exaggerated, it can evolve into a mental illness, but there are few studies to show that the personality trait and the mental illness is the same. IN this study, the fact that "religious" people tend to be responsible and worry is twisted into a mental illness.
People with severe OCD are completely disabled. people with mild OCD can function but they waste time.
Example: A full OCD will wash their hands twenty times to make sure they are clean. A mild OCD will do it twice, and then shrug off the irrational impulse to do it again. A doctor will remember to wash hands between each patient. Someone completely lacking in OCD traits won't wash their hands even after going to the bathroom, which is why fast food restaurants have to place signs to remind their employees to wash.
By confusing OCD the disease with the positive "compulsions" that make life safe, they are able to blast religious people...and imply that non religious people are better (and that irresponsible people who never worry about details are the most mentally healthy)
Lst Saturday, as I was about to leave the Confessional - after I had cleaned and polished the screen - I poked my head around the corner and offered to launder and iron the priest's cassock. "Don't come near me. Get out of here...Oh yeah, by the way, make than an additional 10 Hail Mary's"
Is there something wrong with me?
No, of course not, but it does seem like you might be a bit to much focused on the "works" part of Catholicism... ;-)
A few years ago, I read that upwards of 90% of Americans have some degree of OCD, the most common manifestations being things like having to check again that the stove is off or going back to be sure you locked the door.
Leave it to the notoriously inaccurate and unreliable shrink "community" to recast the virtue of Prudence as a psychopathology in much the same way that Advertisers recast Temperance as "Sales Resistance."
. The 90% figure for OCD is total B.S. whereas the ineluctable fact that 100% of us are born with Original Sin (Jesus and Mary excluded) is seldom noted by the shrink "community." As G.K. Chesterton observed, "anything can be ignored if it is big enough."
You just described my 85 year old mother. She has always been like that. All members of my family are afflicted with OCD to various degrees. We have always known and frequently joke about it.
You'll love this one -- I also saw a bit of filler in the paper one time saying that mental health experts say that people with an inflated sense of themselves are more "mentally healthy" than those with a more realistic view of themselves. In effect, delusions are necessary for "mental health."
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