Keywords

CBT, cognitive behavior therapy, ERP, exposure response prevention, obsessive-compulsive disorder, OCD, RCBT, religious cognitive behavior therapy, scrupulosity

Abstract

Scrupulosity is a debilitating mental illness that has become more well known the Latter-day Saint community recently. Scrupulosity is a subset of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that focuses on spiritual issues (McClendon, 2023). Scrupulosity is multifaceted and has cognitive, genetic, and biological causes (Abramowitz & Jacoby, 2014; McClendon, 2023; Siev et al., 2020). Scrupulosity is defined by intense anxiety that is soothed with rituals such as excessive prayer, confession, and other religious actions to calm anxiety and fear of God (Abramowitz & Jacoby, 2014; Allen et al., 2015; Weir et al., 2014). Scrupulosity is mainly treated using cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and exposure response prevention (ERP) (McClendon, 2023, Siev et al., 2020). There is hope for those with scrupulosity, as combining religion and therapy may be an effective way to treat this disease (Angell, 2023; Rosli et al., 2018). Recommendations for treatment and future research are discussed.