Obsessive-compulsive disorder and religion Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) affects up to 2.1% of adults and is characterized by pervasive and intrusive thoughts that lead to repetitive and uncontrollable aimed at reducing anxiety (APA, 2000). Furthermore, these thoughts and behaviors hinder and interrupt daily life and cause considerable distress in the lives of those who suffer from them. Recurring thoughts often center on the fear of contamination, of harming oneself or others, and of illness (Himle, Chatters, Taylor, & Nguyen, 2011). Those who experience compulsive behaviors associated with OCD report feeling as if they cannot stop or control the urge to perform the compulsive behavior and that the urge is foreign or outside of conscious control. The behaviors often involve hand or body washing, repeated checking, and mental acts such as counting and repeated prayers. (Himle, Chatters, Taylor, & Nguyen, 2011) According to Obsessive-Compulsive Working Group (1997, 2001, as cited by Abramowitz, Deacon, Woods, & Tolin, 2004) OCD can be classified into six domains. Domains include exaggerated responsibility, beliefs about the importance of thoughts, importance of controlling thoughts, overestimation of threats, intolerance of uncertainty, and perfectionism. Inflated responsibility involves an excessive sense of responsibility for actions seen as harmful or a failure to act to prevent harm, while the thought importance domain involved attributing excessive authority or power to unwanted thoughts and beliefs. Likewise, the importance of controlling thoughts implied the belief that one should be in control of every thought at all times. The unrealistic belief that unlikely events will always occur and bring with them extreme consequences characterizes...... half of article ......rurinsky, S., Rosmarin, D.H., & Pargament, KI (2009). Community attitudes toward mental illness influenced by culture: Scrupulosity versus nonreligious obsessive compulsive disorder among Orthodox Jews. Journal of Community Psychology, 37(8), 949–958. doi:10.1002/jcop.20341Rosmarin, D.H., Pirutinsky, S., & Siev, J. (2010). Recognition of scrupulosity and nonreligious obsessive compulsive disorder among Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 29(8), 930–944. doi:10.1521/jscp.2010.29.8.930Siev, J., Baer, ​​L., & Minichiello, W. E. (2011). Obsessive-compulsive disorder with predominantly scrupulous symptoms: clinical and religious characteristics. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 67(12), 1188–1196. doi:10.1002/jclp.20843Yossifova, M., & Loewenthal, K. M. (1999). Religion and the judgment of obsessiveness. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 2(2), 145–151. doi:10.1080/13674679908406343