Review
Title: Freedom From Scrupulosity: Reclaiming Your Religious Experience from Anxiety and OCD
Author: Debra Theobald McClendon
Publisher: RSC/BYU/Deseret Book Company
Genre: Non-Fiction/Self-Help/Mental Health
Year Published: 2023
Number of Pages: 416 pages
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781950304424
Price: $27.99
Reviewed by Amanda Ray for the Association of Mormon Letters
Dr. McClendon’s book Freedom From Scrupulosity: Reclaiming Your Religious Experience from Anxiety and OCD is a hefty and thorough exploration of the mental health issues with scrupulosity and related OCD and anxiety, but it has so much heart and is a wealth of comforting information as well. While the author is a practicing Latter-day Saint (and teaches at BYU Education Week), she makes clear that scrupulosity affects many other people of faith in some overlapping ways.
Scrupulosity, as described in Dr. McClendon’s book, is a psychological disorder that brings up guilt or obsession around what should be a comforting religious practice and manifests as a maladaptive religious practice. “With scrupulosity, anxiety has corrupted one’s ability to discern these doctrines and principles as they were intended to bless the lives of believers.” I was only somewhat aware of the disorder when I started the book and gained so much sympathy and understanding for those who live with it. It made me think of the times I have seen “crazy religious” people portrayed on TV or in film and how a number of those likely suffer from some degree of scrupulosity and more than anything could use a good therapist.
For me, Freedom From Scrupulosity started off on the right foot by thanking the reader in the acknowledgments for choosing to pick up a book that could be triggering. I appreciate how kind and foundational the author is – everything gets an explanation, and every chapter gets laid out with an outline for the reader. Not only do I appreciate that considerate awareness for those with triggers who may very much need the information in the book, but it also makes for a clarifying reading experience for those readers who may be more interested in the topic academically as some areas can be skimmed or skipped and returned to later. The book is broken up into three parts – learning the basics about scrupulosity, learning about studies and research on it, and then treatment considerations, including self-help options.
Another aspect of the book I found helpful was the way it described how scrupulosity works for different people, how it manifests, and the thought process a person dealing with it can undergo. She uses examples (with permission) from some of her own patients, and I found it a way to connect with these folks I didn’t know. As someone who does not deal with this, I was able to gain a lot of sympathy for those who do, and hopefully learning more about the disorder can help me understand and support someone else who is living with it. She demystifies it so the reader can better identify what’s going on and hopefully have a positive interaction with a loved one dealing with it, or that someone can recognize their own scrupulosity in a way that doesn’t denigrate or shame but clarifies. The variety of experiences from her patients made me see it could happen to anyone I might know from my own ward or branch.
Primarily, this is a book on a specific mental health concern with a variety of strategies to help combat it. That the author is a member of the church is secondary, and she does include scrupulous experiences from those of other faiths. Members of other faiths will find usefulness in the book, but it is geared toward a Mormon audience for the most part. Church missions and temple covenants are some of the more unique factors of our faith that get mentioned, and she mentions specific scriptural examples that demonstrate the power of the atonement about mental health. The author makes it very clear that “Satan is not within the OCD. OCD is a mental illness” and stresses that point throughout.
She ends the book with appendices containing scriptures and quotes from church leaders that touch on topics of anti-scrupulosity, such as “God’s Nature: He is loving and is not looking to condemn us” and “faith is not knowledge or certainty or a guarantee.” Not only is it wonderful to see a long list of things to encourage you on your journey, but it’s also a great way to start a gospel study on mental health and compassion for others and oneself.
It’s a bit of a dense read, but there’s plenty to glean and loads to learn, and not too clinical. The examples of experiences show how this disorder can develop and provide avenues for all those concerned to help alleviate, gain insight, and hopefully emerge as better individuals as a result.