Dear reader!
This material is collected from the Patristic literature, which is freely available on the Internet, both separately (in excerpts) and in entire electronic books, the volumes of which are very large for the modern reader, who, as a rule, is accustomed to grasping only the superficial essence. The author of this project has systematized and selected the material as much as possible, highlighting the most important things, focusing on his point of view.
The creator of this project does not claim authorship of the presented materials and strongly recommends that interested readers purchase the full versions of the Patristic works in printed form. The sources used are listed in a special section of our website “Recommended Literature and Sources”; in addition, we accompanied each book with a short review, useful for all concerned readers.
About blasphemous thoughts
Blasphemous thoughts... When bad pictures come to mind about Christ, the Mother of God, Saints, something Divine Saint, or even about the spiritual father. There is never any need to retell these thoughts. All these blasphemies and sins are not ours - they come from the devil. Therefore, these sins must be confessed in general phrases, without explanation or detail.
Kind indifference is useful for a very sensitive person who is tormented by various thoughts.
When I am sad, I have blasphemous thoughts.
What happens: seeing you sad, the demon takes advantage of this and gives you sinful thoughts. If you take it the first time, then next time it will screw you up even more, and you will not have the strength to resist it. Therefore, one should never be in a state of sadness, instead it is better to engage in spiritual things. Spiritual activities help to come out of sadness.
Theory
An influential view from psychoanalysis is that neuroses arise from intrapsychic conflict (conflict between various drives, impulses and motives that are contained in various components of the mind). Founded by the Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, is the postulated existence, the unconscious part of the mind which, among other functions, acts as a repository for repressed thoughts, feelings and memories that are disturbing or otherwise unacceptable to consciousness.
These repressed mental experiences are typically sexual or aggressive urges or painful memories of emotional loss or unfulfilled longing in childhood. Anxiety occurs when these unacceptable and repressed urges threaten to enter consciousness; driven by anxiety, the conscious part of the mind attempts to ward off the appearance of repressed mental contents in consciousness through the use of defense mechanisms such as suppression, denial, or reaction formation.
Important!
Neurotic symptoms often begin when a previously impenetrable defense mechanism breaks down and a forbidden impulse threatens to enter consciousness.
If you are tormented by thoughts, they are from the evil one
Be peaceful and don't listen to them. You are an impressionable and sensitive person. The devil takes advantage of your sensitivity and instills in you the habit of giving undue attention to certain thoughts. He glues your mind to them, and you suffer in vain. He torments reverent and very sensitive people with blasphemous thoughts. He exaggerates their fall so that there will be sorrow. Dejection - melancholy - suicide. Often blasphemous thoughts come from the envy of the evil one.
But a person himself can give rise to such thoughts. If sad thoughts are not associated with excessive sensitivity, then they come from pride, condemnation, etc.
How to deal with blasphemous thoughts?
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes.
Reader question:
Hello, help me please. I am a believer, and I have encountered such a disaster as blasphemous thoughts. They, like cockroaches, crawl in my head and never leave me. When you get up to pray, you have such terrible thoughts in your head, you feel disgusted with yourself. And always after them it becomes bad: my head is cloudy, my legs are weak, etc. I don’t know how to deal with them. I'm tired. I read a lot about this, but I don’t understand what to do.
Archpriest Andrei Efanov answers:
Archpriest Andrey EFANOV
Good afternoon
Since you've read about it, you know what to do. The theme is truly patristic, and the recipes that I will repeat to you are taken from the same patristic tradition. You just don’t need to read about it, but put it into practice.
Let me remind you that the fathers write about thoughts.
“No one can harm God by reproach or bring greater glory to God, but He always remains in His glory, neither exalted by praise nor diminished by blasphemy; and those of the people who glorify Him according to his dignity - however, no one can glorify Him according to his dignity, but only according to his strength - receive benefit from this glorification; those who blaspheme and humiliate Him harm their own salvation,” wrote St. John Chrysostom in his Third Word against the Anomeans.
Where do such thoughts come from? For example, St. John Climacus speaks about this: “Often during the Divine Liturgy and at the most terrible hour of the Mysteries, these vile thoughts blaspheme the Lord and the Holy Sacrifice being performed. From here it is clearly revealed that these ungodly, incomprehensible and inexplicable words are not uttered within us by our soul, but by a God-hating demon who was cast out of heaven because he attempted to blaspheme God there too. And if these are my dishonest and absurd sayings, then how can I, having accepted this heavenly Gift, worship? How can I bless and at the same time curse?”
And further: “When we stand for prayer, these unclean and unspeakable thoughts rise up against us, and at the end of the prayer they immediately leave us; for they are not in the habit of fighting those who do not arm themselves against them. This godless spirit not only blasphemes God and everything Divine, but also utters shameful and dishonorable words in us, so that we either give up prayer or fall into despair. This crafty and inhuman tormentor distracted many from prayer, excommunicated many from the Holy Mysteries; He exhausted some bodies with sadness, and exhausted others with fasting, without giving them the slightest weakness.”
What to do? Run to confession as soon as possible and confess what you have in mind! Confession is a great sacrament of the Church, in which a person is given grace to live, do what he should, and not do what he should not do. You cannot cope on your own, but God’s grace is stronger than any demons or thoughts. You need to confess this matter regularly, perhaps weekly at first. Talk to your priest about how often you should receive Holy Communion. This is the second Sacrament, the greatest, in which a person unites with God, and this is the strongest reinforcement for you in this struggle that can be. It’s not a fact that your attack will go away immediately, but regular communion and confession will do their job. When thoughts overwhelm you, pray to God to help you get rid of them. and do not accept these thoughts under any circumstances. Fight them off like flies or wasps. In the morning, drink holy water, preferably Epiphany water. We stood up, crossed ourselves, read the prayer to receive holy water, accepted it - read the morning prayers. And during the day, also drink holy water in any quantity.
Be sure to sprinkle holy water on your home with the words: “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen". At first it is better to do this daily.
God willing, you will gradually cope.
God bless you!
Types of OCD
Obsessive-compulsive disorders are characterized by an irresistible penetration of unwanted ideas, thoughts or feelings into the consciousness with the need to repeatedly perform ritual actions of the same type, which the patient considers unnecessary or unreasonable. Obsessions may include repeated violent or lewd thoughts, and compulsive behavior includes rituals such as repeated hand washing or locking doors.
Somatoform disorders
They include the so-called hysterical or conversion neuroses, manifested in physical symptoms such as blindness, paralysis or deafness, which are not caused by organic diseases.
In anxiety disorders, anxiety is the main feature, manifesting itself either in relatively short, acute attacks of anxiety or in a chronic feeling of nameless fear. People experiencing anxiety attacks may suffer from indigestion, excessive sweating, headaches, rapid heartbeat, restlessness, insomnia, poor appetite and difficulty concentrating.
Phobia
A type of anxiety disorder characterized by inappropriate fears caused by specific situations or objects. Some common objects of phobias are open or closed spaces, fire, high places, dirt and bacteria.
Depression
When it is not excessively severe or prolonged, it is considered a neurosis. A depressed person feels sad, hopeless, and pessimistic and may be lethargic, easily tired, slow in thinking and acting, and have a decreased appetite and trouble sleeping.
Post-traumatic stress disorder
A syndrome that occurs in people who have experienced an extremely traumatic event, such as a natural disaster, torture, or imprisonment. Symptoms include nightmares, diffuse restlessness and feelings of guilt for surviving when others died.
Depersonalization disorder consists of feeling the world or oneself as strange, altered, or unreal.
Treatment of obsessive thoughts with hypnosis
Hypnosis is not considered just a party trick. Hypnosis has gained widespread use in the modern world, and it has quickly become the mainstay of treatment for various diseases.
Today, certified hypnotherapists treat everything from cigarette addiction to skin conditions, as well as calm patients in preparation for painful medical procedures (including dental work, surgery and chemotherapy injections). It can also be used to treat neurosis.
Books for obsessive thoughts
It is very important to understand what is happening to you and how our psyche works; this is the treatment of fear and neurotic states. Understand that everything that happens to you is far from simple; the psyche triggers various functions that we do not understand, and if we understand them, the result will not take long to arrive. Therefore, try to show interest and understand this topic yourself; without the patient’s desire, there will be no success in treatment, any specialist will tell you this.
There is a huge amount of literature on the topic of neurosis on the Internet, you can read it directly on the website, or you can listen to it in audiobooks. But with audiobooks, try to listen carefully and with concentration to get something out of it.
Important!
Neurosis can be treated, and this has been proven by many specialists in this field, the most important thing is to find the right one so that he can explain to you how everything works.
A selection of literature on neurosis
| Book title | book author |
| Neurotic personality of our time. | Karen Horney. |
| Theory and therapy of neuroses. | Victor Frankl. |
| Introduction to psychoanalysis. | Sigmund Freud. |
| The meaning of anxiety. | Rollo May. |
| Depression and neurosis in general medical practice. Clinic. Diagnostics. Treatment. Clinical cases. | M. B. Nikishova. |
| Insomnia, neuroses and other diseases of the nervous system. | N. I. Maznev. |
| Anxiety and neuroses. | Rycroft Ch. |
| The origin of diseases, mental, somatic and social. | Norberto R. Keppe. |
| Neurotic styles. | David Shapiro. |
| Attractions and neuroses. | Sigmund Freud. |
| Neuroses and their treatment. | A. M. Svyadoshch. |
| Depression and neuroses. | K. M. Bunkova. |
Causes of obsessive thoughts
Why is it so difficult for a person to get rid of such an unpleasant illness? All because the person at first thinks that this is nonsense and I can handle it. But the fact is that without knowledge or a specialist who can tell you, it’s impossible to get rid of it. Very often, people try to control their condition and really want to stop all this right now. This is their main mistake; this method does not work at all and only makes the situation worse.
Important!
Stop fighting and start observing is one of the main factors in the treatment of neurosis.
Factors that provoke the occurrence of obsessive thoughts:
- the presence of constant stress;
- constant doubts about certain situations;
- poor family environment;
- influence of others;
- suffered a traumatic situation;
- bad and scary memories of a depressing nature;
- low self-esteem;
- desire for suicide;
- a strong desire to quickly get rid of thoughts and conditions.
Symptoms of obsessive disorders
With neurosis, each person feels the symptoms in his own way, he can convince himself that his hip hurts, so this pain will intensify each time. Therefore, the more often a person thinks about what hurts, the stronger this pain will manifest itself. But there is a certain similarity in the symptoms of people suffering from neurosis.
Three main signs of neurosis:
- constantly recurring obsessive thoughts;
- panic attacks, fear, anxiety, horror;
- performing the same actions to eliminate anxiety.
Such conditions manifest themselves in a person constantly, and no matter what he does, the cycle will repeat again and again. When performing certain obsessive actions or expressing a desire to quickly get rid of these symptoms, the symptoms will only intensify and the neurosis will never go away. And then, we will tell you what ways there are to get rid of such a disorder.
Important!
Try not to dwell on this article in the study of neurosis; there are specialists who fully explain how it all works and why such conditions occur. In the world, a large number of patients have already been cured of this disease; the most important thing is the desire to be cured and understand.
