Hello again!<\/p>\n
I’ve been wondering: since I suffer from OCD, then are all my promises, which I’m struggling to avoid, nullified the very moment I make them?<\/p>\n
The problem is that I’m having trouble knowing when my OCD mind is playing games with me or when it’s really me making these promises. I’ve read one article about OCD and making promises, and the author stated that if an OCD sufferer fears having made a promise, then he should treat the promise as void and not binding.<\/p>\n
Am I free from all these promises, since I can’t really avoid making them?<\/p>\n\t
What I’ve noticed is that the definition of a promise is different for an OCD sufferer than for most people. For most people, a promise is a commitment you make to another person; thus, there are at least two who can witness that a promise was actually made and what the terms of those promises were. Those who suffer from OCD will count every stray thought or intention as if a promise was made. Often no actual promise was made, but rather the person fears that he might\u00a0<\/em>have made a promise and the longer he dwells on it, the more certain he is that the promise actually exists. The major difference is that there are no witnesses to the promise, no one heard the terms, because only stray thoughts are being dealt with.<\/p>\n God doesn’t need your promises. He wants you to simply be honest and do what He has commanded all people to do. If you are worried about a promise and it is something you told yourself in your head, then you can safely conclude that it wasn’t a real promise, only one that you imagined making due to your OCD. If you think you made a promise to a friend, then ask the friend what he remembers and see if that matches your memory of the promise. If your friend can remember you making a promise to him, then you can put that also down as imagination.<\/p>\n See if that helps you sort out your concerns better.<\/p>\n\t Hello,<\/p>\n Thank you for the clarification. I know that thoughts don’t count as promises because they lack witnesses (as you’ve said before), but still, I seem to forget it every now and then and be anxious for nothing. Instead of being anxious, I should stop being too harsh on myself and trust, instead, that everything’s going to end up just fine.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Hello again! I’ve been wondering: since I suffer from OCD, then are all my promises, which I’m struggling to avoid, nullified the very moment I make them? The problem is that I’m having trouble knowing when my OCD mind is playing games with me or when it’s really me making these promises. I’ve read…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[352,508,648],"class_list":["post-54618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-fear","tag-mental-illness","tag-promises"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49413,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-you-required-to-keep-promises-that-you-think-about\/","url_meta":{"origin":54618,"position":0},"title":"Are you required to keep promises that you think about?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I'm wondering if promises that randomly pop up in your head are considered valid. Are you required to keep the promises, even though they're just thoughts? I have OCD and get these thoughts constantly. They cause me a deal of anxiety. Also, in order to treat OCD, am\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88099,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-think-i-should-dedicate-every-use-of-my-car-to-my-grandmother\/","url_meta":{"origin":54618,"position":1},"title":"I think I should dedicate every use of my car to my grandmother","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good evening, I've been diagnosed with OCD. I've been struggling with promises to God for a long time, but now I've a problem with one, I suppose I did five years ago. While I was trying to get my driving license, the month before the driving exam, I probably\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31689,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-vows-never-be-broken\/","url_meta":{"origin":54618,"position":2},"title":"Can vows never be broken?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a similar situation as some of the questions you received regarding OCD vows and also the one who sent his question about whether or not he must remain in poverty. Though, whether or not it was a passing thought is still a question for me, because I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88774,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-break-a-deal-i-made-with-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":54618,"position":3},"title":"Can I break a deal I made with God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, Last year, I promised God some things in exchange for Him healing or freeing me from OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). I promised to stop watching a series that I watched a lot, horror movies, and anime. Well, now I am in psychiatric treatment and I still have OCD, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":70785,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-i-vow-not-to-make-promises\/","url_meta":{"origin":54618,"position":4},"title":"Did I vow not to make promises?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 31, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm worried that I vowed to God not to make promises. Now I was talking to God, and then in the heat of the moment, I said, \"I do not want to make vows,\" only I didn't say that fully, and I'm pretty sure I cut myself off halfway\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38598,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-worried-that-i-wasnt-baptized-properly\/","url_meta":{"origin":54618,"position":5},"title":"I’m worried that I wasn’t baptized properly","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hey, I've been reading your articles about baptism and asked my Christian parents to baptize me. They were very kind and asked me if I believed in Jesus. I did everything right, except I'm very worried I was not under the water properly. They keep saying I was so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Response:<\/h2>\n