banner, obey barnes

When I say scrupulosity I don’t mean it in a mental illness sense! I mean it in a Catholic sense! To quote the Catholic Encyclopedia:

An unfounded apprehension and consequently unwarranted fear that something is a sin which, as a matter of fact, is not. It is not considered here so much as an isolated act, but rather as an habitual state of mind known to directors of souls as a “scrupulous conscience.” St. Alphonsus describes it as a condition in which one influenced by trifling reasons, and without any solid foundation, is often afraid that sin lies where it really does not. This anxiety may be entertained not only with regard to what is to be done presently, but also with regard to what has been done. The idea sometimes obtaining, that scrupulosity is in itself a spiritual benefit of some sort, is, of course, a great error. The providence of God permits it and can gather good from it as from other forms of evil. That apart, however, it is a bad habit doing harm, sometimes grievously, to body and soul. Indeed, persisted in with the obstinacy characteristic of persons who suffer from this malady, it may entail the most lamentable consequences. The judgment is seriously warped, the moral power tired out in futile combat, and then not unfrequently the scrupulous person makes shipwreck of salvation either on the Scylla of despair or the Charybdis of unheeding indulgence in vice.

Basically: scrupulous people tend to decide that things are sinful when they really aren’t and spend a lot of effort trying to do things that aren’t actually bad. 

I am an atheist, but for whatever reason I am way comfier thinking about mental illness things as temptations to sin than I am thinking of them as neurochemistry issues or whatever. I know this is different for other people, I’m just saying what works for me. So I like conceptualizing it as myself struggling with a temptation to scrupulosity.