You might be scrupulous if...

[foolishmortal]

you wonder how St. Francis and a few of his other followers could have walked around naked or half-naked and possibly scandalized young women.

your praying of the Sorrowful Mysteries produces a vivid depiction in your head , but you can hardly remember the other decates' mysteries.

you take someone's character apart for not being charitable.

your prayer sounds like a joker who can't tell a joke ("No wait...I messed up").

you have a bumper sticker that says, "Damned if you do..damned if you don't".

you are an amateur nutritionist and hygienist.

you confess your sins to your spiritual director while on a couch.

you stump a traditionalist priest with your dilemma.

you give the people in the confession line something new to confess.

you can't believe Lady Macbeth's hand washing scene is making you teary-eyed.

BTW I am scrupulous and have not conquered it, so I am obviously not making fun of the scrupulous. Feel free to add more!.

[CB Catholic]

You make the Sign of the Cross both the Eastern and Western way, just to be sure you have all your bases covered

[foolishmortal]

Thanks! Good one! I wonder if that would affect the Eastern Catholics most.

The backbiting tongue sounds like something you wonder if you've had or wonder if it were deadly or if, in someway, it could make confession impossible, if you got it. It sounds like a ridiculous dilemma, but, in your state of mind, what do you know? Anything's possible with God, right?

Only "Monk", "What About Bob" and "As Good as it Gets" make you feel better about your problems until you laugh at an off-color joke and then you think their character's got it easy because you know better, thus increasing your culpability.

You have a copy of Canon Law, The pre-Vatican 2 Catechism (and the latest one from the last Pope, in case you'd better), a Physicians's Desk Manual, and a DSM 4. A temperance and a scrupulosity book might be there to cut the confession down to 15 minutes.

When you lose face, you slice yourself up from the inside out (emotional tears leading to physical ailments, physically and/or psychosomatically). Samurai suicide? Come on! That would be too easy and you'd go to hell anyway, as a Catholic--knowing what you do! Bottling it up and fearing Hell for yourself a likelihood--that's a real honorable penalty for your wrongs and you add interest to it after every sin or a real sacrifice for another's screw-up. You also decide somewhat how horrible you make it, but it's standard.

[angeris]

It dawned on me today that I might also have this trouble. In doing research I found the following info. I think I will request it

Although commitment to a single confessor is of primary importance, another help is available. Understood as supportive and supplementary to the work of the confessor and the grace of the Holy Spirit, membership in Scrupulous Anonymous (SA) is also recommended.

SA has no meetings. It accomplishes its work through correspondence and the mutual prayer and support of its members. The primary vehicle for this correspondence is a monthly newsletter, Scrupulous Anonymous. Edited by a priest director, the newsletter is sent free to all who request it. During the more than thirty-five years that SA has been in existence, its members have demonstrated repeatedly that those who follow the direction of a single confessor and who use the monthly helps and encouragement that are provided in the newsletter can enjoy support and relief in their struggle. Often they are able to escape altogether the torment of scrupulosity.

The SA newsletter, suitable for both those who suffer from scrupulosity and their priest confessors, may be obtained by writing to SA, One Liguori Drive, Liguori, Missouri, 63057. Names and addresses, as well as all correspondence, are confidential.