Should praying ON A REGULAR BASIS be a form of obsessive, compulsive disorder?

I know that everyone prays on occasion without thinking about it, but there are some people who pray all the time, thinking that it will change the course of their lives and afterlife.

Imagine if you were an alien visiting this planet in order to study obsessive compulsive disorders. From a scientific point of view, what would you write in your medical record book, to take back to your own planet?

Answer:
I would write:
"Subjects on earth seem to have a preoccupation with an imaginary diety they call "God", and spend an inordinate amount of time talking to this imaginary thing. Perhaps this is a hallucination or delusion of some sort. The basis for their belief of such a creature with no physical evidence is baffling and will require more observation to understand."
I would write that the people on this planet have such great habits and peace in their everyday life.
It's socially acceptable insanity if you ask me.
it can be, but some people pray every night and its normal, its that way in most cases, its kind of hard to tell i guess, but i know i used to when i had really bad ocd.
i think praying is the way forward, but then you come across people who are like that character in steel mongolias, (awful case study i know) who will fall to their knees regardlesss of where they are the moment they think a negative, not bad, but negative thought. thats a bit ocdish i think. a bit extreme as well.
I just looked up the definition of OCD and it doesn't fit someone who prays.
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.

Prayers have purpose and meaning, especially for those who do pray. Now if they tell you, sorry, I have to go pray now, or are praying openly and it interferes with their work, then it would be considered an OCD. My pastor states that prayer can be done at any place and anytime, and the nice thing is that pray can be done without interfering with our other activities. How is that harmful?
I get what you are trying to say. I think anything - even positive habits - can become obsessive. It doesn't have to be a bad habit to become obsessive/compulsive. A common example is hand washing, which is good for you, but a lot of OCD people do it to the extreme. I have seen a lot of people with OCD tendencies or addictive personalities go from being addicted to drugs, alcohol, etc to being "addicted" to religion or exercise for example. I feel that these people have a hard time finding middle ground - they have to be at the extreme. While I personally believe that there is no such thing as "too much" praying as long as the person gets peace from it and is not miserable, these people often place too much control in their lives "externally" and don't take personal control of their life. You often hear them say they're waiting for God to tell them what to do or doing God's will, but they're not doing anything pro-active to help their situation or realizing that God gave us free will.
OCD is defined by a compulsion that interferes with your life in a negative way. The compulsion is a means to be rid of a phobia, so if the praying is done out of fear, than the fear is the problem, not the praying. Unless the person stops something important to pray, which would be hurting them by say, not doing their job, or losing friends because of it.
oh please!! OCD is people moving objects to the perfect spot on their desk or washing their hands continously to get them clean.
Praying is one of the most calming influence you can find, its been proven in countless studies. I prefer prayer to being "stressed out", taking Prozac(Paxil and the like) or checking into a rest asylum. It's less wear and tear on your heart and your mind.
depends on how it's done, if it's done with sincereity, not just repeating words & without meaning to them (which I sometimes do when I panick!!) then yes i agree it's an obsessive routine,(I can't say OCD becos it depends on the person & wether they have to do it compulsively,OCD's repeat this senselessly,without knwing what they're dojng necessarily or why they do it)...
eg. when I am afraid I ask for help from God & I am too panicked to even think about what I am saying,I just repeat the words...
I think it's obsessiveness or OCD is an insecurity anyways, & if sth helps us in the short-term to cope & it's not disturbing to our life, then so be it...but if people who have OCD with cheking doors & can;t get out of the house, then it's a problem..so if praying non-stop helps them, that's good, but if it's done as a I have to do this kind of thinking, then it's bad.
I do think praying all the time could be OCD. If I was an alien, it would deffinetly be something I'd write down. I think praying regularly is normal, but when you pray so much that you rely on it, and that's all you do, it becomes very unhealthy.
I guess breathing and sleeping at regular intervals wouldn't be obsessive compulsive. Watching the news every night is perfectly acceptable. GETTING ON FunQA.com AND ANSWERING QUESTION AFTER QUESTION... DAY AFTER DAY. sorry I got carried away, hmmm an alien would have to use the norm for his world and that may not be the same on our world, sooo I would have to say that if I was an alien visiting I would have to say that I need more info to be the alien. I can't get in his head because he is to hypothetical.
Prayers cures all the diseases. you will find Islamic prayers are just Yoga science or five times scientific exercises.
I did read somewhere that prayer can be a oc behavior in the same way as some people with ocd talk to themselves. Praying provides a good excuse that is more socially acceptable. However, praying in general is not an oc behavior the majority of the time for the majority of the world's populations. It is certainly not a good indicator.

Also, tons of people have some obsessive compulsive behaviors without actually having the disorder.

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