Jinger Duggar is a woman who might feel as though she’s stuck between two worlds.
Her childhood was marred by Jim Bob Duggar’s bizarre belief system and while she’s since ditched many of her dad’s most bonkers views, Jinger is still an evangelical Christian who’s married to an aspiring pastor.
In Jinger’s recent memoir, she condemned some of her parents’ teachings, but many readers felt that the author let her folks off too easy.
After all, these were the people who created the culture of abuse and secrecy that enabled their eldest son, Josh Duggar, to get away with a slew of atrocities.
And Jill Duggar’s upcoming memoir promises to be much more satisfyingly blunt about her parents and their narcissistic quest for fame and fortune.
Perhaps Jinger has heard these criticisms and is anticipating the possibility that her elder sister might soon usurp her as the most refreshingly candid Duggar.
Whatever the case, Jinger recently sat down with neuroscientist Jeopardy host and podcaster Mayim Bialik for what might be her most honest interview to date.
When discussing her childhood, Jinger revealed that from a young age, she was taught that “God will be out to get [her]” if she failed to follower her parents’ rules.
Mayim then asked her Jinger “where your young mind went with this dogma.”
“I had these little fears as a child already,” Jinger explained, according to UK tabloid The Daily Mail.
Jinger explained that those fears got worse “whenever you place on top of that, ‘God is out to get you.'”
“I was a very compliant child. I was never one to push the boundaries. I wanted to do what was right,” Jinger explained.
“If I was going to bed at night, I’d be terrified in fear thinking, ‘Have I done what’s right? Did I forget any of the principals?'”
Jinger explained that her family’s ultra-strict religious beliefs led her to take a judgmental view of anyone who lived a more secular life.
“I would kind of look at other people outside of our circles and think, ‘OK, maybe they’re walking with God. Maybe they’re not.’ Because you kind of see differences,” she said.
Jinger was the first Duggar of her generation to wear pants instead of long skirts, and it seems that she was cognizant of her family’s strange dress code requirements from a very young age.
“If women wore pants in their family, I was like, ‘OK, well I know they’re not obeying every rule as they’re supposed to,'” she told Bialik.
At one point, Mayim noted that Jinger seemed to describing symptoms of a condition known as “religious OCD [obsessive compulsive disorder].”
“That’s, like, literally the definition of OCD,” Bialik observed.
“That people have these compulsive behaviors that they believe will guarantee them safety and freedom from the obsessions,” the host continued.
“It’s kind of interesting because what you describe sounds a lot like your brain latched on to something, you know, and it became this kind of focus for you.”
It may have been the first time that someone so succinctly described to Jinger the psychological ramifcations of her ultra-religious upbringing.
And we’re sure the conversation with Mayim left her with a whole lot to think about.
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Jinger Duggar: My Strict Upbringing Left Me With Religious OCD! I Thought God Would … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
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