- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
Hello! A couple of things: Remember that feelings aren’t facts. Attraction isn’t a fact, it’s just a thing people experience. Everyone does. Love is a choice. It’s not a feeling, it’s a choice! We get to choose who we give love to and we get to choose to CHOOSE them. It sounds to me like you’d choose your husband over anyone. Thoughts and feelings and emotions (or things other people say!) don’t need to mean anything. You got this 💜
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
Hi, I’m battling a similar situation too…. You are not alone. I’m in a committed relationship as well and love my partner so much. I work with a lot of guys too and it’s a pretty much a ‘bro atmosphere” and there was a situation where we had a work outing and me and one of my coworkers were chatting alone (he’s super cool and funny but I had/have no interest in actually pursuing anything, he’s just a fun person to be around. And I’ll be honest too he is attractive) and then he kinda got a little too friendly and said “you’re cute” and then my anxiety totally shot up because I thought we were just friends… intrusive thoughts came storming in.. “was I flirting with him?” “I don’t think I was flirting with him but maybe I was..” “do I like him?”. I love my partner so much and the thought of cheating on him makes me sick. I didn’t know how to handle the situation with my coworker after he said that (he was drunk too) so I just ignored that comment and left the situation awkwardly. Now I can’t stop thinking of that instance and feel guilty that I did something wrong and unknowingly cheated on my partner… I keep replaying the situation trying the pin point everything I did or said to try to relieve my anxiety. I just keep feeling so guilty for some reason and think this is my fault and that I did something wrong. I feel like I’m stuck in the prison and punishing myself constantly. It’s been 5 months since that happened and False memory ocd has been surfacing constantly trying to distort the memory with intrusive sexual images/thoughts making me the villain. OCD is the worst!!!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
I also keep wondering if people saw us talking and took the situation out of context and worried what they think. Do people think I’m a cheater?
- Date posted
- 3y
I am so sorry that happened to you… mine happened about 2-3 weeks ago. I’m constantly asking my partner for reassurance that he won’t leave me and he says “never”. I also mentioned I found the person cute as well and he said “well I have had a wall up since we have become committed to eachother” and I about cried myself asleep every night because I feel unloyal, unfaithful, and just not worthy of being with him. I wanted to be this perfect wife for him and I haven’t been. I feel terrible. The coworker I was hanging around I felt very comfortable with. I did have intrusive thoughts about him at home and just shook them off because I get them all the time with other people. Now I’m believing myself that I like this person more than my husband and it is driving me crazy. I would never choose this person over my husband. I truthfully believe I don’t like the person but what if I do have feelings for my coworker? He’s engaged as well and got really touchy with me. I never got butterflies or anything from the situations but I told my husband that he was getting touchy with me and just said he might be a touchy person and to watch if it gets worse. I feel like it is all my fault now and the WHAT IFs are absolutely destroying me. It’s really nice to talk to someone who has had similar situations. That’s why I love this app. Thank you for sharing with me
- Date posted
- 2y
@LivingInMyHead Hi there I know this is an old comment but I am experiencing a very similar situation and can’t move past it. Has it gotten better for you?
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 2y
@Anonymous Hi, I’m so sorry hear that you are experiencing something similar. I know how trapped and awful that feeling is… and yes my response to these intrusive thoughts has gotten way better since this post. I worked a lot with my NOCD therapist on this. What helped me is leaning into that discomfort and uncertainty for example… (things that my therapist shared with me below) “Okay, yep, maybe that happened (insert whatever your obsession is), guess I’ll never know” No need to figure out what they mean or what the thoughts mean about you as a person. Just let them be there while engaging in valued activities. Here’s also a good article about rumination. https://drmichaeljgreenberg.com/how-to-stop-ruminating/ Also, listening to Jenna Overbaugh’s postcast “All the Hard Things” has really helped me! She used to be a NOCD therapist. I hope some of these resources help!!
- Date posted
- 2y
@LivingInMyHead Thank you so so much my first meeting is tomorrow with my therapist and I just feel like I can’t forgive myself or move on and I constantly look back on photos before the situation happened and beat myself up because I was so happy and care free now I feel like I’ll never feel fully free from these thoughts that I had done something so horrible to my husband. He wants me to forget about it already but I can’t. So I will take your advice and apply it as well thank you so much!
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 2y
@Anonymous You are welcome! Hang in there.
- Date posted
- 2y
@Anonymous Yes!!! So much better. I am actually on medication now and haven’t even thought twice about my thoughts. I love my husband more than anything in this world.
- Date posted
- 2y
@LivingInMyHead Thanks so much! These definitely helped but I still can’t shake the rumination of did I cheat or didn’t and tell myself I didn’t but it feels like I did! I feel like I’m over the situation and it doesn’t bother me but I still have constant thoughts about it every single day and hour I go to sleep dreaming about it too. It’s awful :(
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 2y
@Anonymous I feel you, that happens to me as well… I can go days without the thoughts bothering me and it’s super easy to “shake” it off but then out of nowhere there’s a trigger and it’s back to rumination…
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
I’m sorry that you have to live through this as well…. It’s such an awful feeling.. :( I also went through a period of “reassurance” and “confessing” to my partner. I told myself if I wasn’t telling him everything then I was lying to him and that gave me severe anxiety. The confessing/reassurance relieved anxiety for just a brief moment but sure enough ocd prevailed and took over with more intrusive thoughts/images. I was seeing a therapist at the time and she told me that confessing/reassurance is a compulsion and advised me to try not to engage in them as an exposure. It was so hard to do because I felt like I was keeping a secret from my partner but that is just ocd talking… OCD will try to do anything for you to give into it. The “what ifs” are constantly with me as well… thanks so much for sharing your story too. It’s really nice to know I’m not alone.
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
I just downloaded the app today!! It seems like a great community to share experiences and to know you are not alone.
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
Sorry for all the replies! My therapist recommended this book to me and it has a lot of great points in there. Just wanted to share :) Freedom from OCD https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/042527389X?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
Related posts
- Date posted
- 23w
I frequently feel the need to test myself with sexual scenarios with a guy jn my class, im jn a relationship and i keep testing if I find him hot attractive or whatever and i have many crisis about it likw i pray to god to not make me attracted to X person, sometimes I avoid going to school i avoid looking at him I skip periods and truly yall idk what to do anymore. Can someone give me suggestions? I'm scared I don't wanna be attracted to anyone else besides my boyfriend i don't wanna cheat on him I don't wanna do anything I just wanna live a quiet happy life with him . I'm worried I know the truth and just don't wanna accept it jm super worried I need suggestions pls
- Date posted
- 22w
any help is really welcomed and appreciated. I tend to hyper fixate on men outside of my relationship, they feel like crushes but I’m like 60% sure they’re meaningless dopamine rushes that happen with people I find interesting, friendship worthy, or physically appealing in some way. My hyperfixation recently shifted to a supervisor, not even an hour after meeting him :/ that’s fine, whatever, I can’t do much about it. I daydream and create like this drama romance in my head. Like good content for a movie or a book. Comparing it to that makes me feel less disloyal, and more understanding of why this might happen (I am a hopeless romantic, I adore stories). I’m home now and I was thinking of wearing a cuter shirt for work tomorrow because I went in an oversized hoodie today. This is a thought I had this morning before even meeting this man btw. But then my brain went to oh yeah I want to look attractive for this hyper fixation. It felt exciting to think that. I felt excited. Then the huge wave of dread hit me. I wanted to look good for another man? For a specific person? I can’t stop panicking I don’t know if this is normal, disloyal, a distortion, or what it is. I’m so confused. I felt happy when I got that thought. Maybe it was a dopamine hit or something I’m Colombian and we’re really big on looking our best 99.9% of the time. Even if it’s just to go to the gas station. I just feel so scared that I felt excitement over this one person. It’s extremely different for my boyfriend’s culture. Almost the opposite. I feel so disloyal and unworthy of my boyfriend. I doubt this was intrusive, it genuinely felt like me and I’ve had thoughts like that in the past. I just feel like a huge monster right now Please help :(
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- Date posted
- 10w
I’m so so so anxious right now, I got triggered really badly. My partner made a joke saying he’s glad all his coworkers are old and married because he “won’t develop feelings for any of them.” This sent me into a major spiral and I almost threw up and starting sobbing from the anxiety. It triggered me badly and everything was fine before that. I’m so anxious that I cheated on my partner. I’ve had an ROCD obsession with another person for a few months now, and I’ve told my partner EVERYTHING. I told him how I have a crush on this person, how guilty I feel about messaging a group server that this person is a part of (despite being very careful to never ever message them privately or even reply to their messages in the group server and instead message other people), how I have fantasized and daydreamed about this person. My partner was fine with it, and he said fantasizing is normal and that he has had crushes too. He said he has had a work crush and fantasized about her and that it was all fine and that fantasizing is fun as long as it stays a fantasy. I kept telling him that I am terrified that I’m having some sort of one-sided emotional affair by fantasizing about this person, and my partner kept telling me, “Okay so what? Now what? Let’s say your worst fears are true, now what? I’m not leaving you and you’re not leaving me so why worry about it?” I also feel like fantasizing about this person turned into a compulsion because I would spend months agonizing over the ROCD guilt, ruminating, throwing up, thinking, and then I’d try to fantasize in order to soothe the anxiety and “prove to myself” that it was nothing. I have talked to my therapist about this extensively and he told me that I should not confess as it’s a compulsion. He said if it were something wrong, my body would just “know” and I’d intuitively confess instead of ruminating over and over on whether it’s worth confessing or not. My partner told me he doesn’t want any more confessions and that he doesn’t need to know what goes on in my head. I’ve told him a lot already, about the crush, my fears, the daydreaming, and he said it was all fine. I know for a fact that I have never ever ever crossed a line with this person, I have been extremely careful to rarely ever interact with him. I’ve been careful to ensure that we’re not even FRIENDS at all, just barely acquaintances. Literally every single interaction has been just small talk the handful of times that I’ve seen him show up to a group event. He is also moving away and I’m never gonna see him again. I have been extremely obsessive and careful about not ever EVER speaking to him unless spoken to, never giving him attention, obsessively monitoring the frequency with which i pay attention, etc. But I’m so terrified that I’ve already done something wrong by having these thoughts and feelings. I feel like the feelings lasted this long BECAUSE of the OCD and guilt and anxiety. Because I became anxious and started ruminating on the feelings and the morality for months and months. I don’t know what to do. I need help. I feel like I’ve irreparably ruined my relationship. Did i catch feelings? Is there a difference between feelings and a crush? Is this a form of cheating? We are going on a trip in literally 12 hours and I’m so incredibly stressed I can’t take this. Do i confess?
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