Feels a little weird to talk about this here, but here goes. I'm 22 and I've never been in a relationship and I feel a lot of pressure to just get into one already, but i'm afraid to bc i don't think anyone would want me since i have ocd and the stigma against mental illness is so freaking terrible. I do catch feelings more often than I'd like to admit, but i usually let any oppurtunity to date someone slip by bc i feel like a nonentity and like they wouldn't /really/ be interested in me if they found out i have ocd.

That's OCD talking to you. In this case, you have to accept uncertainty. You don't know someone won't be interested in you once they find out you have OCD. But if you let OCD stop you from trying to really open up to someone and allow a relationship to blossom, you're setting yourself up for a lonely life. I know it's really difficult, but I encourage you to do the opposite of what your OCD wants. Get on a dating app or go out and just meet people--it doesn't even have to be romantic. You don't *need* to be in a relationship, but if dating is something you genuinely want to explore and the only thing holding you back is OCD, then I say go for it anyway!

I have similar fears (I’m 18 and my only relationship was in middle school). It not specifically just because I have OCD, but I also have Graves Disease and my OCD makes me think that all these other details about my life would make anyone not want to be with me. I’m seeing a psychologist and it’s very hard to talk about this fear of being alone in life, but I just recently opened up to him about how there was one girl I kind of had a crush on and my OCD latched onto them and resulted in me oversharing and being clingy to the point I pushed them away and ruined our friendship. It’s just so hard to make connections with others when I’m stuck in my head 24/7 and am so afraid of everything entailed with being in a relationship. I WANT to be in one, but my mind just tells me I can’t. Hell I even have a very difficult time just making new friends in general

I feel the same way but not necessarily just because of “ocd” but because it has made me feel so.... different and for a lack of better word “dirty”? Not that I feel physically unclean, I just feel like because of how ocd has developed my perception of myself, no one could TRULY love the real me. I’m 19 and have never been in an actual relationship either! (There was a little month-long stunt but I hated it the entire time haha)

Yeah I found out that I had OCD when I was a couple of months in my relationship. Once I opened up to her she didn't understand it very much but she was completely supportive. I had that fear that she'd leave me for someone who didn't have a mental health issue. But she didn't she loves me just as much as she did before. Don't let your fears stop you from being happy

I'm 19 and I feel the same way. I feel like I have, and am continuing, to miss out on things people my age do. I was never interested and now I just want someone to talk and share my emotions with. Someone that's not family or a therapist. My OCD makes me think I'm to weird to attack someone tho.

Hey, I'm 28 and in a happy relationship now, but I can definitely relate to all of these feelings from when I was single - being worried that no one would want me because I'm too weird or crazy, my ocd telling me I'm immoral/dirty/tainted and that I would be tainting anyone who I was with. All I would say is that it's your ocd making you feel like that, but when the right person comes along you will be fine - you deserve love and you can be in a happy relationship. I was in another relationship before where he didn't get mental health and wasn't that supportive - at the time i tended to think that was my fault, but now I can see he just wasn't the right person. My current partner is super understanding and supportive of my ocd! There's nothing wrong with being on your own but you can still have OCD and have a great relationship ?

Exactly, MichaelK!

That’s so awesome of him!! It’s so nice that they’re people like that