- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
I have ROCD and obsess about that question constantly. I have an unrealistic vision of what love should be. I expect it to be 100% all the time and thats just not reality and if its anything other than 100% it must mean that somethings wrong and i dont love her. Even what things are perfect, i question my feelings. I know its stupid, I just cant stop. I do believe you can train your brain and ive been obsessing about this for so long that it has just become part of my normal everyday.
- Date posted
- 3y
I think I have an unrealistic vision too! If I’m not 100% infatuated at least 90% of the time then I don’t love them but I also know infatuation isn’t love. You can be infatuated with someone but not care about them and love them as a person. I think I’ve trained my brain as I’ve been stuck obsessing about this since August and now it’s like a solid neuropathway in my brain so it’s like I truly believe my thoughts. I do this with every theme it seems but this feels the most real :(
- Date posted
- 3y
I completely agree. I’ve had all kinds of themes in the past but this one is the most upsetting. I’ve been dealing with rocd for 7-8 years now. I have more recently been trying to have a different relationship with my thoughts. Since ocd attaches to what is most important to you, I’ve been trying to spin it into a positive. Like these thought are here because I do care and I do love her and I can’t stand to think of life without her. It helps sometimes.
- Date posted
- 3y
I know I need to look at the positives, it’s a matter of retraining my brain to see the positives as I always see the negatives first
- Date posted
- 3y
I've been going through rocd for 4 years through out two different relationships now. My biggest thought is that rocd doesn't exist and I am just in denial. What themes have you had in the past?
- Date posted
- 3y
I’m worried that ROCD or relationship anxiety doesn’t exist and I’m anxious because I know the relationship is wrong. I’m worried I’m anxious because I want to leave but I just can’t bring myself to leave for whatever reason. I’m in this weird sort of depressed state at the moment where I’m not interested in talking to anyone, I’m not interested in texting my boyfriend back or even my friends and I just want to be by myself and when I’m with my boyfriend it feels so disconnected and off. Last night I convinced myself that the relationship is naturally starting to end itself, this was simply because my boyfriend was quiet as he was tired. I’m worried ROCD is one big lie and I’m living an even bigger lie
- Date posted
- 3y
Ironically I didn't start doubting it until I was diagnosed lol. I think we have a lot of good reason to go about it as it is
- Date posted
- 3y
That’s so interesting! I’m not diagnosed, I’ve just done some research and found that OCD fits what I’ve experienced and how I’ve felt since I was about 15. Literally messaged a friend last year and said “I always have to have an obsession” and never thought about OCD. A therapist said what I was experiencing was at least anxiety but don’t think she knew enough about OCD to diagnose it. I think we should both assume it’s ROCD. One day our themes may change or we may recover which will show us one way or another. I think we have to live in the grey area and accept that the uncertainty that we may or may not love them, it may or may not be ROCD
- Date posted
- 3y
I completely agree. I once heard that doubt is unfavorable, but certainty is absurd
- Date posted
- 3y
That is almost exactly the thought process that I have. It eats me up. If you were to pull yourself out of your feelings for a little while and take a good look at yourself objectively, what's more likely, that you would see a person who is living a lie and destined for pain and failure or a person who is tormented by their own anxiety and mental loops? What do you think a psychologist would think after talking with you for a while? Rather then what it feels like right now, what makes the most sense?
- Date posted
- 3y
Honestly, I don’t even know. When it first started last year it felt like every other anxiety theme I’ve had. In his company I felt amazing and so happy but when I was alone I’d analyse how I was feeling. I recognised that I was doing my usual anxiety fuelled activities of seeking reassurance from family, Googling and searching forums. I was so sure that if I got rid of the anxiety and the overthinking I’d be happy with him forever. Now I’m not so confident and I feel like I’m the person a who’s living a lie rather than diagnosable as OCD by a psychologist. But, having said that, I felt so incredibly anxious reading your comment. It always made sense to go about this as if it was OCD or anxiety but as time has gone on I’ve become so wrapped up in the narrative of “I’m not in love”. Kind of similar to when I convinced myself I had different cancers, multiple sclerosis etc. when I was in a relationship aged 16, I was so in love and the next day I had the thought “I don’t love him anymore” which wasn’t true as I eventually got over it. I’m still trying to cling onto it being OCD for now as I think I’d regret breaking up with my current boyfriend for a long long time. I notice myself getting stuck on “I just NEED to know one way or another” which is something I experienced with health anxiety. I’m sorry I’ve rambled on for ages
- Date posted
- 3y
If this is something you've thought about before and came to the conclusion of the latter, maybe "figuring it out" truly isn't the answer, does going about this as OCD make enough sense to you to give it an honest shot?
- Date posted
- 3y
It's ok, you have stuff on your mind it's ok to get it out. Well I'll tell you what, from what you're saying, to me your relationship concerns seem to mirror you prior health ones. I can't say for sure whether rocd is even real or that either of us have it. But if ROCD does it exist, I have little to no doubt that we have it.
- Date posted
- 3y
Thanks for letting me rant! For now we can just assume it’s ROCD and that one day we’ll get over it, OCD is known as the doubting disease so it makes sense that it would make us doubt it’s ROCD.
- Date posted
- 3y
What have been some of your other themes?
- Date posted
- 3y
Death, relationship, health, I think maybe harm at one point but I was young and I can’t remember it well and then sexual orientation has been wanting to start up recently. Relationships and health have been the two biggest ones. What about you?
- Date posted
- 3y
Just realtionships. It started with a prior relationship and carried into my current one. It's been almost 4 years. It started when I had been doing acid with my past girlfriend and there was a long playing while I was looking at her. It was sallies ong from nightmare before Christmas and when she says "you are not the one" it started to spin in my head. It was actually about a year and a half after that that rocd really started heavy. June 21st 2018 exactly lol. Which is one of the reasons I wondered if ROCD was real considering I had never had any other themes which seem more likely to actually be an OCD
- Date posted
- 3y
I’m not an expert but I think you can have OCD and have just one theme, some people are just more prone to a particular theme or anxiety around a specific theme
- Date posted
- 3y
You can, you know, just another reason to create doubt though lol. It often gets worse for me when I have being life events coming up and my wife is due in 29 days
- Date posted
- 3y
Yeah I understand how that may create doubt! Big life events are known to aggregate OCD and with a baby on the way it’s not surprising you’re anxious. Congratulations!
- Date posted
- 3y
Thank you very much.
- Date posted
- 3y
Good luck to you too with your battles.z
Related posts
- Date posted
- 25w
Lately, I’ve been struggling with feelings that I might be sabotaging myself in my relationship. By sabotage, I mean that I find it hard to stop engaging in compulsions, like seeking reassurance or overanalyzing my thoughts. I also sometimes behave badly with my boyfriend, and the intrusive thoughts I have can completely change my mood. I love my boyfriend—he’s such a good, beautiful, and wonderful person—but I’m afraid these thoughts are going to ruin things. I truly want to love him, but I’m scared. I know the thoughts are anxiety-driven, but they still make me question if I’m forcing myself to stay with him. Today, for example, I felt okay earlier, but when he called me on video, I suddenly felt like I didn’t feel anything, and I started thinking I don’t like how he looks. These thoughts hit me like a wave, and I panicked. Usually, I find him very attractive, but when these thoughts come, I feel sad and disconnected. What’s confusing is that I also have many moments—like today and in the past few days—where I’ve felt really good and I’ve felt love for him. I feel awful writing this because my boyfriend doesn’t deserve this, and I feel like I’m posting out of habit. It makes me scared that I don’t want to accept the truth, even though I know I care about him. I hate feeling this way because it feels like I’m betraying him by having these thoughts and posting them. Has anyone else dealt with these feelings of sabotaging their relationship or feeling like they’re forcing themselves to stay? How do you cope when the thoughts feel like they’re true, and how do you work through the fear of letting go of anxiety
- Date posted
- 22w
When my boyfriend and I are apart, it honestly feels like I've lost all feelings for him. I start questioning everything, wondering if I even love him at all. Then, when we're finally together again, the memory of those earlier doubts creeps in and completely ruins the moment. I get so caught up in overthinking and analyzing my feelings that I can't even enjoy being with him. It's like I'm constantly second-guessing myself. The worst part is, sometimes later, when we're still together, I do feel the love. But then the anxiety kicks in again! I start worrying that I'm just faking it because I had those doubts earlier in the day. It's this endless cycle of questioning, doubting, and overthinking, and it's exhausting. I'm really struggling to stay present when we're together, and it feels like this constant cycle is preventing me from truly connecting with him. We have been together for three years and we love together, and I just started feeling this way about a month ago; it’s been almost every day since. One day, I randomly thought about breaking up with him. Our relationship is healthy, especially compared to my previous toxic one, where I was anxiously attached for two and a half years. My boyfriend is very supportive of me. I have talked to him about my doubts and everything I’m experiencing, and he continues to support, care for, and help me through it all. I am very grateful for that. One aspect of my current relationship that I would like to improve is our communication, but we are both willing to work on it together. I often find that my overthinking leads me to question whether I really want to try to fix things or if I’d rather just continue as we are. This creates a constant push and pull in our relationship. Has anyone else experienced something similar? Any advice on how to break this cycle and just be present in the moment? I'd love to hear from anyone who's been through something like this.
- Date posted
- 11w
Hi everyone, I’m a 30-year-old woman, and I’ve been in a relationship with my boyfriend for 5 years. I’ve always felt emotionally close to him — he’s caring, supportive, and we planned a future together, including having a family. I don’t want to leave him. He means so much to me. But for a while now, I’ve been obsessing over the fact that I don’t feel much sexual attraction to him anymore. It’s not like I never felt anything — when we first met, there were butterflies, excitement, emotional connection… something real. He was never “just a friend” to me. But the physical side of the relationship feels like it’s slowly faded, and I’m panicking about what that means. I keep thinking things like: – “Maybe I chose the wrong person.” – “You can’t be in love without sexual desire.” – “If I was truly in love, I would still want him.” – “What if I’ve been lying to myself this whole time?” Sometimes my body reacts — I can feel physical closeness or even arousal — but my mind shuts down and says: “no, this isn’t right.” Other times, I feel tension, resistance, or even disgust during intimacy, and I can’t tell if that’s anxiety or if something is fundamentally wrong. What makes this even more confusing is that I truly believe that real love includes sexual attraction. For me, it’s all part of one feeling — not separate. So if the attraction is gone, does that mean the love is too? Is it possible that this is still OCD — that my mind is obsessing and disconnecting me from my real feelings? Has anyone experienced something similar? Any support would mean so much. I feel so stuck between my mind and my heart.
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