- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
My bf said the same thing! But it ended up being for the better and I found other outlets like this app and I learned to rely on the ERP that is taught with OCD recovery. It has actually improved my relationship greatly to not talk about my ocd every day with my partner. It wasn’t easy at first but we’re in a much better place. I am personally with myself as well. And we still set aside time to talk about my stuff. It’s just not every day all the time. Your partner can’t support you property if you’re draining his helpful energy by not having fun and enjoyable convos. The ocd will try and get in the way and you should try and understand his side as well. I think it’ll help you both to talk about the ocd less.
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 3y
If he's saying he's not going to reassure you and feed into your compulsions thats a GOOD thing even if it may feel like rejection. Of course we want to be listened to. Thats normal. But not one single can be your emotional/venting trash can. It's possible your husband is feeling burn out from needing to provide daily support. One person CANNOT fulfill all of your emotional needs as a partner, a friend, a therapist etc. It's not healthy for you or your husband. Without more info, its hard to get a clear picture of your situation. But speaking from experience, as I've started therapy for my OCD, I can see a lot of strain my anxiety driven compulsions placed on my own marriage. For me it manifested as defensiveness, apologizing multiple times a day, asking for reassurance that he loved me/I wasn't a bad person etc. My husband putting limits on those things then and now has only helped me.
- Date posted
- 3y
I actually had a similar thing with my mom. She’s been my main person I go to, but she told me that she’s tired of having deep conversations every single night. I don’t blame her. I struggle heavily with existential ocd, especially at night. But it sucks bc now I just keep it in and it festers in my brain.
- Date posted
- 3y
Reframe it as you’re asking your partner for reassurance over and over again and he knows that’s not good for you. And honestly? Yes, cut way back down on seeking reassurance. He’s not only helping himself but in the long run, he’s doing you a big favor. I suggest you seek ERP therapy on this app if it’s available to you.
- Date posted
- 3y
Did you tell him how you feel about that? Keeping that in will make things a lot worse for both of you
- Date posted
- 3y
Yea he said talking about it only gives it more power, but I feel I need to vent about it. And then he said it (the ocd and anxiety) has become my life. And I’m like- yea kind of. My answers just frustrated him more. It sucks bc he used to be my rock through all of this. Now my main support system seems to be gone. 😢
Related posts
- Date posted
- 19w
My husband told me recently he was going to hang out with a local friend he often goes to see. It got very late and I heard nothing from him. Tried calling and texting. Stayed up all night thinking maybe he was dead or injured. Logged into our cell phone account to see if I could find any recent location and discovered he had talked to someone on the phone that night but he was like 2 hours away from home at that time. And also saw a phone number he was spending hours on the phone with every day. I had been confronting him about his secrecy prior to that and he kept telling me it was this friend or that friend, or he was just taking the dog on a long walk or having a fire out back. He finally called me back in the morning and I yelled at him. He told me he was randomly with two friends from longer ago and had gotten drunk and passed out, and hadn't told me about these plans because I had a heart surgery a few weeks prior and health concerns and he didn't want to stress me out. He told me the phone number was a girl that he related to on trauma factors and that he views like a little sister. He said he didn't tell me because he was caught up in his trauma spilling of events he didn't share with a single person since they occurred to him 35 years ago, due to feelings of shame and anger, and that he thought I would view it as emotional cheating. I told him it really could be viewed as emotional cheating and in principle, honesty shouldn't be dependent upon the outcome... lying isn't justified because I would be upset by the truth. Since then, he's been more open with me and tells me when that girl is calling, talks to me about their conversations, answers her calls when I'm present. I talked to him about boundaries and things I'm uncomfortable with or bothered by and he changes those things. Especially because I have trauma from an emotionally abusive ex, having him lie to me when I directly questioned him about what I was perceiving or experiencing and telling me those experiences weren't real, when they actually WERE real, has really messed me up. Now when he wants to hang out with a friend, I don't trust it. But I'm handling these feelings in destructive OCD ways. I spend literally the entire time he's gone thinking and thinking and thinking about what if he's lying or what he might be doing instead of what he said. I call and text him intermittently and feel like all of my obsessive thoughts are confirmed if he doesn't answer right away. I'm always checking the phone history. The driving toll history. Scrutinizing everything. I cannot get out of this mindset. It's like this horrible mixture of emotional flashbacks and OCD. I don't want to live like this. I want to work on my relationship in productive ways. I want to be able to use my own time while my husband is gone. Even if he lied to me and is somewhere other than he said, I don't want to lie in bed just thinking and thinking and thinking for entire days and nights. I'm not sure what I'm really asking here. This is just the only place where I feel like I can share this without people thinking "wow she's crazy".
- Date posted
- 19w
One of my OCD problems is driving. I know that if i have to drive somewhere ill get anxiety and have my compulsions i have to do. Tonight i asked my partner if he would come with me to do a few errands that would involve alot of driving (for me, 3-4total short trips) and the thought is exhausting within itself. When i asked him he said he didn’t want to do it and didnt want to drive me around every were. He said he feels like hes been having to hold me hand through a-lot and he’s been running the ship alot for a while and he said i do help sometimes but he wants me to do things for myself. I do plenty of things for myself, and he does make me meals happily and without me asking him to. And if we have to go somewhere he will drive by default almost. But it made me mad that he was acting like he was my lord and savior and im this helpless little girl when im not. My friend helped me find a psychiatrist and my psych referred me to NOCD. He didnt do any of that. And he tried to act like he played a role. Anyways am i being dramatic and he’s setting boundaries or is he kind of being a jerk?
- Date posted
- 12w
i have been dealing with anxiety and ocd like symptoms for the my whole life but they’ve gotten worse the past 2-3 years. im not diagnosed nor on any medications. my boyfriends has been with me nearly every step of the way of this anxiety and is a great help to me. i was raised in a family where anxiety is “just part of life” and everytime i try to talk to my parents about it they shut me down saying things like “i get anxious too” or “you need to work out more”. while i’ve tried to do the things they recommend, eating healthy, working out, staying off my phone, my anxiety is very much still there. i experience obsessions and compulsions frequently but have just learned to deal with them because i had to. they’re also not always constant anymore, i do have days without anxiety. my boyfriend has recently started lexapro and is on 5 milligrams for his own anxiety and he said that he feels so much better even after just two weeks and he thinks it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try to get on it myself. i agreed at first but after talking to my parents they again made me feel like my anxiety wasn’t bad enough or that i was making it up and that i didn’t need medication, i just needed to learn how to manage. yesterday i had another conversation with my boyfriend about this and he said he felt really bad about all the stuff i go through. (this anxiety and also some physical issues which is either EDS or POTS) but to me, and how my parents think of the whole situation, i think im fine “because its just part of life” now im afraid that im shutting out my own emotions bc thats how my parents think i should be. i just don’t know what to do. i know my bf is right and that im not a liar and everything i experience is real but i’ve gotten so good at living with it and its not as often that its debilitating that i don’t think i deserve medication. i don’t even know if its actually ocd because im not diagnosed but i talk to my brother and one of my friends (who are diagnosed) and we go through the same things. idk what to do or how to feel. i know my bf is worried about me but i don’t want to be dramatic or let my anxiety control my life
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