- Date posted
- 2y
Shame OCD
Is anyone in a relationship, an extremely happy one and loyal one. But you see a person and you find them attractive and you feel guilty? You feel like you’re cheating and it’s consuming your mind.
Is anyone in a relationship, an extremely happy one and loyal one. But you see a person and you find them attractive and you feel guilty? You feel like you’re cheating and it’s consuming your mind.
I used to struggle with that exact thing a lot. It was one of the reasons I started therapy. I would feel extremely guilty if I though about anyone besides my husband. I try to look at it like this; having romantic or sexual thoughts about other people is just a sign of a healthy mind and hormones. I know it’s super hard to separate the thoughts from actions. I know it’s just my OCD when that happens because I’ve gotten over that and my brain finds something else to shame myself for.
It’s not so to find other men attractive. Although before my bad ocd episode first started I would get thoughts like why are you dressing nice when you’re going out without your boyfriend or making sure I don’t look at other men. if any man messages me I’d have to tell my partner to prove I didn’t message them back. whenever I look back on my life I think I’ve always had ocd tendencies. This isn’t a main theme of mine but it does sometimes come up. Remember ocd is a liar you don’t have to prove yourself.
I’m so sorry to hear that… Did the therapy help with that :( and is that normal that we think like that?
So you’re saying these thoughts are normal to have? Even though you’re happy in your marriage
@pamg199 Yes absolutely they are normal. Stressing about them isn’t though try concentrate on the positive aspects of your relationship. I know it’s difficult as ocd will try ruin everything. Don’t let it
@worrier 24 That was really helpful!! Thank you so much. Sorry for asking, but your therapist, did you find them here?
@pamg199 I’m on a waiting list on the nhs I had a pre session consultation over the phone and she said it sounds a lot like I have ocd :/ waiting for cbt therapy I have spend a lot of time researching ocd over the years to try figure it out myself but ocd is so cruel sometimes it can get bad to the point where you isolate yourself but we can all get through this 🙏 intrusive thoughts are the hardest part for me 😔
What’s NHS? I completely understand what you’re feeling, have you tried medication? I’m on Paroxetine and it actually helps a little!!
@pamg199 In the UK we can get free health care called the NHS where many treatments are covered my taxpayers
@pamg199 I take propranolol & sertraline. The sertraline did help when I first started taking it but still have some really bad days
I have this deep fear I’ll accidentally cheat on my long term partner. This fear was initially triggered a couple years ago after being at a bar with my friends where I enjoyed the attention of being flirted with by a stranger. Because of my enjoyment of receiving verbal attention, I began spiraling about what if I accidentally cheat. Since then I have made multiple confessions to my partner to seek reassurance, replayed events over and over in my head, spent hours googling/looking at reddit threads, and now I dread “bar like” situations where I know my partner won’t be around. Today I was triggered and have wasted about 4-5 hours of my day ruminating. Does anyone else with relationship ocd struggle with this fear and have any tips?
Despite the fact that I have never once acted flirtatiously with someone else over the course of my 3-year relationship, never talked to anyone inappropriately, never touched or interacted with anyone inappropriately, I have been battling constant ROCD obsessions centered around cheating ever since my partner and I got together. I am constantly worried about whether certain things are cheating: daydreaming about another person (already told my partner about this and he said it was okay and that he does it too), talking in a group chat with someone, sitting next to someone, speaking to them in person. I question my intentions. I worry that I cheated by wearing my hair a certain way in an attempt to look more attractive or by jokingly poking someone with a fake sword (despite doing it to other people too), looking through someone’s social media, etc. I have confessed so many ridiculous things to my partner and he’s always told me that none of them are cheating. I feel so guilty for being attracted to someone else, despite the fact that my partner said it was fine and normal. I have made a very very conscious effort to limit my interactions with this person. I never ever ever ever message them privately, I make an obsessive effort to NOT reply to their messages in a group server (constantly keeping track of the ratio of my replies to their messages compared to other people’s), to ignore them when I see them in person and hardly ever speak to them or initiate conversation with them. Yet I still feel like a disgusting dirty cheater who is hiding a big secret.
Do you perhaps experience things like being so frustrated and numb because of how much your ocd drains you ? Then you are naturally caught up in a compulsion where you’re “physically testing” yourself to lets say something you watched years ago that is usually against your orientation?? If you know what I mean ? Even though you know you are (your own sexuality) and are in a very loving relationship and you really love your partner but does anyone experience this ?? And then they’re faced with more thoughts about how they’ve betrayed their partner and how their partner will leave and if you also struggle with scrupulosity ocd you feel like you’ve committed a huge sin and betrayed your faith ? Again I get all of this goes against values and that the human body may still react to things we naturally may be against but anyone still falls for the testing and then has this awful reaction afterwards? And does that really mean I betrayed my partner ?? Thank you so much for your time and I would really love your insights as this is something that popped up with me out of the blue …
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond