- Date posted
- 2y
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 2y
I am sorry that your ocd is giving you a hard time. Here is the important thing - confessing is a compulsion and will make ocd stronger - so I would recommend doing your best and do not compulse. This is hard thing to do, I know. Here is how I may handle this using my response prevention skills. OCD: you cheated on your partner. You were seeing him and your previous partner at the same time. Me: acknowledge the thought and accept the thought as intrusive. Remind myself that I am living my values and my values do not include cheating on my partner. OR ME: maybe I did cheat, or then again maybe I didn’t. I am not going to try and figure this out because I can’t. OCD will not allow me to figure it out. And do my best to go on with my day. The key is to sit with the uncertainty. OCD wants you to provide it certainty and then won’t accept any answer. So arguing with ocd is a waste of time because it will come up with another what if. Live by this motto: if it feels like ocd, treat it like ocd and move on. OCD will say maybe it’s not ocd this time - don’t buy it. That is the key to recovery. If it causes anxiety and upset assume it is ocd . I hope this helps.
- Date posted
- 2y
@Jeffrey Thank you Jeffrey, this really helped. Sometimes I get stuck in a cycle and it’s hard to see logically. I appreciate your kind advice
- Date posted
- 2y
Im Going through cheating ocd too but different - my ocd tells me i wanted to cheat on my partner 2 years ago with my friend but i just didn’t carry it out and it makes me feel sick because i just don’t see myself doing that or wanting it and i keep getting the feeling that i have to confess this BUT WHY
- Date posted
- 2y
@Anonymous Don’t confess though i think thats a compulsion
- Date posted
- 2y
@Anonymous With thoughts, you didn’t actually act! Everyone has those thoughts, it will be okah
- Date posted
- 2y
@ocdstinks No i still feel horrible though! Because i used to have crushes on these friends but nothing ever happened 🥴🥴 (thank god lol)
- Date posted
- 2y
@ocdstinks But still the uncertainty is what you have to sit with - whether it was a thought/action you have to just say maybe and continue with ur day and anxiety should go down!
- User type
- NOCD Alumni
- Date posted
- 2y
@ocdstinks Thank you for sharing what you are going through. I am sorry to hear you’re struggling. Please keep in mind that OCD is the doubting disease and it is going to attach to the things that are most important to us. Therefore, it is not surprising that it is attaching itself to your relationship. Since, as you stated, there is no evidence that anything happened, it seems best to treat these thoughts as any other thoughts. Remember thoughts are just thoughts. They are not facts and just thinking something does not make it true. If you try to just push them out of your head, they probably will just increase. Instead try to let yourself sit with the thoughts without engaging with them. However, of course, that is easier said than done, but with time and practice it does get easier.
- Date posted
- 2y
@Lisa LeeLou Thank you for reminding me that OCD is a doubting disease. It’s so hard! You’re right, there isn’t any evidence and I have to use logic to keep myself from confessing something that their is no proof for. Thank you again for you’re help
Related posts
- Date posted
- 17w
If I cheated on my boyfriend or did something unloyal , would it come to mind 8 months later? Wouldn’t I have felt and known about it and that it was wrong the second it had happened ? If I wasn’t worried about it 8 months ago, should I worry about it now ? I have major ocd involving cheating and relationships and self doubt .
- Date posted
- 17w
Hello all, I’ve dealt with various OCD themes and compulsions for pretty much as long as I can remember. In some periods of my life the thoughts and compulsions have been particularly severe, but I’ve also had years where I’m able to keep it under control. This has made me worry I don’t actually have OCD, especially because I haven’t been doing consistent therapy and my therapists have gone back and forth on whether I have OCD. In the past few years, I’ve struggled immensely with false memory ocd, and right now I’m going through probably the most severe episode of my life. I love my boyfriend with all my heart. A few times that I’ve gone out drinking I’ve had the thought before “what if I lost control and cheated tonight” and it’s bothered me severely. Two times before, it’s gotten to the point of convincing myself that because I talked to a man that meant I had cheated on my boyfriend and just couldn’t remember. It has never turned out to be true. About a month ago, I went out with friends and had too much to drink. I was really ashamed of myself the next morning, particularly because I always try to drink cautiously now that I know it can trigger my anxiety. I am ashamed to admit I do not remember the very end of the night getting in my uber and going home. I woke up anxious and extremely worried and immediately started off by worrying if I could have tried to kiss my friend and not remembered. I called him and was immediately reassured nothing had happened, I simply drank too much and went home at the end of the night. I started feeling better, but then remembered a moment I had been in the bathroom. I remembered chatting with people in line about how long the line was, and then being in the bathroom on my phone. I then felt like I remembered people knocking and saying to myself “that wasn’t that long” and leaving. There is nothing concrete that I remember that in any way indicates I cheated, and in fact I have texts with my boyfriend from the whole night telling him I loved him. My friend told me that the only time I was ever apart from him was about 5 minutes and that when he came back I was in the same exact spot he left me in. However, when I remembered being in the bathroom, I thought to myself “what if you cheated on him in the bathroom”/ “oh my god did you cheat on him in the bathroom” and then a series of images of me performing sexual acts popped into my head. I’ve poured over my memory and truly do not remember meeting anyone, talking to anyone, or even finding anyone attractive that night, but the fact that I was drinking makes me worried I’m just forgetting and these images could be real. I’ve been constantly ruminating on these fears for the past month, to the point that the only relief I feel is when I’m able to fall asleep. I’m a law student and it’s becoming extremely difficult to keep up with my classes. I’ve been google searching, asked chat gpt for advice, confessed my fears to my boyfriend, asked for reassurance from pretty much everyone in my life, and even emailed the bar asking for security footage (which I know all sounds insane). I’m a naturally guilty person and feel bad about small things, so I really don’t think I would be capable of cheating and then nonchalantly texting my boyfriend, but these images feel so real that it’s terrifying. I’ve also seen a lot about how I would “just know” and that begins to scare me because then I think “you do just know, you did it” even though I really don’t think I did. I know these posts are not supposed to be for reassurance seeking, I’m just so exhausted and feeling really depressed. I’m wondering if anyone has experienced something similar and has any advice. I’m also wondering if images can feel more real the more you ruminate on them or if it’s a sign of memory. Thank you so much for listening.
- Date posted
- 16w
I often feel like i did something wrong even tho i am positive i didn’t, my boyfriend and i have been together for like 6 months and i’ve been completely loyal to him the whole time but recently i’ve been feeling the need to confess that i cheated on him even tho i didn’t and there’s absolutely no proof that i did something even close, i don’t talk to other men and if i do my boyfriend has full access to my phone and it’s usually a friend or me asking a simple question but i still feel the need to confess even tho i’ve done nothing wrong🥲 someone please help it’s so confusing
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