My husband has contamination ocd and I try to be supportive and learn the most I can but he needs to take the lead and confront his anxiety. He tends to try to avoid and make his anxiety better with rituals. Even with professional help, he hasn’t consistently done ERP. I don’t know what to do anymore; it makes my general anxiety worse. At some point he needs to help himself. How does a person get to that point? Is there any other spouses of people with ocd out there?

FairFeather

Date posted: 6y

How debilating is it?

jessify

Date posted: 6y

@hello love I am a mother of an Pure O daughter. And I 100 feel your pain. I came in this app to better try to learn and be more empathic to her. It’s been super helpful. But the daily struggle is really Caregivers need support too! It’s hard to see the suffering of an OcD person so it’s easy to become dismissive of their pain. I wish there weee support groups for spouses and parents so we could learn how to be more helpful but also push them out of bad habits.

bellaxx

Date posted: 6y

Hey @hello love. I used to be like your husband where I'd had therapy and had all the resources to help me but I still avoided doing anything or would minimally try. I did this because I didnt feel ready to confront my ocd properly. The fear of change scared me more than OCD itself. But, what helped me actually start doing something was my family found my list of OCD compulsion that I'd written before for my therapist and they encouraged me to pick a compulsion everyday and I'd have to not do some of the compulsion or try none of it. It was super stressful but then I'd go talk to my family as soon as I'd done it to explain how I felt and they would try and reassure me. Really made my OCD better. Also, I had positive affirmations and words of encouragement stuck around the house where my compulsions would start and I'd have to read them.

bellaxx

Date posted: 6y

I can imagine it being emotional and stressful seeing your husband do the rituals. Maybe try going to see his therapist with him? And show that you're going to be his support when he falters. Things can take time but it's obvious you care a lot about him or you wouldn't have come on here and hes lucky to have such encouragement from you so thats lovely. I hope that helps. Dont forget if you speak to the therapist as well they will be able to give you a better understanding of what hes going through, offer you support through this and you might both find ways to encourage him to do ERP. Best of luck

hello love

Date posted: 6y

To answer multiple questions at once: -I have gone to the therapist with him before which did seem to help. -He ranges from periods were it seems like he is mostly ok to periods where he just melts down Thank you all for your responses!

JCTC

Date posted: 24w

Help with Contamination OCD

Does anyone have any tips that helped them? Mine is due to a specific person and I work with them so it’s been really difficult. I’ve started ERP which has been reaaalllllly challenging and I would love to hear from anyone else that has gone through any type of contamination ocd and how they have overcome or are fighting their way through it. Thank you!l

Jpais28

Date posted: 22w

ROCD advice help for supporting partner

I am at a very difficult spot in my relationship. My boyfriend and I have been together for 6 years, and I have a history of cheating that for years we’ve been trying to work through. To me, it makes a lot of sense that my OCD has attached itself to this and for the last few years I’ve experienced intrusive sexual thoughts of others and relationship ocd. I have been open to him about the content of my thoughts and now, with a proper diagnosis of an anxiety disorder, I am able to reframe them and work through them with ERP so that my brain will *hopefully* get bored and stop sending them. But, things have not been easy. As a result of this and everything in our past, he has become anxious about all the scenarios where I could be having sexualized thoughts about other people. To him, if I am thinking something utterly different than what I am telling him or acting like to him, he can’t fully trust it. And of course, I can imagine how difficult it is to know your life partner is sexualizing others in her brain and to be able find a way to dismiss them as unthreatening, especially when past mistakes say otherwise. Is there anyone that has gone through this with a partner? And other than repeatedly explaining the egodystonic nature of my thoughts and providing reassurance, what are some things you did that helped them? Any advice helps! Thank you

vy__

Date posted: 22w

Help me help my partner with rocd please !! 🙏🏾🙏🏾

I personally do not have OCD I am here because I love my bf of 6 years He is a great guy but he is having a hard time with rocd he is currently going through a lot of anxiety with was triggered by us discussing engagement plans This makes me sad because we love each other and I hate seeing a good man having to fight his own mind to be able to be in a relationship with me Someone tell me what to do Point me in the right direction please I am here for him and I will not abandon him I want to go back to him with everything I will learn from you guys Thank you

Be a part of the largest OCD Community

Share your thoughts so the Community can respond

Related posts

Be a part of the largest OCD Community

Be a part of the largest OCD Community