My counselor says she thinks I have ocd from what she knows so far. It makes me uncomfortable to hear that and I keep thinking about her face when she said it. I have spent hours researching it and I can’t sleep because all I want to do it know more about it. I google search on my phone and read article after article. Is this like an obsession? I don’t really get it. But I feel like I have to be the expert on ocd all of a sudden and I don’t know why.

Ever since I found out about relationship OCD, I’ve been researching non-stop. Google, Reddit, ChatGPT, this app… I regret it deeply. Before I knew what ROCD was, I still had disturbing thoughts, but I didn’t spiral like this. I didn’t question reality this deeply. But now… it’s like I’ve implanted in my mind that I have a disorder that’s “unfixable” or that only gets better with time. And even though I struggled before, since I started researching obsessively, I feel like I’ve completely lost control. My boyfriend told me that I’ve gotten worse ever since I began searching. And I see it — I used to be able to express love. I used to say “I love you” a lot. Now I can’t even say it. And when I did say it before, I think I was using it like a compulsion — like if I say it enough, maybe the thoughts will stop. But they didn’t. Now I can’t even be intimate without feeling this horrible discomfort, sometimes even disgust. And I remember telling my therapist that — and she said it’s not normal to feel disgust when your partner touches you. That devastated me. It stuck in my head. And now? It all feels real. Not like “just thoughts.” It feels like I’m denying the truth, like I’ve ruined everything by digging too deep. I’m not myself anymore. I’m not the girlfriend I used to be. I feel like I’ve lost everything — even my ability to feel love. There’s a constant pressure in my chest, like a weight I can’t describe. And no matter what anyone says — whether it’s hopeful or scary — it doesn’t bring me peace. I feel completely lost inside my own mind. I don’t even know why I’m posting. Maybe because I just want to feel less alone.

Does anyone else feel, if they know everything about a topic that you then have control over it? For example, when I first started trying to figure out what was hurting me and identifying it as OCD, I would and sometimes still do, research every detail I could find and read other people's experience obsessively. Doing this made me feel like I would be able to control my obsession and compulsions, the more I knew the more I could control. A lot of the time it just makes me more anxious and discouraged but I still do it when I think I can fix myself. I also this with other mental health disorders and topics, where I research until I feel like the learned information will equip me with more control.

I thought I’d gotten better about reading articles and posts about most men being attracted to children. It upsets me and that’s fine but what i can’t do is relentlessly research it. I know there’s no cure and that it’s normal even if it’s not moral. But for that reason my mind latches on to it and i want to know WHY WHY WHY, or what if this person is, or what if my favorite YouTuber is. Statistically the answer is probably yes, most of them i assume are probably attracted to kids. And that’s where my ocd stems bc them k go in the loop about why and who. There’s no one answer and no correct number out there. It’s a hard fact to accept and i thought i was over this but now im upset over it again and my stomach is sick. I’m not sure how to overcome this.