- Date posted
- 5d
Stuck in thought loops from past relationship
In summer 2022, I met the first guy I ever truly loved. We went our separate ways about a year later in 2023, and the last time we spoke was almost 2 years ago. Even though I’ve genuinely moved on and don’t feel consumed by sadness anymore, I still think about him every day in some capacity. The first several months after things ended were really hard, but eventually I started doing much better. Now, every once in a while, something will remind me of him or I’ll have a dream about him, and it sends me into a spiral of thought loops for a day or two. I start replaying everything, wondering if I messed up, if he was “the one,” if I will ever move on completely, or if things would’ve worked out differently if my OCD hadn’t gotten so severe near the end of our relationship. Looking back, I had always shown some signs of OCD, but around that time it became debilitating and I was completely undiagnosed. I honestly wasn’t myself, and sometimes I resent myself for not getting help sooner. I know nostalgia after a first love is normal, and I have liked other people since then, which is part of why this confuses me. Usually I’m completely fine and don’t think much about him, especially when I’m actively interested in someone else. But when those situations end, my brain seems to latch back onto him and replay the past again. It also makes me worry about when I do find my person, if thoughts of him will randomly cross my mind again. The idea of truly loving someone while still occasionally thinking about my first love makes me feel really guilty, even though I know thoughts are just thoughts. I know I’m capable of loving someone new and I know I will, but the possibility of those memories popping up unintentionally still really bothers me. Does anyone else with OCD experience this kind of rumination/nostalgia loop after relationships? And if so, what helps you stop feeding the thought loops?