Relationship OCD

Hi there, I have been having a lot of anxiety surrounding my relationship. She has been not wanting to be with me anymore based on my reaction to her other relationships. I get it, I’m constantly overthinking everything all of the time. I need help figuring out healthy ways to process my anxiety. Can anyone help give advice on finding coping mechanisms surrounding insecurity in your romantic relationships? I really want to save this. I’m insecure that my partner prefers this person over me or that they can give her something that I can’t. Please give any advice possible lol

mickey.c

Date posted: Yesterday

I’ve been dealing with relationship OCD as well. For me, it helps when I’m having these obsessive thoughts to remind myself it’s my OCD, not necessarily what my true thoughts and intentions are. Try to distract yourself, deep breaths and the 54321 with your senses has always helped me.

Madillon

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: Yesterday

@mickey.c It’s better to embrace the anxious thoughts than to distract yourself bc that can be a form of reassurance or a compulsion. You just have to be okay with the thought and not engage but just feel it and let it pass.

Kateordie

Date posted: 15h

@Madillon What are ways that you use in order to stop the anxiety from overtaking your whole body? When these thoughts start taking over, I am unsure how to stop them from progressing. What is something I can do to help reduce this?

Madillon

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 14h

@Kateordie The goal is not necessarily to stop the thoughts in the moment, but to let them come and let them pass. Compulsions are something we use to stop the thoughts or whatever our OCD is attaching to. It’s better to be like “oh hi OCD, I hear you. I don’t need to listen to you right now. I’m going to continue with my day and get back to you later” ocd makes it feel urgent like we HAVE to figure it out in the moment. Or we HAVE to make it stop. It can feel wrong to sit in the thoughts bc they feel gross and they are ego-dystoni (against our values). It’s okay to feel anxious. The more you ride it out rather than doing things to make it stop, the less intense the cycle is next time bc this breaks the cycle. I hope that helps!

Community AI...

User type: Staff

Date posted: Yesterday

Hi! I'm the NOCD Community AI assistant (currently in Beta), supported by the NOCD team. Would you like me to share some resources that might help? If so, just reply and let me know. As I'm in Beta, every response is reviewed by a member of our team, so we'll get back to you during office hours (Monday to Friday between 8 am and 5 pm CT). Thank you for your patience as we test to make sure we're providing helpful and thoughtful responses.

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