- Date posted
- 16h
Real-Life Interactions as ROCD Triggers
Hi everyone -- I am new here, and relatively new to ROCD and ERP. I was diagnosed earlier this year. I have been married for 12 years and with my husband for 17 years. We have 2 beautiful children and, overall, I am very lucky. I am experiencing a really painful OCD loop right now. I am just hoping for support, not reassurance or anything, per the guidelines and because I obviously don't want to feed the OCD monster. This loop has to do with my husband's best friend. I have actually known his friend for as long as I've known him, because we literally met the same night. My husband and I had an instant connection, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I've always felt chemistry with his friend as well. It's frustrating because I will be totally fine and happy in my life (although maybe battling other ROCD/mental health stuff), and then I'll see him a couple of times a year or whatever and the crush will creep in again. He is also now married with kids. Him and his wife, another couple, and my husband and I are all good friends. And I really like his wife. We are friends. In fact, the 6 of us just went on vacation together. I knew seeing him would be a trigger for me so I actually prepared for it with my therapist. I was feeling really good the first two days of the trip and handling it well. But then, he got me 1:1 late one night, after drinking, and brought up an intimate emotional topic with me. We talked for 1.5 hours. I finally said we had to go to bed...setting the boundary. The next day, he made several sexual comments towards me and, later that evening and the next day, started acting kind of irritated towards me and making some mean-spirited comments. My husband was around for that and I am honestly not sure if he noticed. He was dealing with some anxiety himself and I was simultaneously hyperaware and ruminating a bit on him as well. I don't know what's going on in this other guy's head, and I can't know. But I am furious that he triggered my loop when I was so prepared. We are home now and I have been practicing ERP the past couple of days and trying not to spiral. But it's given me that constant feeling of dread. I have always wondered "what if?" with him, and this is just feeding that. I am really proud of myself for setting a boundary. Anyway, you can probably see why this has become such a sticky thought for me. I'm working on allowing the uncertainty around this experience to exist without analyzing what it means about him, me, or my marriage. It's really uncomfortable, especially because there are genuine emotions involved. I'm not looking for anyone to interpret his behavior or tell me what my feelings mean. I'd just love to connect with others who have navigated similarly complicated triggers while practicing ERP. How do you approach accepting uncertainty when a trigger involves a real-life interaction rather than just an intrusive thought? I have therapy on Monday, thank goodness.