Hi everyone, A quick introduction I’ve had ocd for many years I’m 41 I did not get diagnosed until I was 30 and I went through an extremely bad patch. I had cbt and am on medication still. I had a relatively good 10 years where i could carry on my life I look back now and think there are certain things I never dealt with as I was too ashamed all I told my therapist was I get intrusive thoughts around knives just telling her that I felt scared when I know now I should of told her everything. So they revolve around harm to others this can be anyone Fear of certain things news, horror, etc. But the one thought that I always pushed to the back of my mind is relationship ocd. I have been with my partner for 17 years he has been extremely supportive throughout my life but the ocd revolves around me questioning if he’s cheated about four years ago I was at a wedding with him and someone came up to me and said I don’t know if this is true but I’ve heard (your partner ) has a child with someone else and a partner and he loves you both well as you can imagine this was an absolute shock I rang this person when I got home and I said so where is this lady and child and all she said was oh birmingham or Bristol not quite sure it could be a rumour. Anyway it nearly split us up and fast forward last 4 years nothing has ever come of it but i have not done well constantly asking for reassurance being horrible to him the intimacy side has been non existent we both work very hard I have my own business and he works 2 jobs so is away at weekends which feeds the anxiety I’ve realised I’ve got into a pattern for the last year or so for asking for reassurance without realising he cares for me and looks after me but I still have a niggle in my mind and always have a dig at him. I’m exhausted from it all and at Christmas I went to moms for a few weeks as I was so unwell with ocd I’m waiting treatment and I’m working on not asking for reassurance. I want to stay with him but something needs to change. I have thoughts of harm around him I tell him everything and he just makes a joke about it which we laugh at. I google cheat quiz how often you should have sex everything. I’m just at a loss. He works long days 14 - 15 hours I do to but have had to cut down as I couldn’t carry on like that so we have no time for each other since I’ve been ill he’s been getting home earlier and making sure I’ve eaten and took medication. There’s also been a lot of illness around me lately people I know through work and I think it over in my mind. Sorry for such a long post just needed to get it out there.

I don’t know where to begin, this is going to be very long. But whoever responds I appreciate you dearly. I’m 20 years old, I’ve dealt with a lot in my childhood with abandonment and insecurity issues from my family. Aswell of not having a role model of a healthy relationship shown to me as a child. Me and my boyfriend have been together for 3 years, my first healthy relationship. Last year I discovered OCD (I am diagnosed but I ignored my mental health as a teenager like anybody would) I started to get these feelings that I don’t love my partner/he’s not attractive enough/ etc etc. I’ve discovered that it’s ROCD. I made threads on Reddit asking for advice googling for reassurance, all the things as one would do with ocd (as I’m doing now!) One day I woke up and that theme was gone, I felt normal in my relationship for about 4 months with no terrible thoughts. As of about 2-3 months ago, my theme switched. Now I have a fear he doesn’t love me, he’s cheating, he doesn’t want to marry me. It has utterly consumed me (just like my last theme!) I check his phone an unhealthy amount (guess what I never find anything!) He always lets me go through his phone, but as anyone would he gets annoyed and frustrated. I always am searching for signs if he’s acting weird, will get into arguments 24/7 because my brain keeps telling me he’s cheating, I get fake scenarios in my brain, hell I even bought Snapchat+ to stalk his snap score. But ever single time I find nothing. A lot of things trigger me and I over analyze everything, phone calls who his texting. When I do search his phone I check his EMAIL because of how paranoid I am. When I see things on social media about people cheating I SPIRALLLL But what really triggered me was this scenario, his family loves to joke around with me and mess with him at the same time, especially with our relationship, saying I have a leash on him etc etc making jokes (which I can take but when I’m in an ocd spiral and they have no idea something’s are triggering) anyways, we were out to lunch and his mother texts him “are u at some girls house” he told me straight away then responded “why would u say that” then she proceeded to say she’s messing around with him. And sent a picture of me and said I’m with Hailey at lunch, then they had a normal conversation after. Obviously this sent me into a spiral, it still bothers me. I was so upset and anxious, when we got back to his house I went through that man’s phone like it was my only job in the world. And I search EVERYTHING not one thing goes untouched. (I sound insane) anyways we went back to his place, then he called his mom to come in his room and asked why she said that, she felt guilty and said she was messing around she had her hands in her head (mind you she’s been drinking probably just messing around with him when she texted that) she told me not to worry ever about that kind of stuff because her son is not that type of man, she proceeded to leave the room then texted me about how sorry she was and didn’t mean to freak me out and felt like shit about it. Ever since then she’s been acting kind of weird towards me (not really) maybe she’s uncomfortable or there’s another women idk LOL. Anyways yea what the hell do I do I literally can’t function properly.

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

Hi I'm new to all of this so I hope I'm doing this right. 5 years ago my 34 year marriage ended. My ex husband was a mentally and financially abusive, covert narcissist. All that is behind me now and I'm finally remembering who I am again. I'm in a relationship with a really great guy but the problem I'm having is relationship OCD. This has taken me by surprise really as I've had OCD from a very young age but never has it been about my relationship. I constantly check messages and go over and over conversations and convince myself my partner will eventually cheat. Almost every single person in his life I can feel threatened by and I hate this for him and also for me as I don't have any peace of mind. This is ruining the lovely relationship I know I could have so I really need to get a handle on it. Has anybody else experienced this and managed to control it?