Hey everyone! Any advice on how to stop confessing? Really struggling to battle the intense urgency and panic to confess every white lie, thought or comment I’ve ever said to my boyfriend. Some date back years and they’re always trivial things but it’s horrible for my boyfriend and myself! I get a very small amount of relief but sit anxiously until the next thing comes into my head! Any thought processes or techniques to use would be so helpful. Thank you xx

I’m so sorry you’re struggling with this right now, I used to have the urge to confess everything when I was younger too (now realising that it was probs ocd haha!). For me what helped to stop eventually was whenever I felt the urge to tell someone something I thought I’d done wrong, i took a deep breath and remind myself that thoughts aren’t facts, and likelihood is if I don’t confess nothing bad will happen. Remember reassurance doesn’t help in the long run, if you’re in therapy maybe ask your therapist to come up with a little erp exercise for you to try with this? Hope you’re okay! ✨

Yes it’s the personal feelings you then have about yourself that make it just awful isn’t it! I begin to think I’m this awful person who’s done all these awful things and I’m bad. Absolutely exhausting! To confess one thing and sit anxiously while you feel your brain search for the next. I’m really grateful for your advice, I have been trying it and it gives me great hope that it’s beatable. So sorry about your new intrusive thoughts, boy can I relate to that. Sometimes when I get new ones, I talk to it and say ‘oh that’s a new one. Thanks OCD for that’ and it can help it pass. It’s hard at first but the more you do it, the less they pop it! 💕🥰

Thanks so much for your comment. I think that’s really helpful and I will practice the deep breaths! This will certainly help with any bad thoughts - did you ever experience guilt surrounding things that did actually happen? Tiny things like negative comments I made to a friend, over sharing details of my relationship with friends maybe my boyfriend wouldn’t, a white lie I told in an argument over a year ago, etc. The list goes on and the second I relieve myself of the anxiety by telling him, something else he doesn’t know pops up! I’m terrified all this confessing will damage our relationship more than the ‘bad things’ I am confessing because they are all so minor! So glad to hear you got through this one - it gives me hope 🥰💕

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