For relationship OCD, I want to share a valuable moment/lesson I had just now. I have been dating my wonderful boyfriend for almost 2 years, and we had been together for about a year or so before I was diagnosed with clinical OCD. I have been through ups and downs with my OCD as all of us have, and there were times I felt guilty for having relationship OCD. But one of the most important things I’ve learned is to have communication. As we know, communicating your personal needs can be hard with OCD, as they fluctuate and we worry they won’t be accepted or met by the people on our lives. But we need to branch out and communicate, and the people in our lives will be more accepting then you think. My boyfriend and I sat down briefly and I told him what my therapists have said to be good and bad things for OCD. I told him that I understood if he didn’t want to be involved in helping me with OCD because it can be incredibly taxing for the “caregivers” just as it is for the sufferers. But he immediately showed his support and told me he wanted to be involved because he felt his job as my boyfriend was to help in any way that he could. I always knew he was incredible, but things like this make my heart warm. I never would have received the support I need had it not been for the power of effective communication. Even though the people in our lives are willing to give us strength (but NOT reassurance😉), we can’t blame them for not helping unless we tell them we need help. We need to gather our strength and tell them we need something. I’ve learned that, at least for me, the way to fight OCD is to build an army. And to build an army, you have to be a strong recruiter. Leave comments below of where your strength comes from! Follow me if you liked this, hopefully I’ll be making some more passages like this and I love it when my words help you guys!