OCD and Relationships: How You and Your Partner Can Help Each Other

Asking you the same questions multiple times. As someone with OCD, one of my favorite things is repetitiveness. Car crashes, choking, anaphylaxis, home invasions, illness, my child dying, mass shootings. Anything that can provoke fear in people, my anxiety exaggerates and thrives on. Most of the time they come out of nowhere.

I was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder when I was 20, but I had been dealing with the condition since before I can even.

In psychology , relationship obsessive—compulsive disorder ROCD is a form of obsessive—compulsive disorder focusing on close or intimate relationships. Obsessive—compulsive disorder comprises thoughts, images or urges that are unwanted, distressing, interfere with a person’s life and that are commonly experienced as contradicting a persons’ beliefs and values. Common obsessive themes include fear of contamination, fears about being responsible for harming the self or others, doubts, and orderliness.

However, people with OCD can also have religious and sexual obsessions. Some people with OCD may experience obsessions relating to the way they feel in an ongoing relationship or the way they felt in past relationships ROCD. People may continuously doubt whether they love their partner, whether their relationship is the right relationship or whether their partner really loves them. When they attempt to end the relationship, they are overwhelmed with anxiety. By staying in the relationship, however, they are haunted by continuous doubts regarding the relationship.

Another form of ROCD includes preoccupation, checking, and reassurance-seeking behaviors relating to the partner’s perceived flaws.