Does anyone have advice on how to share your OCD with someone because they might notice some of your compulsions. I am going on a trip with someone who does not know I have OCD. It will just be us two in a foreign country and I can foresee me being anxious and not wanting to hide that in case I need help or something?
You can tell them you may need support on your trip, and use that as a lead in to explain your OCD to your level of comfort. I usually try to explain it in the simplest way I can, because it can be hard for people who don’t have OCD to understand. Tell your travel companion how you’ll want support-do you want to verbalize your fears, do you want peace while you work on resulting the compulsions, do you want to lean on them for support or have them just offer a listening ear? When I struggle, I found a good balance of telling my friends “I’m working really hard to resist this compulsion. I just want to tell you about it so I don’t feel alone, but please don’t offer me reassurance. I just need to be open about the stress.” The NOCD website has a lot of wonderful articles on explaining OCD, and the sub types. Those may be helpful to send to your travel partner, so they can understand.
Just be open and honest with them about your compulsions. People tend to be pretty supportive when you tell them. I used to be embarrassed to have anyone know I had OCD. I was afraid of their judgement because of how Hollywood depicts the condition in movies. Now I just let them know what my compulsions are and ask them not to give me reassurance when I’m trying to battle the compulsion (a lot of mine are reassurance-seeking and ruminating). Just the other day, one of my co-workers at work stopped me mid-ruminating and reassurance seeking, and she simply and calmly said to me, “That’s your OCD.” I hadn’t even realized I was doing it because it’s been my “normal” my whole life. But her comment was like someone snapping their fingers to wake someone up out of a trance. I immediately stopped and refocused. It was nice knowing she had my back and was willing to help me in that moment without feeding into my compulsions.
Hi all! I have posted about this before and still not sure about what to do. I am struggling with the question of whether or not I should tell my partner (getting married this week) about the fact that I have OCD and my past experiences with it. And if so how? On the one hand, I think it would be good for them to know that I have this issue (to know me better, and basically strengthen our bond), but on the other hand, I am not sure about how they would react to hearing some of the past manifestations of OCD that I suffered with (mainly POCD and other sexual OCD - about 10 years ago now). My OCD today is mostly checking things around the house to make sure everything is safe - a more “plain” and “non-threatening” (to people without OCD) kind of OCD that wouldn’t be too challenging to discuss. I guess I want to share my experience but wondering if it makes sense to if I am going to leave out the more challenging (but also what has been for me the most impactful) stuff out. And of course keeping that stuff in the disclosure would carry risks as well. Looking online for expert opinions on this is a bit inconclusive. Expert opinions range from “don’t do it, it’s reassurance and these thoughts are meaningless and don’t define you”, through “you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to but it can be helpful”, to “you should probably do it, but maybe don’t share everything”. Any thoughts from anyone who has gone through this? Thanks!
I have never dated anyone bc of the fear that ocd would flare up too much and cause problems but this time i have taken a leap of faith and thought to myself that whatever ocd is gonna throw my way I will deal with it cause that's what I should be doing cause I can't not do anything in my life. What are your tips to when my ocd flares up due to me dating
So i use to get a lot of relationship OCD. I recently got into a relationship two months ago. i have been experiencing some relationship OCD thoughts like “do i like my partner enough” and to complete the compulsion of telling them that i am having this thought. I use to be able to conquer them but after bringing it up in therapy it got worse. does anyone have any recommendations on how to conquer this compulsion and thought? I don’t want to scare my partner away.
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