- Date posted
- 37w
fighting confession urges… (21+)
I had a really intense flare up this week, which came with the urgent desire to confess something to my girlfriend. I’ve made it through 3 or so days of sitting with this confession, but I don’t know how handle the thought “what if this is pertinent to confess and you’re using ERP to make you ok with hiding things?” It’s really hard because I have Real Event OCD and my primary obsessions regard some truly horrible things I’ve done/ways I’ve behaved throughout my 9 year relationship. Some of these have been absolutely necessary to confess to her, so that makes every confession feel urgent and important (because things in the past actually WERE vital to tell her). I’ve confessed so so SO many details to her, and everything I’ve told her felt like it was absolutely necessary to confess. She always encourages me to speak with her when I have these things on my mind, but I never run out of things to confess. I never run out of anxiety and fear. I feel so exhausted fighting with my brain all day. The main thing I’ve been ruminating over the past few days involves the way I answered a question she asked me around a month ago when we were having a conversation about the things I’ve done (it was of course brought up by me because I was ruminating and anxious). I think I may have lied. It wasn’t intentional, and I didn’t feel anxious like I would if I purposefully lied, but I feel like I’m the moment I may have known my answer wasn’t 100% accurate. I can’t determine if this information is vital to confess as I feel like the answer I have come up with is different and more harmful than my original answer. However, I’ve been really struggling the past month with near daily flare ups and confession urges (after a period of finally starting to move on from my event). I know that if I confess this, I will find something else to confess very shortly after/feel like I didn’t confess enough. But that doesn’t mean that my current confession urge isn’t real or important. I’m so stressed out. I would like to keep fighting the urge because I’ve been doing this constantly for years now. She says most of the details I’ve told her weren’t totally necessary to confess, but obviously some were. And that’s what scares me. How do I tell the difference? I’m really stressed and we’re supposed to have a nice little movie night together this evening, but I feel like such a monster and a fraud. I could really use some level headed advice 😢 I’m so tired of this, and I’m so tired of myself. I just wish I could have been a better person and a better partner.