People with OCD often complain that family members don't understand what it takes to accomplish something, such as cutting down a shower by five minutes, or resisting asking for reassurance one more time. While these gains may seem insignificant to family members, it is a very big step for your loved one.
It can be difficult, demanding and exhausting to live with a person who has OCD. Family members and friends may become deeply involved in the person's rituals and may have to assume responsibility and care for many daily activities that the person with OCD is unable to undertake.
Because close relationships are so highly emotional, they often become the primary focus of a person's OCD. In other words, their thoughts and anxieties will center around their loved one.
If you have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), you know that your symptoms can often get in the way of establishing and maintaining romantic relationships. Indeed, many individuals with OCD are single, and those who are in a relationship often report a significant amount of relationship stress.
Relationship OCD — also called ROCD — involves intrusive thoughts and unwanted images about your loved one and your relationship, as well as compulsions you engage in to try to minimize or cancel those obsessions. Most of us worry about our loved ones and relationships from time to time.
Common Compulsions of Relationship OCD
Seeking reassurance that their partner truly loves them. Having sex with their partner for the purpose of ensuring that they are still attracted to them. Avoidance of deepening their relationship so that they won't be hurt when their relationship fails.
OCD appears to hamper patients' ability to enjoy life just as strongly as other severe mental illnesses, such as major depression and schizophrenia.
Encouraging healthy coping habits like exercising, relaxation techniques, and healthy eating can also go a long way in helping someone with OCD overcome their symptoms and reduce their reliance on compulsions or ritualistic behaviors.
These obsessions and compulsions can range in severity, but what causes OCD to get worse over time is not properly managing the condition earlier on. Stress, trauma, avoidance, or even something as seemingly innocuous as a change in routine can all contribute to the worsening of OCD.
As OCD becomes more severe, 'avoidance' may become an increasing problem. The person may avoid anything that might trigger their obsessive fears. OCD can make it difficult for people to perform everyday activities like eating, drinking, shopping or reading. Some people may become housebound.
You can be supportive of the person you love who is suffering, but stop supporting the disorder. When the family stops accommodating OCD behavior, the person who suffers from OCD can become more motivated to seek treatment.
Because symptoms usually worsen with age, people may have difficulty remembering when OCD began, but can sometimes recall when they first noticed that the symptoms were disrupting their lives. As you may already know, the symptoms of OCD include the following: Unwanted or upsetting doubts.
Jill Fenske, M.D. explains in Physician's Weekly, OCD is so often underdiagnosed and undertreated not only because people with OCD are often secretive about their symptoms, but also because “a lack of recognition of OCD symptoms by physicians often leads to a long delay in diagnosis and treatment.”
People with severe OCD have obsessions with cleanliness and germs — washing their hands, taking showers, or cleaning their homes for hours a day. Sometimes they're afraid to leave home for fear of contamination.
If OCD is interfering in your relationship, your therapist might encourage you to bring your partner in for a session or two to learn about your symptoms and how they can best be supportive. This might involve teaching your partner how to respond to requests for reassurance and decrease accommodations.
This means that someone experiencing this mental health condition might display patterns of alternating clingy behavior and a tendency to push their partner away. They might fluctuate between praising their partnership and considering their relationship doomed to fail or riddled with problems.
Studies have shown that domestic violence is as- sociated with mental disorders such as anxiety and OCD. Furthermore, psychiatric disorders can contribute to the occurrence of violence against women (21-24).
Research suggests there may be a link between sexual dysfunction and OCD, as OCD is associated with lower sex drive, lower satisfaction with sex, worse sexual functioning, disgust with sexual activities, dissatisfaction with a sexual partner and fear of having sex.
Many people with OCD know or suspect their obsessional thoughts are not realistic; others may think they could be true. Even if they know their intrusive thoughts are not realistic, people with OCD have difficulty disengaging from the obsessive thoughts or stopping the compulsive actions.
It absolutely is possible to be in a relationship with someone who has OCD, and now you have the tools to achieve it.