Helen01

Thank you for your response, The most obvious (to me) rituals are checking doors, taps, the hob & lights before bed which I don't get involved in but I also don't encourage to stop - is this the right thing to do? The area that I fell into was reassuring about his body. He is an avid gym go-er and is very into his fitness. What started as a question every few weeks of, how 'do I look', 'am I getting bigger', 'am I getting smaller' etc... now happens every day multiple times & we can spend hours on the topic. I didn't see this as OCD before because it wasn't a physical check but from reading up it's more of a mental check. I've always reassured him & answered his questions thinking maybe it was body dysmorphia but now it seems to be OCD, I think? He also says that he finds himself checking whether he is thinking about having thoughts & that then causes him to panic that he wont be able to control his thoughts. The thoughts don't appear to be anything in particular but the fear tends to come from not being able to control the thoughts.

Hello, I'm new to this forum & have found a lot of the content helpful but I'm still battling with myself as to how much I can give/support my boyfriend because it's starting to really impact me and I feel selfish for saying so. I know that I can't possibly understand what he is going through and that at times I know that I haven't helped as from not understanding I often reassured him of his compulsions. He has seen a professional but feels that this caused him more of an issue because it bought his OCD 'to life' and made it real. The blame was then put on me for suggesting he spoke to someone about it so I don't feel like I can approach this option again. However, I also don't know how I can go on like this as I feel like an emotional punch bag for him. He does acknowledge that it's an issue but feels he can self-manage it & I'm afraid that it has gone beyond that. Has anyone else experienced this? Like I said previously, I'm riddled with guilt feeling like I can't support him any more and I don't know what more I can do.