Anyone feel like your OCD makes you hard to love?
I have contamination OCD and I sometimes feel like I’m only truly accepted and loved to put it simply when I’m masking everything that really goes on inside. Even though my family reassures me they always love me and everything, I still just often get the feeling that deep down they feel inconvenienced or burdened by my OCD and that I’m not really accepted 100% unless I oversimplify myself to a “tolerable” level that they can understand or something. It can start to feel like I’m hiding some part of myself to keep the peace, but it doesn’t really work anyway because no matter how hard I try it still slips out. I feel like I have to walk a tightrope. They also tend to make insensitive comments that sort of make it seem like it’s something you can just decide to get over, which is somewhat of an oversimplification in my experience (no one who has OCD wants it lol but it is a real struggle). I just feel like I’m looked at in a certain way sometimes and that everyone expects it now and I’m sort of judged based on it like it’s a whole personality trait when it’s not who I am at all it’s something I’ve been dealing with at this point in my life. It’s like I’m not given a chance to be seen as normal anymore. I just want to feel loved unconditionally despite what I’m going through. I often feel misunderstood on this. It really hurts my self esteem also and has sort of solidified a deep belief that I’m “too much” and I have a lot of shame around relationships because of that. Like it’s only a matter of time before the mask slips and I’m exposed and ashamed. I know that it doesn’t define me and that I shouldn’t feel that way because it isn’t who I am, but it still just bothers me sometimes.
Posted Aug 4, 2025, 4:30 PM UTC