Who Are You In Relationship With? Them Or Your Anxiety?
The other day I was listening to a podcast on ROCD — otherwise known as relationship obsessive-compulsive disorder: a type of OCD that targets individual's relationships, making the sufferer question each and every aspect of their relationship, its health, and their partner's compatibility.
As someone who suffers from it, it can be pretty excruciated. This isn’t the topic of today’s article, but if you want to read further about the signs and symptoms of ROCD, subscribe to the page as I expect to write more on this soon.
Nonetheless, one of the questions that the podcast host asked their guest was what the difference was between someone who is in a healthy and secure relationship and someone who is suffering from ROCD. The guest answered by saying that he believed the difference was that the sufferer isn’t in a relationship with their partner but with their own anxiety.
Think about that for a second…
To be in a non-secure relationship, one marred by our anxiety — be it OCD related, an insecure attachment, or otherwise —, is to be in a relationship with your anxiety more than the other person.
The way this was framed stood out to me because it put into perspective the ways in which our anxiety can mould our behaviours in relationships.
