At the Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center of Silicon Valley, we offer cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for Relationship OCD. Our approach is practical, goal-oriented, compassionate, and scientifically-based while focusing on your individual needs.

What is Relationship OCD?

Relationship OCD involves intrusive or obsessive thoughts about your intimate relationship. You may doubt your feelings towards your partner or be overly focused on his/her flaws. Or may experience excessive jealousy or find yourself suspicious of your partner’s fidelity. In order to deal with the anxiety that these thoughts cause, you may find yourself constantly seeking reassurance from your partner or others or checking to ensure that he/she is being faithful.

Symptoms of Relationship OCD

• Obsessive and intrusive thoughts about your relationship with your significant other, including:
• Fears about the “rightness” of the relationship
• Fears that you do not love your partner
• Fears that your partner does not really love you
• Fears that your partner has been unfaithful
• Hyper-focus on your partner’s flaws and shortcomings
• Ending otherwise healthy, loving relationships due to obsessive thoughts. Or constantly breaking up and getting back together with your partner.
• Spending a lot of time trying to understand your intrusive thoughts about your partner and figure out what the deeper meaning is
• Constantly seeking reassurance from your partner or others that your thoughts are not true
• Setting up “tests” or other ways to confirm whether your obsessive thoughts are true

Cognitive Behavioral Model of Relationship OCD

According to the CBT model, it is normal to experience intrusive thoughts from time to time. If you have Relationship OCD, however, you might view these intrusive thoughts about your intimate relationship as threatening and assign a great deal to importance to them. For example, you may have thought that a coworker is attractive and then interpret that thought to mean that you don’t really love your partner and that your relationship is not “right”. This causes you significant distress or anxiety. You may then attempt to soothe yourself with a ritual that temporarily reduces your anxiety. Because anxiety is relieved in the short-term, the anxiety cycle continues with the next intrusive thought.

Cognitive Behavior Treatment of Relationship OCD

The goal of CBT for OCD is to teach you that you can manage the anxiety associated with obsessive thoughts without performing compulsions or rituals. You will learn a type of CBT called Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). Treatment will include education about OCD and how it is maintained, cognitive strategies that will help you respond differently to anxiety and intrusive thoughts, and behavioral strategies to help you delay and/or eliminate compulsive behaviors. ERP/CBT will help you face your intrusive thoughts, in session and in the real world, and practice new ways of responding to anxiety. With practice and experience facing your fears, you find yourself to be less disturbed by intrusive thoughts and more able to cope with anxiety and uncertainty.

How to Get Help for Relationship OCD

The Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center of Silicon Valley is located at 16579 Los Gatos Almaden Road on the border of San Jose and Saratoga. With our convenient location between highways 85 and 17, we serve the Silicon Valley communities of San Jose, Saratoga, Mountain View, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Los Gatos, Los Altos, Palo Alto, Cupertino and Campbell, CA. Contact us for more information on how we can help you manage your Relationship OCD.

Serving the Silicon Valley communities of San Jose, Saratoga, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Cupertino, Campbell, Mountain View, Los Altos, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto and Santa Clara, CA

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