Obsessed with Therapy

All I seem to think about is therapy, biding my time til my next session. Why? Do others do that, and if so why?

Is it all transference related or is it a form of OCD?

I feel stupid going to therapy wanting to talk about my favorite subject, therapy. Is it part of the process?

I think this is quite common. It could be any of the reasons you mentioned above, or none of them. For me, I noticed I did this a lot when my life was not going well at all. It was somehow 'easier' to obsessively think about therapy (and, sometimes, my therapist) than to think about my problems in isolation from what I was trying to do about them.

That is, filling every moment with thoughts about therapy served to ward off thoughts like "I'm a loser, I'm a ****-up, I don't have money to pay X bill, I'm in the **** at work, my dog is sick, my partner hates me" etc.

As my problems began to ease, I thought about therapy a lot less.

Either way, I've been there, it sucks, I hope things get better for you soon.

I have periods where I count down the hours to my next therapy session and then there have been times when therapy gets in the way of other things I want to do. I don't think it unusual - I think it is part of the process and the nature of the therapeutic relationship.

If it is part of the process or common, why does it happen? What's the benefit? Thanks

I don't know that there's a benefit, per se, except that figuring out why it happens could be beneficial. It was beneficial for me to learn that I obsess about X to keep from thinking about Y. I'm not sure I ever realized I did that before.

Similarly, it could be beneficial to realize you crave X in therapy because it's something you're missing in the rest of your life, or because you have strong ambivalent feelings about X.

Sometimes I craved talking to my T because, I later realized, it had become habit not to "burden" real people with my problems. Other times I obsessed about talking to T because, I later realized, I had strongly ambivalent feelings about opening up in general.

As for it being "part of the process," I think this is more nebulous and difficult to define. I guess it's part of the process in that everything is "part of the process"--grist for the mill, if you will.

A more relationally-minded person might say that maybe one's obsessing about the therapeutic relationship signals an insecurity about all relationships or something.

Others might say that the whole thing is indicative of an unhealthy dynamic build right into the fabric of therapy itself.

Who knows. What does your T think?

ETA: I also think that sometimes "part of the process" is just another way of saying "don't worry about it."

This happens for me when my life is empty; generally lost and vulnerable; out of work; disruption in whatever I had been doing, etc.

I certainly felt obsessed in some periods of my therapy experiences. Part of it for me was that I am a very introspective and analytical person by default and the idea of doing that with someone else interested and knowledgeable can feel like the best of life for me. I would often have constant conversations in my head with the therapist and would want to discuss every thought with them. It can be very intense for me and can eat up a lot of mental energy. But similarly to what thesnowqueen said, it happens most often when my life is quite empty, unsatisfying otherwise and I substitute real life with the fantasies related to therapy. Also, I have a tendency to get into this kind of obsessional preoccupation and overthinking as a distraction strategy from what I really need to deal with, often practical things. For me it's not so much obsessing about the relationship with the therapist or the therapist himself, but wanting to dissect and discuss all sorts of things all the time. It was part of the process for me in a sense that therapy brought out my obsessional qualities and tendencies for distractions nicely. I would often jump all over the map in my interactions with the T when I was not willing to address the real important issues. I also just enjoyed being with the T and would look forward to it all week. Again, more intensely when I was otherwise quite isolated and having my social needs unmet.

I identify with much of what ArgonAutomobile said. I think about therapy, marriage counseling, my T, and MC quite a bit. Especially stuff with MC. T has called it obsessive thinking and ruminating (though I hate thinking of stuff that way). I've said to her that if I wasn't obsessing/ruminating about him, it would be something else. Like stuff with my daughter. Or my relationship with my H. Or my health. Or political stuff (especially lately!). So I think there's maybe some element of avoidance in there. And also, as MC himself has said, he's "safe."

You mention OCD stuff--have you been officially diagnosed with OCD? I've had it since I was a kid. If not...then could be something else maybe. So...not sure what I'm getting at here. Just that you're not alone!

And I also have some intense (paternal) transference and attachment for my MC, so that plays a role, too, I'm sure...

Seoultous hit it on the head for me-- usually I look forward to therapy but there have been times when I'd rather skip and do something else. Or nothing else. I don't always know which one I'll feel. A good session and even trigger the feeling of not needing the next appointment.

I think when that happens it means you have a strong rapport / bond with T and therefore you make room for them in your life and because you talk about life together you start to think about T when you experience certain things. What T would say about what you're going through. How T may bring comfort and it keeps going from there. It is completely normal to feel obsessed with therapy. It is called internalising.

In my experience, a very large part of the work of therapy occurs outside of the therapy room, in between sessions.
For me the reasons why I become "obsessed" vary.
Sometimes there is an problem or question raised in session that I keep thinking about and pondering, which seems productive.
Sometimes I just obsessively think of my therapist and our relationship, usually as a way of avoiding thinking about other things, which is less productive.