- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
I've been following your posts recently and I don't have any good answers for you. My OCD started around the same age as you, so I've had it about 23 years. I didn't get to an OCD therapist until this last year, so I can relate to not getting proper treatment for a long time. I too spent 4 days in the mental hospital a couple years ago. It's a particularly tough time of years to feel miserable. I don't know exactly how to help you, but will offer support in any way I can.
- Date posted
- 3y
I’m at vanderbilt behavioral health in Nashville I’m going in to see if they can help me atleast get on medication my ocd has depressed me so much I no it’s hard to get help for ocd like my rituals and phobias I have like contamination ocd over stuff that’s not even dirty just like certain items can’t touch each other so packing to go into a hospital is hard and then I have dressing rituals I need to do everyday and need certain clothes and there’s so many rules we always gotta compromise on stuff so I can atleast be comfortable and have the stuff I need to finish dressing rituals and shower rituals but contamination ocd makes it hard there’s no shelf’s for me to have a safe place to put my deodorants and face pads to clean my face I always clean them and set them up in a clean place and sometimes they just don’t have anywere and I always have a roommate I spend along time in the bathroom changeing and doing stuff I feel like I’m bothering them and it makes my anxiety worse I don’t wanna interfere wit someone else whose also trying to get help them no nurses no doctors understand the pain and hysteria I feel when they take these comfort items it makes it that much harder being here when I’m suppose to be here to get better I feel an ocd would be better and more understanding to being upset over these things but maybe I can stay here for a few days and atleast starts meds and be out of my apartment we’re I feel so much ocd contamination and maybe they can advocate for me and get me into an ocd place realizing the severity of it.
- Date posted
- 3y
I’m still waiting at the hospital I decided not to bring my clothes and stuff so I don’t have to go threw the stress of them touching everything my dressing rituals makes it hard for me to go to a hospital cause you have a roommate and I need to lay my clothes out on my bed and wash my hands and change standing by my bed so I can lay my clothes out and I need a clean slave to put my deodorant qtips and face pads but wit a roommate I have to do it all in the bathroom and laying my clothes out on the floor is hard and there’s nowere in the bathroom clean to set my deodorant qtips and face pads rinse them off seperatly then set them down witout them touching each other it’s aggravating and worse on me to have to do that and I have to change my clothes everyday like doing the ritual of changeing my clothes and if I don’t I’ll have to do it twice the next day watever days I don’t complete the clothes changeing ritual and just stay in the same clothes when I do change my clothes I gotta do it the amount of days I skipped and that’s been really hard cause my liveing situation has been crazy in the past I was homeless for awhile and wasn’t able to have a clean are to wash my hands and change my clothes so when we got a place I would be weeks behind and everday I’d change my clothes in this ritual till I did it for the amount of days I skipped it’s really hard and it sounds like changeing your clothes everyday is a normal thing and it is but I can’t skip a day so ppl who stay in there pajamas all weekend and get sick for a few days and lay in bed I’d still have to change my clothes I’ve been doing this for 15 years alot of wat I do is ritualized cause I do it everyday my ocd just makes a ritual out of it to kind of help me in a way get threw it but it kind of just ends up not really helping but wat am I suppose to do bout the rituals I’ve been doing for 15 years it’s just wat I do and it’s so hard explaining these things to ppl and the way it makes me feel when I can’t do these things I feel like everything lay been ripped from me I’m panicky and shocked it’s extremely hard but ppl just see it as being upset when it’s not it’s a disability.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 24w
Not super ocd related but I will be staying at a treatment center for mental health soon and I'm looking forward to nit being stuck at home where I have loads of ocd triggers. I know avoidance isn't the best and honestly leaving home for a month or two might make it harder to deal with when I come back but honestly I need a break, I feel trapped here and my mum hates dealing with me and my shitty brain so it's best for all of us if I go away for a bit. Am I the only one who's contamination ocd is worse at home because I hold more value over my room? Like everywhere in the house and even parts of my room are infected but the clean parts need to stay clean but if I'm in public on a random chair I don't care because it's not my chair
- Date posted
- 18w
(long read ahead, sorry lol) I’ve struggled with ocd for as far back as I can remember. I find that it gets worse with stress, and recently I’ve really been struggling with the contamination aspect of my ocd. I’m worried about it becoming unmanageable and negatively affecting my relationship with my partner. I’ve been living with my boyfriend since January (got kicked out of my house a week after I turned 18, it’s for the better though my house is toxic as hell) and I love living with him, but him and his family aren’t as concerned with cleaning as I am used to. My boyfriend and I have been together going on 2 years and there’s been many times throughout our relationship that his struggle with depression severely impacted his ability to keep up with cleaning his room. This is something I completely understand because I’ve struggled with it too so i’ve often helped him clean, and since i’ve moved in he’s done so much better at keeping up with cleaning (especially because he knows about my issues with clutter, mess, germs, etc.) He is really good at being accommodating towards my needs (not overly so, i’m aware that recovering includes accepting being uncomfortable), but it’s so hard for me to differentiate between what is the normal standard for cleanliness and hygiene and what’s excessive and unhealthy. I get so stressed out every single day over the thought of how dirty everything is. He has 3 cats that mainly stay in his room (he has a catio attached to his window/side of the house) and dogs which stay on the opposite side of the house and backyard, so there is fur everywhere constantly (i’m also allergic to cats but it’s not severe). I can’t stop thinking about how they are getting germs from their litter box all over everything. They also used to piss under his bed and in his closet when his room used to be a mess and it’s soaked into the floor so no matter what it stinks. It’s so hard to bring myself to walk around the house without slippers because my feet will get visibly dirty and my socks would get covered in hair. I always think about how my boyfriend sometimes walks on the rugs in the bathroom in shoes and all the germs that spreads. There’s so many more things but this is already getting long and I am shaking just thinking about how unclean everything is. I want to deep clean the entire house myself so I can get it to where It’s not like psychological torture everyday and it’s easier to maintain but I have been so busy I don’t have the time. I am worried about my boyfriend thinking I don’t like living with him or that I think that’s he’s dirty but i don’t. We have had several conversations about this and he’s reassured me that he knows none of my obsessive thoughts are personal but I still feel so bad about it. I would like to get therapy to help work through this but currently that is not an option for me. I know things will get better once I get through the main things in my life that are causing a lot of stress and therefore making my ocd flair up, but I need advice on what to do in the mean time. I keep having moments where all I can do is shake and cry and clean and I feel bad for my poor boyfriend who can only sit next to me and try to comfort me or help me clean. I also don’t want to make him worried that nothing he does is enough for me (i’ve also already talked to him about this and told him about how I can never even be clean enough for myself and that I don’t think he’s dirty). There’s been many times where I want to tell him to do things that I think might be my own unhealthy compulsions (ex. not wearing shoes in the house or in our room, not getting into bed with socks on, making sure to completely dry off before getting out the shower, put makeup and jewelry back where they belong right after using them, etc.) but i can’t tell if they’re reasonable or not and i try to not tell him unless it’s something that severely distresses me. I’m aware that everything is going to have germs no matter what and have been using NER’s to help manage my thought spirals/rumination. I know that I shouldn’t keep doing compulsions because it just offers temporary relief and makes the problem worse because nothing will ever be enough. I just feeling so overwhelmed and hopeless and exhausted and want some feedback.
- Date posted
- 15w
sorry this is super long i just wanna know if anyone else has been thru something similar bc i feel super alone 🩷 i have super bad contamination ocd. it was bad already but my house was like my safe space until a few months ago someone brought something into my house that i considered ‘contaminated’. and so then i felt like that part of the house was contaminated, then it spread to everything outside my room (since family is moving around touching stuff) and then somehow i got convinced everything in my room except my bed is contaminated and i need to wash my hands after touching it. in my mind its like the contamination just infinitely spreads to things after the tiniest bit of touch. idek what im afraid of anymore or even what the original thing was but i can’t let it go. when i have to wash off contamination i have to wash at least 4 times or until it feels right, or sometimes take rlly long showers and wipe down all my stuff. i even throw away food and clothes or just whole items sometimes because they feel so contaminated i don’t want them in my space. i can’t be super near people or have anyone touch me, and i also can’t bring anything new into my room since it had to go through the entry of my house which feels contaminated. i feel like all i do is lay in bed and then wash my hands and do compulsions so i can go eat or do other stuff around the house. also i never go out because i’m bc people outside make me feel dirty, and i hate thinking about how many people have touched stuff in stores or in public and stuff. so im just in my room worrying all day. i feel so trapped and the contamination/avoiding it is all i think about anymore i barely have time for anything else and im never present when i talk to people because im worrying about if i accidentally got contaminated. im starting erp next week and knowing that im going to have to expose myself to things is really freaking me out. does anyone else have this kind of ocd ? im exhaustedddd 🥲🥲💔
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