Anyone here with cOCD who had their symptoms almost completely disappear after changing their environment? I'm still on my personal misdiagnosis quest and I'm wondering if it's part of OCD for those diagnosed. I was in a horrible place and moved back home, and a couple family members are currently covid+ and I just wear my mask and have zero anxiety about it.

Thank you for your answers! I definitely agree, and like all illnesses, some factors tendto trigger/accentuate the intensity of the symptoms. I'm not doing ERP "officially" atm, but I try little exercises at home since I just moved, I need to find a new therapist though. I do recognize the cOCD symptoms I have, and I know I have anxiety as well, but I feel like I still need to adress the trauma part (my OCD started after a specific series of events, linked to this subtype) and now that I changed my environment, I think I should probably combine ERP/CBT with psychotherapy cause I feel ready to talk, and like talking will help with the trauma part

@Anonymous* Ah that's a nice plan. I did CBT for a very long time for my GAD. I in hindsight recognized the OCD symptoms 20+years ago but wasn't diagnosed until now. I think it's great you're going to do both!

@Catperson10 Thank you! That's the thing, I have both (GAD I'm 100% sure I have. One doctor said OCD and GAD, one said GAD/PTSD) and my dad has had OCD traits my whole life that i would recognize as "extreme/over the top" before. Since I don't have any other subtype and my main compulsion is actually avoidance, I'm still struggling to differentiate between the thoughts linked to OCD and those linked to GAD, cause the way we're supposed to deal with them is different. Can't wait to see a doctor I saw a long time ago, when I "only" had anxiety. At that time, my biggest problem was my dog phobia 😂

@Anonymous* Ah that's great you get to see someone. Right now my anxiety response is varied and one day I'll panic going to a public place and then other days I'm standing in line not noticing a person next to me. The second part is super rare. I'm hypervigilant.

@Catperson10 And do you feel like your hypervigilance is more GAD based? Or you don't try and go there? Sorry if this question is somehow triggering, you don't have to answer obviously. This is currently my biggest struggle.

@Anonymous* I'm not sure. I have had anxiety since I was really young but I got retriggered with a food allergy that sent me to the ER. But I'd had contamination worries prior to that so it's not the cause it just made it worse. But I'm not sure yet. I'm only on week 2 or 3 of ERP.

@Catperson10 I see and relate to this (tw food poisoning, 2 short hospital stays, and I worked in the medical field, so I saw confirmations of my fears without taking confirmation bias into consideration). In theory, one can have those worries/traits and function, and one event can trigger a higher level of OCD, that can become debilitating. It usually isn't linked to the subtype, but for health and contamination, I guess it's blurry. I think ERP (which is a super specific CBT) helps for both in practice/day to day life. And "regular" CBT helps to deconstruct the thoughts that are more real life based and a result of anxiety. Lots of luck with your ERP

@Anonymous* Ah that's a good observation. I was doing really really well up to Feb 2020 (touching doorhandles and all). I'm hopeful this will help as well.