- Username
- Lark G.
- Date posted
- 5y ago
Hey I have contamination OCD also and I'm doing ERP now. In this situation you would choose to live with the uncertainty that it's probably not blood but it could be although very unlikely without doing any cleaning compulsions and try not to ruminate by doing mental compulsions in your mind. It's really hard at first but once you choose to accept the uncertainty and continue on with normal tasks the anxiety will come down! You can do this! I support you!!
It definitely will! Every time you fight a compulsion OCD loses power! Thank you so much!
Is there a specific something you are worried you will contract from blood? Or is if the blood in general that scares you?
Therapy may help, such as ERP and CBT. I’ve never went for thereby, so I don’t know what that’s like from personal experience, but only from reading about it and watching videos of psychologist/therapists talking about the therapy’s and how they work.
Yes. Ive been waitlisted for months. Was hoping I can get some techniques to use today as the anxiety on the what if is troubling me
Doubts123- thank you for the tip!! I’m trying to do this and it’s very hard. I’ve been stuck with “is it or is it not” and decided to try to stop thinking about it because I will never know with certainty and to move on without wiping my shoe bottom. It’s very very hard but I’m hoping this helps me in the long run. Good luck to you on your ERP journey.
Hi joschou. It actually just disgusts me. I know that it’s very very hard to get diseases from blood in public bathroom but there were two events last year that caused me to have such a repulsion from it. I’ll spare you the details but let’s just say that I walked into very dirty and bloody bathroom stalls. Those two days I ended up showering for an hour and have since had a hard time getting out of that even when I don’t see these things. Just the hint of anything having been there really freaks me out.
Does anyone have any advice for someone with contamination OCD that is living with a partner without OCD? (Especially given that that partner intentionally or unintentionally sometimes /often says things that make me feel worse/down). I could really use any advice anyone has right now. Things are starting to feel hopeless and I don’t know whether it makes sense to continue with the relationship or if that’s just a temporary feeling in light of what I’m going through. I just feel so alone and misunderstood.
I can’t deal with this OCD bullshit anymore. It’s to the point where every time I walk out my house and come back in I have to sanitize my shoes then the floor where my shoes stepped. I even have my boyfriend doing this and he doesn’t have OCD. I can’t even enough life like I use to anymore I have constantly be cleaning and disinfecting. All these chemicals that have gotten on my skin I know that can’t be healthy. I’m scared the thought of even walking in with my shoes and not using disinfectant triggers me so badly that it ruins my whole day. This all happened when weeks ago I saw a skunk at night walking through the apartment complex I lived in. Then I took my dogs to the vet to get their vaccines. Even though there was no contact I still freak out about rabies. Then the vet assured me that everything was ok. Then I see this stray cat that walks around the apartment complex and he is always trying to come up to my apartment door or the walkway then I’ve seen him walk we’re the skunk area was so now I’m like what if this cat has rabies and I walk where it walks and track it in my house and get rabies. God forbid. It’s to the point where we have a shoe rack and we have to disinfect every time we walk in and out. The other day I had guest and when they left the whole entire house was mopped and I even had bathe my dogs too since they were walking around where everyone was stepping. I even threw away their dog bed and bought them new ones. Please help I can’t live like this anymore.
Hi I'm new to this app and just wanted to communicate with someone struggling with simular things. My ocd has me feeling so stuck right now, like I just don't know what to do. It's caused me to stay home from school and quit my job due to panic attacks. I should probably specify I have contamination ocd and some other one idk what to call. Closest thing would probably be perfection ocd. A couple days ago I had a really bad panic attack once I got home from work where I cried and sat on the stairs for about 2 hours. I only got up when my mom forced me to, because everytime I tried I just felt like I couldn't move. It was mainly triggered by my job as I find it "dirty" and cant handle it anymore- I quit mt job that night. Then is also when I finally told my mom how I've been feeling because of it and now she's constantly worrying that I haven't hurt myself as I finally told her "I just want it to stop." I don't think I actually would but I can't help but to think what would happen and how I could go about it. I have a therapist I see monthly, but I find it really hard to tell her how bad it's effecting me because it's hard to talk about and Idk what kind of power she has but I don't want her to send me to the ward. Idk if that's even a thing anymore but I'm scared of it. I constantly feel like I have to clean everything and I just dont have the energy to do it. All I want to do is lay in bed. But these "dirty" things full my mind untill they're "clean" again. Not to mention the things I literally can't clean because of their material 🥲 I apologize for the awful organization, these are just my thoughts right now.
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