- Date posted
- 2y
Asbestos
About 2 years ago, during planning work to my current house I became aware that I was likely exposed to asbestos in my old pre war built house. I lived there for approx 10 years and when I first moved in a lot of work was needed on the place. A number of possible exposures occured but the one i am mainly concerned about was when we had the main bedroom artex ceiling removed. A workman did the actual work but this was done on the cheap areanged by my ex. it created a ridiculous amount of dust that hung around for a long time and was next to impossible to clean up. (I do not think the guy realised it was artex or didn't care about the risk maybe. It was certainly never mentioned.) Shortly afterwards I realised that if the ceiling was brought down then whatever insulation was on top must have been too. I have no idea what this was or even that there definately was any and this led me to worry it could have been asbestos which I understand is the most dangerous kind when used in this way because it is essentially loose and contaminates everything. I became concerned that I was therefore chronically exposed to asbestos,possibly the worst kind, over many weeks/months (possibly longer as dust got in all rooms and on furnishings etc.) And was extremely concerned about my risks of developing illness now (about 12 years on) or in the future as a result. I became completely obsessed with going over and over the ceiling removal trying to remember if we had any insulation and if we had if it was the dangerous kind. My brain threw up ideas that initially seemed sensible to me but actually are really bad ideas e.g. knocking on the door of the house and asking for a sample from their attic (yes I know this would sound crazy) or contacting my ex (but I know he would either not remember or it wouldn't help as would either make me worse or Iikely wouldn't believe him. That and Bad idea anyway - not a great relationship in retrospect.) I gradually thought about it less with medication and other stressors but was always peripherally aware of this. This has risen its head again with an increase in ocd symptoms and being aware that my kids still use some things that were in that house, which may potentially be contaminated with asbestos. My therapist thinks I should treat this as ocd but I can't get past my belief that this presents a real and ongoing potential risk. I want to get rid of anything that was ever in that old house but that would leave us with very few belongings so isn't really reasonable.