I'm stressed i have contamination OCD and laundry is always a struggle. There's pets in the house and one of the cats got near my basket and now I don't know what it touched. My laundry is on hold but its getting so late and none of my support people are answering. Help!
The feeling of distress makes you feel something is wrong, which it is okay to feel. But acting to it is not always ok. Every time your cat comes, will you put your laundry on a hold? Sounds like a lot of work. Accept the feeling of uncertainty. You will never get answers. Practice by finish your laundry and putting on the clothes. Feel the anxiety as it will decrease over time. You will ever wonder why you were upset in the first place.
Thanks for your validation and support
Hi there, I struggle with laundry also. What do you mean by “my laundry is on hold”
I stopped, leaving everything where it was and not wanting to touch any of it. But I still had stuff that had to go in the dryer and some stuff that had to come out of the dryer.
OCD hates when you want to test the things that feels distressing because that is the way to get rid of it.
This is difficult, I'm sorry you are going through this. I recommend writing some ERP scripts with a therapist to lessen the anxiety over time. It's the only thing that really helped me.
@bjurn thanks for your direct and clear response. I like the clear perspective you have on OCD.
You are welcome. I suffer from the same OCD as you and I am also guilty of these compulsions sometimes.
Ugh I’ve been there. Laundry is a challenge of mine too with contamination OCD! Totally agree with Bjurn, the only way out is through — the best way to push back against OCD is to do the opposite of what it wants. So choose to do that laundry anyway, and don’t engage with the fears/thoughts OCD tries to trick you with. It won’t feel good/pleasant at first, but you can handle it and with time and practice it will start to feel like an easier choice. We got this!!
I'm having a bit of a crisis tonight. I didn't have many clean clothes so I figured I'd do laundry when I woke up (my sleeping schedule is all messed up). I'm weird about touching the laundry soap, I have to shower immediately afterwards so I started laundry and showered. I got out and put on my last pair of underwear and a T-shirt. I didn't have any clean shorts or pants, not a big deal but I feel weird. Whatever. The washer gets done and I go to put the stuff in the dryer and I didn't notice my partners hoodie was in with the dirty clothes. The same hoodie they were wearing a few months ago when our cat had worms and it jumped on their shoulder, leaning something on it. I don't know if it was dirt or poop but my biggest fear is worms/getting worms so I've avoided that hoodie like the plague. I tried ignoring having touched it or that it was mixed in with all of my clothes so I hung up the hoodie but I also had to touch a hanger that isn't ours, I don't know who touched it last or how long it's been sitting there collecting dust. At this point I started panicking so I threw the clothes in the dryer and took a second shower. When I got out I couldn't stop thinking about my clothes being contaminated so I had to rewash them, which means a third shower. But before that I dug around in my dresser for some old clothes to wear that I might of forgot about and sure enough I found a pair of shorts at least so I put them on the bed on my blanket, put the clothes back in the washer and took a third shower, it was mostly cold this time. But when I got out I realized I had touched the shorts on my blanket with my contaminated hand and that they touched my blanket so I threw both off in the floor with my feet and dug through my dresser again except with my foot this time and found a really old pair of shorts that are two sizes too big. At some point, too, I knocked off my 2DS charger onto the floor so I can't use that anymore until I clean it. All of my outside pants are now in my floor, the clothes are washing for a second time and at some point tonight I'm gonna have to wash my blanket and take a fourth shower. I'm so exhausted, I can't take this anymore. I want to cry.
My contamination ocd has gotten so bad over the last 6 months. My roommate moved in with his girlfriend and I’m living in my own now, which makes it harder for me to suppress the urge to wash my hands. It makes me not want to do anything but stay at home. I’ve gotten to the point where I can’t even rationalize it anymore. Today for example, my girlfriend got out of the shower before me and wanted to get a new towel so put the towel on the floor. I didn’t have any clean ones except for the one that I use to wipe down my dogs feet after she steps in poop or mud or something. The towel has been run through the wash, but after using it I see that there were some brown streaks still on the towel, making me think that the towel didn’t get fully clean in the wash. It’s completely killed my mood and now I’m sitting here feeling anxious because I can’t do anything about it without feeling weird in front of my girlfriend. She’s very supportive about things like this, but I’m worried she’ll feel bad. Just wanted to vent, hoping it’ll make me feel better until I can go home and shower again
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