Exposure suggestions

It's a tough one - "Where to draw the line?" I struggle with this too and of course Covid made the handwashing / sanitising thing way worse. Some of these things can be combated with exposure - for example I filled the car up with petrol the other day and realised I had forgotten my have sanitizer. I started to have a bit of a freak out when I got back in the car - do I touch the steering wheel? etc. Then I thought "F this - I am not going to be hostage to these thoughts" and I licked my hands! I didn't catch anything. Perhaps that is not a recommended course of action though - and I'm still not over my hygiene issues. But it broke the spell at that time, and has helped a bit since.

Thanks for sharing this! I struggle with this too, I find my hands feel ‘dirty’ after I touch anything and I immediately need to either wash my hands or sanitize. Like you mentioned, I wash my hands after drying off after a shower too. One thing I found that works is when I get the urge to sanitize after touching let’s say, my phone, I use hand cream/lotion instead and that way I’m still putting something on my hands but it’s not actually sanitizing them. Plus, I have dry hands to begin with so it’s really helping me in the long run. :) I’m not sure if this is a good way to go about things because I’m really just replacing the urge with another item/thing to manage it. It’s working for me right now though.

I can totally relate to you having a hard time determining what is “normal”. Something that helps me is to observe what others do and mimicking that or at least observing and reminding my brain that this is how they live and they’re fine. I really struggle with excessive hand washing/sanitizing but I’ve been trying to cut back. Something that helped me is to vigorously rub my hands on my pants instead of washing. Of course it’d be best to just not wash but that’s too much for me sometimes. At least I’m still disrupting the cycle and not giving into exactly what it wants. Honestly I think my greatest progress has been made by licking my hands when washing would for sure be unnecessary. For example after touching the tv remote at my own home.