I’m spiraling from touching a wall I had touched when I went home from outside and used the public bathroom from December.I don’t remember cleaning it. I just touched it an hour ago and my anxiety’s been up and down. Anyone knows any methods to relax or anything? I’m starting ERP and I want to get better so badly.
Hello, I’m really glad to hear you’re starting ERP, that really helped me get some mental relief from OCD. In the meantime, I find a statement that centers me around why I’m feeling anxious helpful sometimes. In this case, something like, “I’m feeling anxious because I think I may be contaminated (whatever you’re afraid of), I can’t be 100% certain that’s not true, I accept that uncertainty and am willing to live with it happily.” Sit with the uncomfortable feelings without giving into compulsions for as long as you can. Over time, it got easier for me. Your therapist will help design specific ERP exercises around your OCD fears. I hope that helps in some small way!
@Anon. It’s definitely hard to deal with the anxiety of not knowing something than acting out on it immediately but these little steps are counting :) I can already see the change. Thank you for the advice!
@All the colors I got a therapist on this app because they specialized in treating OCD (my therapist on here really only treated OCD patients). He went over all of that information and guided me on how to begin to embrace the uncertainty. If your therapist now it’s talking about embracing the uncertainty and you’re there for OCD treatment, possibly consider trying a new one. I have both a regular therapist and an OCD one on this app. I wanted to accept the uncertainty because I saw that it resulted in more mental freedom from the OCD cycle. The compulsions were only temporary relief.
@Suan099 Of course, I’m glad it’s helping a little bit!!
Breathe deeply. Repeat a few times.
Then if you can try saying “I may have cleaned the wall or I may not have”. It will worse at first but just sit with the anxiety of not knowing and don’t do anything to get clean. If your anxiety is no better after thinking maybe or maybe not for 15 minutes. Try deep breathing again.
@Erin P Thank you. I just touched my whole face and other electronics I’m still having the urge to clean everything since I don’t know if I was clean at that time or not but it’s going down a little :)
@Suan099 I hope the anxiety is now mostly gone. If so, you’ve just done ERP successfully.
@Erin P I managed to fall asleep after the anxiety had calmed down. It’s definitely somewhat working! Slow but a first step. Thank you for the help and advice :)
@Suan099 You’re welcome. So glad it worked.
I see, yes the OCD mind can really make up any scenario or situation. Do you ever avoid going to the bathroom for as long as you can/hold it in as long as you can? That happens to me and then at times makes it worse because it leads to other what ifs.
Do you think of what might be spread by that or anything in particular? Even though we may know it's just OCD it's not easy. I've even heard that even our hands have something on them that help fight off bacteria IF it's even on there to begin with.
@Greenery99 Mine centers around restroom so my mind can make up anything that can spread from there but I always wash my hands so there might not be anything to begin with, just my imagination running wild
Im having a OCD specifically contamination OCD flare up all month and I don’t want to feel this way going into March, I’ve thrown out clothes, towels, stayed up for hours doing compulsions, washed my hands till they crack and bleed, I have washing pilling up cause I’m so overwhelmed by all the extra things I’ve added cause I thought it was contaminated. It’s completely draining me to the point where I’ve become sleep deprived and are avoiding part of my home because they are deemed contaminated to me…I only moved in a few months ago, I had a roach problem and using baits and insecticides really messed with my ocd too. anyone have any tips or tricks to make this easier? I wasn’t doing this bad in January :( thankyou in advance :)
Sorry if this is tmi. In advance, I know some germs are fine - I'm all for that, and it definitely does ease some contamination anxiety. But I have lots of anxiety surrounding going to the bathroom, specifically number two. Again I'm so sorry if this is tmi. I went yesterday, and obviously my hands were contaminated because well, they are when you go to the bathroom. But also because I accidentally brushed the back of my hand against myself. When you're done in the bathroom you obviously put underwear back on, and trousers or whatever, but I wash my hands before touching my trousers but not underwear. So I do that bit before I wash my hands, but my hand, the very contaminated part, touched like a bit of my skin at my waist. At the time, I brushed it off, thinking that my trousers will cover that anyway for the time being. But then today, I wore leggings that are kind of small on me and they weren't as high waisted. And then I got in my bed, and had a t-shirt on, and probably touched so many things. I changed my t-shirt, meaning it touched my hair as I took it off. So now I'm paranoid I have poop particles all over me. I'm convinced I need to have a full shower again and wash my hair. I'm okay with having a shower, but I barely have enough energy for that let alone washing my hair too. I don't shower every day, so with my schedule, I'm not due to have one until tonight. I just want to be able to get up, get dressed, and go about my day. But how do I do that when my bed feels contaminated and I feel like I need to change the bedsheets. How do I cope when it feels like poop particles are in my HAIR. And that could totally be possible. I know some germs are fine. But I just don't know what to do.
sorry this is super long i just wanna know if anyone else has been thru something similar bc i feel super alone 🩷 i have super bad contamination ocd. it was bad already but my house was like my safe space until a few months ago someone brought something into my house that i considered ‘contaminated’. and so then i felt like that part of the house was contaminated, then it spread to everything outside my room (since family is moving around touching stuff) and then somehow i got convinced everything in my room except my bed is contaminated and i need to wash my hands after touching it. in my mind its like the contamination just infinitely spreads to things after the tiniest bit of touch. idek what im afraid of anymore or even what the original thing was but i can’t let it go. when i have to wash off contamination i have to wash at least 4 times or until it feels right, or sometimes take rlly long showers and wipe down all my stuff. i even throw away food and clothes or just whole items sometimes because they feel so contaminated i don’t want them in my space. i can’t be super near people or have anyone touch me, and i also can’t bring anything new into my room since it had to go through the entry of my house which feels contaminated. i feel like all i do is lay in bed and then wash my hands and do compulsions so i can go eat or do other stuff around the house. also i never go out because i’m bc people outside make me feel dirty, and i hate thinking about how many people have touched stuff in stores or in public and stuff. so im just in my room worrying all day. i feel so trapped and the contamination/avoiding it is all i think about anymore i barely have time for anything else and im never present when i talk to people because im worrying about if i accidentally got contaminated. im starting erp next week and knowing that im going to have to expose myself to things is really freaking me out. does anyone else have this kind of ocd ? im exhaustedddd 🥲🥲💔
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