- Username
- Ellie H
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Try to resist the urge to wash by increasing the amount of time you try to wash. Maybe resist the urge by a min then increase it. Or if you find yourself washing for 20 mins decrease it to 15
thank you so much
Try to accept the thoughts
thank you. do you know any way I can live my life without always thinking about my hands being clean?
@Ellie to be honest with you the only way is to accept that maybe your hands aren’t clean. I agree with Wes about gradually reducing the compulsion rather than just trying to stop doing it altogether because that is very difficult. The more you engage in the compulsion of washing your hands, the more it will reinforce your obsession that your hands aren’t clean and that your whole day will be ruined if you don’t wash your hands. Also the more you try to argue with the thoughts or try not to think them, ironically, the more they will appear.
thank you so much but how do i accept the fact that my hands aren’t clean but I have to go through touching more stuff? Like let’s say I leave my hands dirty and then I go and touch something. I’ll feel like I’ll never want to touch that object again because I touched it when my hands were dirty. Any help with this?
What is the bottom line for your fear of contamination? Fear of being dirty/ hurting a loved one because it’s contaminated/ or making yourself sick?
I do fear of being dirty and I worry that I will just spread germs everywhere. If I touch an object while my hands are dirty, I will be afraid to touch that object again. For example let’s say I get something dirty in my hair, I will feel like I can’t touch my hair again cause it’s dirty and I’ll feel like I’ll have to wash my hands if I touch it.
Ok so with this when you feel like your hands are dirty and have touched something and not wanting to touch that object, you should be forcing yourself to touch the object in a normal way. Then once you have done this task use normal self talk like: you’re fine it’s your ocd. Then wait as long as you can and then wash hands. But increase amount of time not washing and decreas amount of time washing
Thank you so much. This really helped. I’ll try this
I’m confused. I don’t know how this is supposed to work. Can anyone relate to this??? I don’t have anyone who understands just what my ocd is. I barely understand it. No matter what I do and where, my thoughts hit me. I can be blinking the wrong way and I have to blink until it feels right.. same for swallowing, touching things, light switches and setting down cups. I have to sit and stand up multiple times until it feels right. Step on certain things like cracks in sidewalk as many times I feel is needed. Wash my hands multiple times. Even when texting, I can type out a whole paragraph and my mind tells me to delete it all and start again because it’s not right. When something isn’t right my mind tells me that someone I love is going to die or get hurt. And for some reason I obsess over certain days, like a day someone I love it born. I will sit there and flip a light switch with that date in my mind and a bad thought that something will happen and I can’t stop until I feel that person in my head is safe and everything is fine. In a way I feel that I am saving them and myself from something bad. Can anyone relate? And maybe share how you’re dealing with it all? Please and thank you.
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.
i don’t know what to do anymore i have to wash my hands 30+ times a day and i have panic attacks if i accidentally touch my face during school bc my hands are dirty and i have to pull out a napkin and wet it with my water bottle in the middle of class it’s so embarrassing and my hands hurt so bad they’re so dry and red and im trying to get myself to limit my hand washing to once when i get home and once before i wash my face at night but it’s so hard cause literally while i wash my hands my brain will be like “it’s just three more washes would you rather do that or face the consequences” and it’s so loud in my head that i can’t do anything but listen i hate my ocd so much
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond