Contamination OCD

I also struggle in the shower and with laundry as well before I started medication and therapy my shower was close to 3 hours I would have to wash a certain amount of times but know Iv gotten it down to 45 minutes and have less steps! With my laundry I used to want to wash my close and in between I’d shower and I’d than wait in the laundry room till my close were done and I’d put them in a container but know my parents fo my laundry and the only thing I clean is my bed sheets

I struggle severely with contamination OCD. I am the only one that can do the laundry for myself, my husband and my child because I don’t want the dirty laundry to touch anything other than the washer. Basically the entire laundry room is one big container area. I can rarely touch something/complete a task without washing my hands before moving on to the next thing. Any door handles/high touch areas I can’t touch without washing my hands after. My hands are constantly dry, cracked and bleeding.

Oh my word I have been feeling alone with this too! Mine is like I can only drink from plastic bottles because I feel like the sink water is contaminated and also I agree with the shower one. My family makes fun of me for taking such long showers but they don’t understand how I am actually feeling. I’m on medication too and have gone to many therapists but they don’t really help me with my OCD. It feels really good knowing I’m not alone in this

I have also been struggling with contamination OCD my entire life. One thing that has helped me is to try to understand why I am feeling this way, and where the issue started.

I have had these problems, I don't have them anymore (I have others though), I made a plan, and followed by with small steps. Today I shower for 5 minutes and have no problems with the laundry. One important thing I learned in ERP was that I always have to make plan, I cant wait for the situation and then "try a bit"- my feelings will always be bad and I can't resist the compulsions. You can use a timer and on forehand decide for how long you will shower. We can never win over OCD if we let the feelings make our decisions for us, it's so important to understand. OCD is very much about bad habits, we have to change them, and thats possible, we can take small steps so we dont get overwhelmed.