germs 🫡
hi everyone! how do you folks handle showering/being in new places/not knowing how clean something is? i really struggle with trying to focus on something when i am unsure if it is clean because i end up obsessing on it and trying to fix it.
I used to just obsess over it, and do my best to keep everything “sterile.” I found this to be a total losing battle because it’s never enough for my OCD. It wasn’t until I started doing therapy/ERP when I started to get some real relief. This happened because it helped teach me to better embrace uncertainty. Sometimes, when I’m trying to embrace uncertainty, I use the following statement, “I’m feeling anxious because ——, I can’t be 100% certain that’s not true now or won’t be in the future, I accept that uncertainty and am willing to live with it happily.” I then try to sit with the uncomfortable feelings produced without giving into compulsions. Overtime, it got easier and more mental freedom from OCD resulted. I hope this helps in some way!
I know that this can feel so difficult. The treatment really is accepting that you cannot know for sure, you may never feel sure enough or clean enough, and you shower in it anyways, what is the very worst thing that will happen? You may feel really gross or contaminated- but then what? Often times people with OCD feel that they cannot possibly tolerate uncomfortable or distressing feelings, but they can. A lot of the treatment is geared towards recognizing that you can do the hard things and experience the feelings associated with it and it will pass without compulsions being performed.
The soap cleans it while you shower
The water washes all of the germs off 🙏
I struggle with this too. I struggle with extreme ocd with contamination, and I hate it. I don’t want to care about germs, it’s so exhausting. I struggle with showering and doing laundry because nothing ever feels clean enough. What I have worked on with my therapist is putting notes around my room (near my closet, and my towels) as those are places that tend to trigger me the most. On the notes I wrote “I have lived and enjoyed the day with non sterile clothes/towels before”. It helps a little bit, but the worst part is trying to just accept the uncertainty, and continuing on anyways.
So, I am going to go out of town next week for three days and I am trying to prepare myself for it when it comes to my anxiety about hotels. I am always anxious these days when I go to a hotel because of standing in a shower and even when had flip flops on in the shower I was still anxious. I want to have a good time with my family, but I don't want OCD to ruin it. Does anyone else experience this when going out of town and if so, how do you cope with it?
Good day, you awesome people! I struggle with spreading my own (bathroom/groinal) germs and "contaminating" others somehow. Logically I know it's not necessarily going to make anyone sick, but it's coming to the point where I have to wash my arm if it touches my behind at all while wiping (in case waste travels as it sometimes does)--and this morning I felt I had to wash my hands after touching the shell of my ear. It's clear that a lot of washing I am doing is to avoid guilt--I feel like I am "being sneaky/doing something terrible" if I don't do it. Some things are justifiable, yes, but the line has become so blurred I have changed many of my routines around this and I cannot tell what constitutes as "acceptable" or "normal" hygeine anymore because anything less than what I have started doing feels awful. I even wash my hands after drying off after a shower... though that I am trying to stop. I am wondering if anyone could help me out here with suggestions? Thank you so much for listening to my woes. I appreciate you all immensely.
I can’t enter my room without being clean and this makes daily life impossible, if I leave the house I take a shower. Also I always wash my hands like a lot and if I touch a doorknob I immediately go wash so I don’t contaminate anything in my room. Please give advice on what to do I am really lost and scared that I won’t be able to enjoy life since I keep my self in my room all day
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