- Date posted
- 6y
- Date posted
- 6y
Yes! For a while there, I was spending around $40-$60 a week to do laundry or buy new linen. I never wore anything two days in a row and was constantly redoing my bed sheets. I also had my upholstery professionally cleaned every month. None of this ever seemed to help and I still felt filthy, especially because I had to go to my local laundromat (no hookups in my apartment) and was terrified that I was picking up germs and bacteria from the previous user (this actually helped with EXP). These obsessions added so much anxiety and stress to my daily life and because of that, they didn’t last long; it became unbearable and impossible. I quickly became unable to afford my laundry costs and with the help of my psychiatrist, psychologist, and my own frustration, learned to overcome the need to constantly have “clean” fabric. EXP is perfect for this obsession because it exposes you to the truth- the fabrics that surround us are never really “clean.” You can’t control the ability of the wind to blow bacteria in the air and you can’t see it happening. Have you checked out the exposure, trigger, obsession + EXP practice portion of this app? You should try it out! I hope you can overcome this, no matter how long it takes. I do 1-2 loads of laundry every other week now and have to go to my parent’s house because I am saving up for my own laundry machines for my apartment. My mantra is: You can’t control what you can’t see. I can’t see the germs and bacteria in my fabrics, so I figure I won’t endlessly try to get rid of what I imagine. Sorry for the novel. Best of luck with this, riina2910! IMO- this is one of the easier obsessions to get control of.
- Date posted
- 6y
It’s so hard! I try to use alcohol wipes so I know that my objects are super clean!! Let’s say I want to clean my laptop, I’ll take an alcohol wipe and run it over my laptop then I’ll tell myself “move on and forget about it”
- Date posted
- 6y
Lol! Aww now I feel really, really bad. ERP is really difficult, but I always try to think that if living with OCD is hard, trying to recover from it must be even more difficult.
- Date posted
- 6y
What does "exp" mean?
- Date posted
- 6y
I’m sorry, ale74! I meant ERP, not exp. ERP is Exposure Response Practice.
- Date posted
- 6y
Ah ah ah... I hoped it was a new kind of therapy ?
- Date posted
- 6y
thank you modernfemale for your reply!! and also steph94. I have suffered from this thing for a long time (or at least it feels long for me) I hope I can get to the exposure therapy when I move to new school ? but I'm going to be in a house with other people and laundry machines are shared and I'm a little bit afraid of that but I definitely should try this apps erp again and start actually doing those rehealsas, thank you for telling me that it really has helped! ?
Related posts
- Date posted
- 25w
So I have pretty intense contamination OCD tied to Moral/Real event OCD, and I'm having a hard time with it because part of me does genuinely believe my logic checks out, and I was hoping to get some insight as to how to change the way I see it from other people who sort of get the mindset involved :). To sum it up as well as I can, I basically have a very souped-up version of the same item-event association most people have. For example, let's say you have a HORRIBLE, GOD AWFUL relationship with a person you can't even begin to think of favorably even years after the event. They had gotten you a stuffed animal for your anniversary at some point. You finally "escape" the relationship, and you throw away the stuffed animal. This is seen as a very normal and sound-of-mind action. Here's where things get tricky: For me, throwing out that stuffed animal wouldn't be enough. After all, it touched my table didn't it? And my table touched the floor right? And these things now carry that person's germs. And if I don't get rid of them, then they'll infect my future belongings. This logic isn't entirely flawed either, as even my OCD specialist said he believes in a "weaker version of what I do". How am I supposed to convince myself that what I'm believing is false when the literal psychologist confirmed that what I'm doing is just a more in-depth version of a normal experience? Ex: I have a new outfit, fresh and clean. I'm unbothered and happy, but I knick the side of a table. The table holds awful associations. I get this awful sense of dread. The clothes are now somewhat sullied, and I'll eventually have to give them away. I don't think I'm explaining this as well as I could, but I feel like those notions are there. Anyways, does anyone have any insight as to how to get my mind to genuinely believe that interacting with these things is "safe"?
- Date posted
- 22w
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 🥲🥲💔
- Date posted
- 18w
I’m so scared. Part of me feels ok and part of me feels like I need to clean everything off. Basically my sweater had a stain on it from food it was newly washed but I decided to throw it in the wash again. While throwing it in the laundry basket I noticed a specific type of clothing that scares me. I quickly put the sweater on top of the used laundry and left. My phone was in the living room and I’m pretty constantly scared it will get contaminated by laundry I’m not sure why but that fear started randomly. Anyway I had to walk past the living room to wash my hands in the kitchen because someone had to use the bathroom badly and was waiting for me to just throw my laundry in to go to the bathroom. Anyway I’m scared I went near my phone or contaminated it with my hands. I can’t remember the details fully either but I just remember walking straight to the kitchen but I don’t know. I’m really scared and I want to clean everything like my phone and everything it was near. The thing is my fear is real because used laundry is so gross. What do I do? When throwing clean laundry in a basket should you wash your hands? Do most people? Even if the article of clothing isn’t dirty? Because maybe my hands accidentally went near the actual gross laundry I don’t know
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