- Date posted
- 2y
Yeah
Took me 20 minutes to brush my teeth today 2 hours in the shower and i still feel dirty. Any tips?
Took me 20 minutes to brush my teeth today 2 hours in the shower and i still feel dirty. Any tips?
Allow that feeling to be there. You need that unclean feeling to get better. Don’t engage with it in any way. Engage with your life, what you have to do today. Every time the thought pops in your mind, label it “OCD thought- moving on”. Don’t rationalize with the thought in any way, don’t try to remember what you did. Just “nope- moving on”. It’s not going to feel good☹️. It’s going to feel so hard, irresponsible etc. that ok, you need to feel those feelings (and do nothing about them). That’s how you get your life back. I’m here to tell you, if you do this( and it takes practice) you will start to feel better. The trick is doing this hard work has to come first. All the best! You are stronger than you know and there are lots of people on here rooting for you!
I think the best route would be to go the rest of the day feeling dirty without showering again.
I agree! No matter what your mind tells you. Tell yourself. I showered. I’m clean! Because you truly are! You showered for 20 mins that’s plenty of time- and you are clean.
Yes, no matter what the theme, it is ultimately about uncertainty. That was/is my theme (health). I used to think, oh I can’t take a risk with my health, I needed to know “for sure”. The truth is, to get better we have to be willing to take a risk, allow uncertainty. My NOCD therapist gave me the tools, after a lifetime of compulsions around health anxiety. Also “Needing to Know for Sure” Seif &Winston helped. As did this https://youtu.be/RPH27Z3IzNY. Take care!
Even with health OCD? ^ that’s what I’m struggling with so much right now.
all morning i have been feeling like there is dirt and grime on my skin. i showered last night. i washed my hair on tuesday night and i will wash it tonight. but i feel like there is dirt in my scalp and in my hair and i feel like i haven’t showered in weeks. i don’t want to feel like this anymore. every day i am anxious about how clean i am and its taking over my life. any tips?
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.
I'm keeping it light hearted but I really desperately need some help. Just to preface this is very tmi. I thought it was just gonna be a quick bathroom stuff. No! That would be silly of course, so number two decided to screw things up ROYALLY. And please bear with me because I am coping with humour 😭😭. So I went, but sometimes, tmi, I struggle to.... Get it all. Out. If you know what I mean. Which is pretty awful to the point I'm like genuinely praying. Because you can't clean up properly if you're not done. So I'm in the bathroom, trying, for over half an hour. And I finally give up pretty much and try and clean up. Oh no, that was a huge mistake. But what else could I do? It was so messy that I wanted to just get in the shower and be done with it. Onto the things I'm worrying about I guess. On the tp (tmi, I'm WARNING 😭😭) it was.... Messy, and there were very loose specks on the tp. Which is an issue, because I used wet wipes which needs to be binned and not flushed, so I have to carry the tp-wipe combo over to the bin, which means carrying it over where my legs are, and thus where my clothes also are. I hate it. I'm now paranoid specks fell into my underwear! Great! Love it. I'm also paranoid specks or just #2 in general went on my hand. And, believe me, with the state of things, it was POSSIBLE. So when I'm finally done and wash my hands, of course that isn't going to feel like enough. I have really short nails, so short they're painful, and I'm always terrified stuff gets under them. So, I use a nail brush while washing my hands. I also filed them down (which HURT) because I'm convinced that could get rid of anything underneath them. But it still doesn't feel enough. Because I have loose skin and hangnails around my nails, and I'm paranoid as well that stuff gets under dry skin. Not to mention my hands are so dry from washing that they're cracked and flaky and they peel, so I am worried that #2 or dirt gets under the flakes of skin. I know it sounds stupid, but I am so scared. Usually it feels irrational but it was such a state that I'm convinced there must be a speck of it on me somewhere. On my hands. And I'm terrified. I know I need to accept uncertainty but I'm struggling right now.
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