I live in a college dorm where there is a communal shower but I live in a room with my own private bathroom. I am very thankful but now I have this irrational fear that if I shower at the same time as someone else using the communal bathroom that somehow germs will get in my water and get on me. I don’t know what to do. I’m actually scared to get in the shower now. What do I do?
Are you currently seeing a therapist?
@LA Gordon Yes
I know what it’s like to have struggles with the shower for me I have an had two where one I’d have to wash myself a specific way in the shower to be clean and two I was abs am lol afraid of sperm and think that it’s in the shower 💕
You might not like this answer but you need to use the shower. That's the only way to get over the fear. We call this ERP therapy. You could start with just a little water on your hand. Then sit with the anxiety and tell yourself you may or may not have germs on you. There's no way to know. Then expose yourself to more water trying your best to remain calm and say " I may or may not have germs on me now"
You flagged me? You do know a therapist will tell you the exact same thing I just told you right? I'm honestly trying to help you. ERP therapy is the most effective treatment for OCD. More effective with mindfulness and acceptance of uncertainty. But ask your therapist if you don't think my advice is helpful.
@StoicGuy I don’t know what you’re talking about. What do you mean by flagged?
@ATLAfan164 Someone flagged my reply to you O have no idea why sorry I assumed it was you:( Honestly I know my suggestion is scary but my advice is what a therapist will suggest. I know because I'm going through therapy right now doing ERP and have read a lot about OCD treatment. Regardless I do hope you find relief.
@ATLAfan164 If touching the water is too scary you could start with touching the tub or somewhere the water touches and work your way up to touching the water. You could also try mental exposure of touching the water before you move in to my other suggestions. Ask your therapist for ideas on a hierarchy and I hope these ideas help.
I saw a post saying that thinking about something for a while will bring it to you. Now I’m scared and panicking because I think about illnesses and getting a disease almost everyday. What should I do? Im very scared
does anyone else experience extreme fear of developing psychosis or schizophrenia or derealization. I literally freak myself out so much that it makes me physically sick. I’m so scared of developing these and it keeps coming up all over my TikTok and Google. It’s freaking me out.
My last and almost life long theme/sub-theme largely subsided recently and my ocd felt like it wasn’t even an issue. Then I went on winter break from uni and being alone made my mind come up with a whole new topic to obsess over. TLDR on my fears, my advisor wouldn’t email me back for a while about signing up for classes so my mind started to worry “what if he doesn’t in time and you can’t enroll this semester and you lose this whole life you just built and all these new friends” So when that issue was resolved my mind found other scarier ways I could be uprooted from my current life and friends that I’ve grown so attached to. Then my mind remembered back when I was struggling with false memories and scrupulosity and I essentially made a post on a forum 2 and a half years ago saying I did something or was convinced I did something that I never actually did. Now I’ve been spiraling about someone finding it reporting me and I either get seen as a horrible person or arrested or something over something I never actually did but “admitted” to out of fear of going to hell. My mind won’t let it go and keeps finding new reasons for it to be “valid” “logical” or even inevitable. I feel like it’s just hanging over my head and I can never rest easy. Especially when I try to focus on my daily tasks or plan for the future I get this horrible flair up of “why plan for the future when this could come back in that future and you get uprooted from all of it” my mind won’t rest without certainty being uprooted won’t happen but certainty doesn’t exist, at least not with ocd. This sucks and I miss being care free.
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