infection

I have contamination ocd and before starting my journey with "12 week program" I washed my hands excessively and couldn't touch nothing without washing or use sanitizer. You should start help yourself with ERP or any kind helps because contamination ocd take whole life if do nothing. About fighting compultion seems you doing some part wrong that's why can't resist I know how much resist part or exposure are tough. For now try to use any gloves to less touch things and with gloves clean your stuff that mostly ypu come in touch ,then you can use your hands without washing because they are cleaned. before . Go to pharmacy and ask to give you something for this problem. I guess wasn't infection just because you washed too much this happend. Don't worry your hands heal soon . try stay calm because won't help to heal your hands or isn't good for your anxiety .

My hands were horrible in December because in November I started to relapse and wash my hands for 3-4 hours non stop with “moisturizing” hand soap. It was as the milk and honey one from soft soap but it still messed me up so bad. My hands got so bad to the point that they wouldn’t even retain any moisture and even if water just touched them, they would become extremely pruney because the water was irritating to them as well. They because so raw, red, felt like sandpaper, and would burn like crazy after I put lotion on them for weeks on end. It was really disappointing because I was washing to prevent infection, but made my hands so compromised that I felt like I was allowing infection to enter because I had such a damaged barrier. Basically no protective barrier which made the anxiety that much worse. I have a fear of infection in my hands too, so yes, the plant based soap call RAW Sugar Hand Soap (the one that says sensitive on it) has helped me so much. It doesn’t strip away the natural oils in our hands. Despite my hands being so bad in December, there would be times where I would wash my hands maybe once a day and it still took months to heal because I did so much damage in November and December. But once I switched to the plant based soap it was so helpful. They’re no longer red or raw and do not burn. When I tell you my entire hands were red I really mean it. It sucked so bad for me. But they’re pretty much healed now like 90-95% in my ocd brain. I still fear touching everything because I think I will become infected due to my fears, but at least the hands are now “normal” Also what helped me was to really just tell yourself “okay… I can do this just once and I’ll be okay…” In regards to washing. Maybe it’s once for a minute (even then we only need 20 seconds) but going from ten mins or hours of washing to a minute is a huge step. I get the soap at target but I know Walmart has it as well.

Hey I’ve got contamination ocd and my hands are really sore and red/dry atm I’m not sure on the infection part but I do have some advice for hand washing which someone on this app told me Switch to a plant based soap as they don’t have all the chemicals in so you can still wash your hands but your hands aren’t as damaged Also a touch less soap dispenser if you’re worried about other people touching your soap/soap dispenser

I think you should use neosporin and if that doesn’t work get something from the doctor but neosporin should help in the meantime.