Anyone feel there clothes are contaminated due to things from the past? Like “I hung out with this person in this shirt….that person is someone I don’t want in my life….i need to get rid of the clothing because it’s contaminated with the individual”….????
Yes I do this especially with clothes that I wore in specific situations that I got intrusive thoughts in or had fears in.
@lyss4723 Ugh! I throw so much clothes away because of this, even looking at it!!
@Charmander5 I was thinking of doing this earlier today because I had a mental breakdown due to the stress that looking at the clothes brought me. However I ended up not following through with it. I know one day I’ll forget about it or come to the conclusion that all the “germs” or “bad memories/bad thoughts” just vanished off of the clothes and hopefully wearing or looking at them won’t bother me anymore.
@lyss4723 And you’re totally right. Clothes are items, attaching memories, people, or thoughts to them is beyond irrational. But overcoming and truly understanding that is so hard. I know how difficult and stressful what you did was, but you overcame it and that’s truly awesome. You should be proud of yourself!
@Charmander5 I have all my “sterile” clothes that I will wear “one day” in plastic bins stack around my room, and sone locked away in a closet. I have collected very pretty clothes through the years, and now only wear 10 things out in the world because I feel everything will contaminate them. And yes, if I wire something with a boyfriend I broke up with, I can’t wear it again unless it’s been washed MANY times. I waste a lot of tide pods!
@ErinD Why do our minds work the way they do, reading that makes no sense yet since I think the same as you it makes perfect sense 😭😭
@Charmander5 I know and that’s the peculiar reality of this sickness-i realize it makes no sense either! It’s a wonky classical conditioning of response pairing. I KNOW it’s nonsensical (intellectually) but the irrational fear of contamination is overwhelming. I need to commit to ERP. It’s so hard to ride through the anxiety.
@ErinD Me and you both! It’s just the anxiety that comes with going through it, it’s easier to just give in even if in the long run we are making it ten times worse. So really what a paradox of a sentence….
@Charmander5 Exactly, and exhausting! I’m so glad there is a group like this. It can feel very lonely and embarrassing. And not fair. I’m healthy in every other way, but my poor brain. I was able to overcome one checking ritual, and that’s the way to do it-start with a few that don’t seem as “important “ at the bigger ones. They still cause anxiety, but letting them go for an hour or more makes it easier.
@ErinD I agree it’s nice to talk to someone who sees the world similar. I have a great support system, especially my partner, but at the end of the day unless you have OCD it’s difficult to really understand how “real” these thoughts and obsessions are.
Hi there. I’ve recently joined NOCD and wanted to ask: does anyone have a sort of mental contamination fear, such as believing that interacting with people will “infect” oneself in a psychological manner? Just wanted to reach out and ask if this is an experience others had. Also looking to share experiences with others. Thanks.
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"?
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 🥲🥲💔
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