- Date posted
- 1y
- Date posted
- 1y
Omg I have that problem when I go #2 as well. For some reason it’s something that only developed in like the last couple years. I use so many wipes and toilet paper. It makes me dread having to poop. Also same with hands being contaminated after washing down there which is another thing that developed pretty recently. I don’t see myself ever growing out of those things but I hope I can bc it can become maddening :(
- Date posted
- 19w
@kaylaxo I have this issue. And I don’t know where it developed or why it’s been in the past year/6 months. And yes it can be maddening and I dread having to go to the bathroom. I know everyone does it logically and they don’t spend as long in there looking for certainty that they’re clean. They just kind of go and wipe and leave. I want to do that.
- Date posted
- 1y
I do the exact same thing. Something I’ve noticed helps me is accepting cleaning things well enough. The important part is to remember that people aren’t supposed to live in sterile environments, with zero germs. Just clean well enough, for your comfort and for what is practical. For example, when my room starts to feel unorganized and unclean, I don’t need to disinfect every object and wipe down every surface. Most of the time I just need to reorganize a few spots in my room, and then I’m good (obviously I don’t feel good only cleaning this amount, but I have to stop myself from overdoing the cleaning before I tire myself out). You can also look online for reliable information so your habits don’t become excessive. For example, I struggle with taking really long showers because I feel like I can never get the germs off my body no matter how much I scrub. I looked online at Mayo Clinic, and the recommended shower time is 5-10 minutes, so I’ve slowly been working to minimize my shower time to 10-15 minutes (knowing 5-10 minutes is a little too impractical for my OCD and comfort, and 10-15 minutes won’t affect my life negatively). I don’t know if this made much sense, but I hope it helped!
- Date posted
- 1y
@Anonymousoverthinker1 I understand it being hard to accept facts due to OCD. I use to take almost 2 hours showering, but I am now at 45 minutes! It has taken me a long time, and some days I take more time than others, but it’s the repetition and making an effort that matters. My showers use to take two hours because I would spend forever making sure I cleaned every part of my body. I also would have to repeat the process of scrubbing if, for example, my arm touched my shower curtain, because my shower curtain wasn’t “clean”. After talking with my counselor I make a list of things that I would slowly make an effort to stop doing, and I’ve seen a lot of progress! If it ever goes unsuccessful, I’m able to calm myself down by ordering cleaning supplies or doing the step in my routine I wasn’t able to let go of yet. I wish you the best of luck, it will get better!
Related posts
- Date posted
- 25w
This is a repost, only because the last post had no responses lol. Please if you have any advice share. I’ve been trying hard to sit with the feeling of anxiety. Actually that’s the problem, recently I’ve been trying to sit with the thought (and I’m able to for a few hours or until the next morning) and then my anxiety comes back so strong and it’s like I need to clean everything off. I see images of gross laundry getting on everything or my hand and then I need to clean everything off to un contaminate it. Sometimes the thought happens later at night so I just sleep through and the next morning I will wake up with intense anxiety about contamination. That happened yesterday and I had to clean everything off and since then I’ve been traumatized so I’ve been doing compulsions like avoiding the bathroom and being around people so I know I couldn’t have done anything wrong. Actually recently my biggest compulsion has been recording every time I get up to go eat, etc so that I know I couldn’t have done anything. Any advice or help???
- Date posted
- 23w
This is a long one lol but basically, a couple of weeks ago I went to the toilet (#2, sorry for the tmi). Let's just say it was messy. I remember that a speck of.. #2.. Fell off the piece of toilet paper. This was probably the worst thing that could ever happen. I can't remember clearly but I'm pretty sure my jeans were on the floor underneath near where the speck could have fallen. There was also a towel. I don't know exactly where it fell as it was so small, but I made sure both the towel and the jeans went in the laundry basket and I cleaned the floor near there. Fast forward to like the next day. My mum does most of the laundry, so she will have picked up all the towels and clothes from the laundry basket and taken them to the wash. The problem is the speck. I don't know where it went but if it was on the towel and she picked it up.... Thus, contaminated mum. And she also puts clothes away that are dry. I remember that day she put my hoodie in my wardrobe, and I haven't worn it since because I feel it is contaminated. I haven't worn the clothes that have touched the hoodie. This leaves me with not a lot of clothes. And today I finally snapped and picked up a sweatshirt that had maybe touched the hoodie. And now I'm just sat here spiralling, wearing it. What if it touched the speck? What if the speck touched my mum and then touched the hoodie which then touched the sweatshirt I'm wearing? Please I'm so scared.
- Date posted
- 20w
contamination ocd has really been messing with me the last couple of days. usually i only struggle when i can connect something to possibly throwing up, but this time it doesn’t matter. so earlier, i took a shower and i also use a wash cloth to wash my body. after i showered i cleaned up my dirty clothes and towels. then when i came back to grab my phone, there was a soap speck on my phone so without thinking i just wiped it on the back of my crewneck i was wearing. well that then spiraled into me thinking what if the soap was from my dirty wash cloth. i know most of you are probably thinking it’s clean since you use soap to clean ur body. well i clean every inch of my body, including my bottom so that’s where my anxiety is gravitating towards. this sounds so ridiculous saying it out loud, but i just have so much anxiety over it. i tried my hardest not to change but i did. at first i just changed my crewneck, but then i had to change my shorts cause my crewneck touches my shorts. but then i changed my shorts. and now i feel like my shirt is contaminated cause i was wearing it with my other shorts before changing. moral of the story, i just have so much anxiety over it and i feel like i shouldn’t because it’s really not a big deal. and i don’t want to change again because that seems ridiculous to me. plus now i’m connecting the contamination to my bed since i was laying on my bed before i changed. i hate life, this sucks.
Be a part of the largest OCD Community
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond