Contamination OCD

Hey everyone! I want to share my contamination ocd story with you all. If anyone can relate please feel free to reply. I have been struggling with contamination ocd since 2020. As far as I remember the symptoms started on the first day when I joined work after covid-19 lockdown. The symptoms were very common to covid-19 precautions so I didn't over think as it was considered normal during that time like excessive handwashing, sanitising items got from outside, changing outerwear as soon as we enter home, etc. But these habits became my shadow and I no longer am the person who I was before.. Many of my compulsions are close to zero but my most triggering substance is the Washing Machine. This fear developed around 2022 out of the blue. I am not able to telerate dirty laundry. I feel the urge to take a bath even if I feel that I've touched (not in reality) the washing machine while passing by it. My baths are so long that my skin bleeds and it burns so much that I feel like ending myself. I clench my arms so close so that it doesn't accidentally touch the machine although I know it's far but my ocd convinces me that it's not. The moment I put the dirty laundry to wash or take clean laundry to dry on the stand, I need to take a shower keeping in mind I don't touch anything else. And it's not only my hands it's my whole body which has to be far from all tables chairs bed after I go near the washing machine. Or else everything gets contaminated. I get so exhausted disinfecting the door and the sides of bed just because I go there to keep the clean laundry as my ocd convinces that I might have touched the stand (my legs) then transferred the contamination to the door and sides of bed while keeping laundry. Recently there was a big mess in the kitchen. Our boiler broke and the washing machine is just under it. While fixing the boiler the machine had to be shifted so it touched all the kitchen cabinets and since then I don't enter the kitchen neither do I let anyone else enter even after clorox cleaning the cabinet doors. I am so anxious since then.

Kinu

Date posted: 40w

Bro, i can relate to this story, as i have been struggling with contamination OCD since 2023, i have stopped going out, i keep washing my clothes even when i know they have already been washed, i clean all my personal stuff with sanitizer and wet wipes but it's very exhausting! I sometimes have such imaginary and intrusive thoughts that i feel so ashamed to even share with anyone. I even wash my hands even when it touches mg charger, bluetooth, bottle, anything like that. I don't know what to do.

Sinister1997

Date posted: 24w

Hi. How are you coping up? My showers take 4.5 hours everyday. It just keeps getting worse. I wish it would end soon on its own. I'm so exhausted

Kinu

Date posted: 23w

@Sinister1997 I am on high medication since 1 month, its difficult. I do yoga everyday to feel motivated enough to cope with it.

River.Eick

Date posted: 20d

I have a similar but not identical story. i got sick last year, i have a terrible fear of vomiting and after i got sick i freaked over everything. i developed an eating disorder (i don’t have that anymore) i would wash my hands after touching everything to the point where they were bleeding, i wouldn’t touch anything on the floor, if it fell on the floor i’d just throw it away. i had so many bad habits and i would just freak out anytime someone around me got sick. it didn’t help that there was a huge norovirus outbreak at my school and everyone was getting sick, i lived every single day in fear. it started to affect my relationships, my girlfriend and i’s relationship got terrible because of it, i lost friends, my family yelled at me constantly and told me i was crazy and needed help. it was awful, but i don’t struggle as much anymore, it took a year to get over it, and i still haven’t got over it completely, but i’ve got over it enough to save my relationships with the people close to me, i just try to think more logically. i had to force myself to do things after seeing others were okay after they did them, i started to pick things up off the floor, i started to take better care of my hands, and once i started to force myself to do these things i could see myself getting better and making progress, maybe my story can help you

P@ppy2003

Date posted: 4d

@River.Eick Hey!!! How did u start? I have this same thing right now. Everything feels contaminated. Even the smallest of germs i think they are going to land me in the hospital. What helped u with the logic? I went to school for medical and honestly i feel like that is wat caused me to be so anti germ lol. I wanna feel normal. I see people touch stuff in the house and eat like nothing and i wanna be able to do that and not thing about the germs i just ingested ( even tho theres none) and be able to pick up stuff off the floor without feeling like my hands are contaminated and need to be washed like 3 times. Im just so tired of it.

Aaaa2222

Date posted: 6w

Hi How are you now? Our symptoms is similar especially how it started I felt so heard reading your post I hope youre getting better

Anonymous

Date posted: 24w

Tw/ Contamination ocd

Hello, i have very severe contamination ocd, and as i am writing this i feel my hands are dirty lol, but anyways i wanted to know if there’s anyone specialised in Contamination ocd? No matter what type because i really need help and i looked up things but it doesn’t help please!!

bun <3

Date posted: 24w

everything around me feels contaminated :((

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 🥲🥲💔

Contamination OCD

Sierra01

Date posted: 15w

My first post

Hello! I’m new here. Unfortunately I’m not able to afford a therapist but I’ve been doing a lot of research and I think a lot of my symptoms/thoughts align with OCD. I want to share some of what I experience and see if anyone else experiences the same and what resources helped you. I think I mostly experience contamination OCD. I’m constantly worried that something I do/touch is going to make me really sick and/or die. Especially with food, I’m constantly worried that I’ll accidentally have something on my hands when I eat, then I’ll touch the food and get that on the food, eat it and get sick. So I’ll wash my hands every time my hands touch any little tiny thing again and again before I eat, same with any forks/spoons, or I’ll even think I touched cleaner a few hours ago and I’ve washed my hands several times since then and I just washed them again but they still feel dirty so even if impractical I’ll use a fork and if my hands touch the part of the fork that touches the food then I can’t eat the food any longer or use that fork. Also at work I have these thoughts that I know are ridiculous but also give me very real anxiety. Like “if I don’t finish this order before that machine beeps its a sign I’m going to die” and then I have to rush to make sure I finish fast and then I’ll be like ok that’s so stressful I’m not going to think like that any more it’s ridiculous but then the thoughts keep coming back so I have to keep rushing. This is just a little tad bit of what I experience and I would love to hear from others as I haven’t met anyone else like me before. Thank you!

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Contamination OCD

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