Does anyone have any suggestions for coping skills for health concern ocd or contamination ocd? I’m trying really hard to not let my compulsions get the best of me but it’s so hard to not let the anxiety absolutely and completely spiral.
First, I want to offer my sympathy. It's terrible when it completely spirals, and it feels so... consuming. I hope you're doing okay <3 Around a month ago, I was dealing with contamination OCD really bad. I was convinced everything was contaminated and would keep washing my hands/washing my clothes/spraying with disinfectant. What helped me was exposure. I had a relative in the hospital, and I had to visit everyday. At first, it was with a mask, and making sure I still washed my clothes the second I left. Then, I kept the clothes on for an hour afterwards without washing them. Then, I tried to do it for longer. Then, one time I forgot a mask, and I went in without it. It was terrifying at first, but slowly... it got better. I think keeping track of compulsions and limiting them can be extremely helpful, at least in my experience.
@hemlocctea Thank you sweetheart :) i appreciate it
You have to lean into your fears. Don't avoid them, engage them. At the end of the day you are the boss of your behavior not the ocd. We can't control the intrusive thoughts...we can however control how we react to them. Take charge, engage slowly, and accept the fear and anxiety as your brain healing.
My OCD is generally around my health. It is hard for me to differentiate between what is real and what is OCD. I have a skin condition (HPV) and it’s truly not bad at all although my OCD theme is very focused on it. I’m in constant fear that it will get worse, spread or ruin my life some how. Does anybody else have health anxiety OCD? Or OCD about contamination? I feel like it’s really difficult to combat my OCD at times because there is a level of rationality behind it. I do have the skin condition already that I’m worried about so my OCD has “evidence” to make me more worried about it. Does anybody else have an OCD theme that is hard to differentiate between what’s real and what’s OCD? Sorry for the long post but I’m very interested to hear more about your experiences!
I’ve been struggling with OCD since middle school. Over the years I’ve had many different obsessions such as POCD, Harm OCD, and now Health Concern OCD. For the last 6 months my newest obsession has been thinking that I am having a heart attack. I constantly body check, google symptoms, ask others for reassurance. I live at my university which is a little bit far from home. This causes me to have to call my mom in the middle of the night every time I have a panic attack over this. My roommates a nursing major so she always offers to take my blood pressure which helps, but still I don’t enjoy living like this. I always feel bad bothering others, and constantly feel like a nuisance. If anyone else with these worries and obsessions can let me know new ways to cope with it that would be amazing:) I just started my switch from lexapro to prozac for my OCD and I’m hopefully starting ERP/CBT soon but any tips on how to help this would be amazing.
Man, this is killing me. I’ve had very form of ocd I think from POcD, false memory, socd, hocd, perfectionism, contamination, existential and the one that trips me up the most is health ocd. All the stress OCD gives me causes me to feel some pretty weird sensations in my head and lots of depersonalization. I constantly think I’m developing Alzheimer’s, brain cancer, or really just anything else. BUT these fears get a hold of me so well, I actually become forgetful, stutter, experience blurry vision, painful migraines……. And so I get symptoms of the diseases I fear. Any advice this is killing me?🥺
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