all morning i have been feeling like there is dirt and grime on my skin. i showered last night. i washed my hair on tuesday night and i will wash it tonight. but i feel like there is dirt in my scalp and in my hair and i feel like i haven’t showered in weeks. i don’t want to feel like this anymore. every day i am anxious about how clean i am and its taking over my life. any tips?
I totally understand this, you’re not alone. From what you’ve said here it sounds like you’re doing good at fighting some of these thoughts and maybe compulsions? Keep fighting, because that’s what ocd hates. It sucks I know, especially when you’re in the thick of it but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The one thing that has worked for me is to just immediately distract myself, I accept the fact that I’m uncomfortable but will maybe turn on a podcast, fold my laundry, play the sims or do a drawing.
@overitt thank you ❤️
I'm sorry to hear this, it sounds really tough. Have you heard of ERP therapy? I would highly, highly recommend using that right now! Basically, you expose yourself to these feelings and thoughts about feeling dirty, sit with them, and then don't react to them by doing compulsions (i.e. maybe DON'T take a shower). By not doing the compulsions (whether it's physically washing or internally ruminating on if you are/are not clean), you're teaching your brain that even though you feel unsafe, you aren't unsafe. By doing this repeatedly, the feelings/thoughts lose their charge and they will in turn, most likely, start to happen and affect you less!
Hey there, thanks for reaching out for support today. What you're describing here is incredibly common when OCD latches onto contamination. No matter how many cleaning or washing rituals we give OCD, it is never going to be enough in the long run. OCD is always going to want more and it will use that feeling of "being dirty" to try to compel you to give it extra attention, either mentally (worry/trying to figure it out) or physically (cleaning/washing). Your first step is going to be to get competitive with OCD, decide that you're going to do whatever it takes to beat OCD. Then give it absolutely nothing, acknowledge the urge to focus on being dirty and instead embrace the feeling and move on with your day. You may need to do this ever 30 seconds for awhile. The more you practice it, the easier it will become. Here are a couple of resources for you to consider as well. https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/contamination-ocd-fear-of-germs https://www.treatmyocd.com/what-is-ocd/what-is-erp
i’m so stressed. so i showered and i usually open the door from the top bc i don’t like touching the doorknob of the bathroom as i’ve touched it w dirty hands before and it’s the bathroom so it’s just contaminated to me. i showered like 30 min ago but all i can think about is if i touched the doorknob to open the door bc i don’t remember. but i feel like if i did i woulda automatically notcied bc i never do. uhhhh idk whay to do i touched a lot of stuff and i’m in bed rn.
I’m looking for some help with this, of course OCD themes switch and lately it really is about harming others through contamination. Every time I touch something almost I have constant thoughts “if I don’t do this this means I want to hurt my family or loves one” but the thought feels so real like I want to do it, but obviously I don’t and gives me so much anxiety. Last couple months I was really spending a lot of time washing my hand from counting but now it’s got to the point that I can’t do anything without having thoughts that if I don’t clean or wash myself it means I want to get someone sick. It’s scary and I’m trying to not engage into the thoughts but they keep popping up. Any tips with harm contamination OCD and reducing these crazy thoughts? It almost feels like I want to have these thoughts but really they scare me if that’s makes sense? Any help would be awesome, thanks!!
im not diagnosed, but these past two days have been terrible. i constantly have this underlying feeling that i might do something that i think is gross and i feel like i can’t do anything on my own because otherwise i might do something wrong. like i feel like i constantly have to be in front of people so that i can make sure of my every action. this is so exhausting and I’m so confused. and like i keep getting terrible images and stuff replaying in my head. i also try to recall what happened but i feel like i have false event too. i used to have religious ocd and that eventually stopped completely, but now it feels like all my work getting over that was pointless. also like i feel like i might have contamination ocd but not the typical germ type. I just get terrible images and I can’t remember if those images are true or not even though they’re impossible and i feel terrible. I don’t know if i could ever get over this because even the thought of it is terrible.
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