Any tips for construction and contamination

I live in my parents’ house and they are currently redoing the roof and the insulation in the attic. My parents’ house is at least 50 years old. The only way into the attic is through my room. I knew I would have to relocate but now I feel like my room is contaminated and can just never been clean. I feel like everything needs to be thrown away that was exposed to the old insulation or touched by the workers. No matter what I do I just will always think that my room is dirty. Does anyone know how to push past getting stuck with these thoughts? Or dealing with people making you feel worse because they don’t understand?

Andrea Wells

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 8w ago

I really struggled with similar contamination fears with my home at one point. It was so distressing. I too felt like I had to throw everything out, as well as wanting to clean all the surfaces with bleach. The thing is, is that none of that helped. It was never enough for OCD. It might feel better for a quick moment, but then a new fear and doubt would take it's place. What helped me overcome this was doing ERP and learning to better tolerate distress and uncertainty, and now I have a lot of freedom and peace from the distress around my home! I'm sorry this is so difficult for you and that people are making you feel worse for not understanding. It really sucks when people don't get how OCD makes you feel. The fears feel so real and intense. I definitely get what you are saying.

OCD Helping ...

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 8w ago

The best course of action is to do ERP! If you're unfamiliar, it's known as Exposure and Response Prevention -- the idea is to sit with uncomfortable thoughts/feelings, acknowledge them, and then NOT engage with them. That part is called active non-engagement. By sitting with these thoughts and not trying to suppress them, change them, etc, you are training your brain to recognize that these thoughts and fears aren't warranted. Subsequently, the thoughts will lose their charge and then will eventually stop coming up as frequently! If you haven't already, I'd encourage working with an OCD therapist to help guide you through this better than I ever could here. NOCD is a great place to start if you're looking, but any OCD therapist will do! As for dealing with people who don't get it... if someone makes you feel worse about something THEY don't understand/care to understand, that says more about them than it does about you. Be true to yourself, take care of yourself, and prioritize yourself. This is YOUR mental health and no one else needs to understand it in order for you to handle it. Hang in there and keep at it! Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise!

Bruce M

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 7w ago

There is some room for concern and certainly you can consider wearing a mask while getting close to the roof. But if you have contamination fears you need a therapist. There are also lots of good tips on the Patrick McGrath Wednesday night webinar on the NOCD page on YouTube. Or really any NOCD webinar can be helpful. Go ahead and check out some of the videos. In addition you can contact NOCD for a free 15 minute call to discuss further. They can offer more detail than I can here. https://www.treatmyocd.com/about-us/contact-us

User type: Therapist

Date posted: 7w ago

Hello, so glad you reached out here in the community and have already received responses. Like the other responses said, ERP would be a great fit for you to work with. I could see how it would be distressing to have the construction and those associated consequences out of your control. You can handle this with the right help and support. NOCD has lots of free resources and/or many different therapists that you could schedule with.

EllieH95

Date posted: 20w ago

How do you do ERP without spiraling?

I have contamination OCD that causes me to excessively wash my hands/clean items with disinfectant wipes. I know I just need to start with small exposures but how do I do that without spiraling? I tried a while back by just touching the outside of my dishwasher and not washing my hands after and it led to me being unable to even exist in my house. I basically lived on my couch for three weeks as it was the only 'safe' space that I had not touched with my dirty hands. I had to take a week off work to clean my house to make it somewhat liveable. I still haven't got round to cleaning everything though so things like my kitchen are still no-go zones that I don't enter. I just don't know how to start ERP without it making everything worse. Any advice would be appreciated. I am not seeing a therapist at the moment due to financial constraints.

Contamination OCD

sara_24

Date posted: 16w ago

Anxious about everything

Guys I need help. I feel so alone . Basically I have this compulsion where I feel the need to write everything but this stems from me being anxious about EVERYTHING. Like my mom came in my room and I was irritated and snapped, immediately regretted now I keep writing “don’t be mean to mom next time” but I keep thinking about it. Then I think about how I finally left my house today and all the surfaces I touched that could’ve been contaminated and now I’m writing “next time don’t touch this and this”. Then I think about all the things I need to be doing for this week and I’m writing “don’t forget to do this and this” even though I’ve written it 5 times already. This is what happens everyday btw. My brain always thinks about something I need to be doing and making me anxious that I’ll forget it which is why I write it down on my notes app. I’m sooo mentally exhausted I need help pls!! Anyone have any advice ? I used to think I need to stop the writing but really I need to stop the anxious thoughts coming into my head . People say I need to accept the thoughts and let it go but that’s too hard for me

nae nae

Date posted: 16w ago

I'm sorry. Just need to vent. :(

This might contain triggering content, but I'm also wondering if others have dealt with this similar thought, and if so, how to deal with it? Overall, I've been doing so well these past few days. I'm able to eat again, which I hadn't been able to do because of how much anxiety I'd been experiencing. I'm spending time around loved ones and not just rotting in my room, and I've been able to wake up without immediately being bombarded by intrusive thoughts. When things first got really bad, I'd wake my mom up every night for reassurance, but I haven't done that in a while either. I'm really proud of myself, but there's still this nagging thought in my mind... While looking through others posts on here, hoping to find advice that'd fit my situation, I ended up making things worse. Someone mentioned how they had a fear that they'd purposely search for illegal content (related to POCD). I panicked, and "what ifs" flooded my thoughts. "What if the intrusive thoughts affect who I am as a person, and I do that?" I'm terrified that I'll search for those things, which I know means I wouldn't do it. But then, another person on here said they'd actually looked for those things, and that freaked me out even more. Does that mean it's possible for that to happen to me? I don't want to do that, but I keep having intrusive thoughts surrounding it. I've been doing so well these past few days. I'm just... stuck. I don't know what to do. I've spoken with other people who have the same fears, but how do I manage this? It's not something I've even thought about before seeing those posts. I've been practicing accepting the uncertainty, but I'm really struggling with this one. I hate this. This morning, I woke up, and the intrusive thoughts were back. It's just disheartening.

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Any tips for construction and contamination

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