I just found out today that a family friend will be staying over at my house (I live with my parents) for a night. And I have contamination ocd and that’s causing me anxiety. I fear that her being here will contaminate my home, which is like my safe place. It’s hard just sitting with the anxiety. I want this day to be over! Does anyone have anything to support me? Thanks
i completely understand this feeling, although for me it’s the opposite (my safe place is anywhere but home) i can still relate to the feeling. i can’t think of anything to say to quite support you other than to remind you that you’re not alone, and all these feelings are completely valid. maybe this family friend visit will work as a part of unvoluntary ERP lol?
@strawberryjax Yeah it could work as erp
I totally get it, I’ve been through it. I am hipochondriac and that is causing my fear of germs. However, I realised it’s more likely to be less healthy if I wash my hands too much, bcs my imunity can get worse. So instead, I still wash my hands and pay attention to everything as I still struggle with OCD but I notice sometimes I can avoid over-cleaning bcs I know this is how I’ll increase my immunity and I will get healthier!! So yes, coming in contact with a new person in your home will be a way for your body to get stronger and healthier! Might be a small influence, but it means a lot, as your body knows to protect you even better now! Hoping this helps a little bit with your anxiety!
I feel you. I don’t have people come over, but i live with my sister and i’ve recently got more comfortable with her existence. I feel bad but i just feel like no matter what she’s dirty. She could take 300 showers and i would feel the same. It’s mostly with morals which makes me feel like a bad person but like i know she has had sex before for example and that strongly contributes to me thinking she is inherently dirty. For me it’s more of a Moral/Personal thing that my OCD turns into a contamination cleaning problem. I don’t know how to help other than to ask your parents if you can stay in your room the whole time or ask if she really has to come over, but i know that can be hard because they might think that is rude or something along those lines.
@rane75 Thank you. Along with physical contamination ocd, I also have that moral ocd
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
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.
I am having a really hard time being home for the holidays. My intrusive thoughts are constant and loud. It sucks too, because my thoughts get triggered when I'm around one of my family members. I just want to distance myself, so I can stop the thoughts and feel like I'm not going to hurt anyone. I'm so distressed and depressed. What do you do to help calm your mind and remind yourself that you are a good person, despite what the thoughts say? I've already meditated, taken my Lexapro, and tried to remind myself that these thoughts want to attack the things I care about the most. Thanks. ❤️
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