I obsess constantly about my hands being dirty and feel like I can actually see the germs and bacteria crawling all over my hands if I can’t wash them as soon as I touch something. It’s really embarrassing since people in my life have noticed this “weird” behavior but it’s a huge problem for me and I don’t know how to make the obsessive thoughts stop.
Have you tried ERP? This is usually the answer to things like this. ERP is best done with a therapist, but if that’s not available to you, you can start doing it on your own. Not every every therapist is trained in ERP. That’s why I recommend going through somewhere like NOCD (where all their therapists use ERP therapy). Let me post a video for you from Nathan Peterson. He’s a licensed OCD specialist, and he talks about things like this. You might find this video helpful, as well as the other videos he does: https://youtu.be/b5ctlevBxbk?si=_QAD58TFg2plg8ee Obsessive handwashing is a very common theme. You are not alone! Not knowing how to handle the intrusive thoughts is also very common. There is very good treatment for everything you are dealing with!!! With the right treatment, you can conquer this!!!!
Do you want to talk more about ERP? I can explain it to you? Also, I have an answer on what to do with the intrusive thoughts. I used to not know what to do with my intrusive thoughts either. They used to repeat inside my head over and over and over again. I was so distracted, I couldn’t even read a book or take a test without the static of the thoughts fuzzing over everything I did. What I’ve learned is that you just have to let the intrusive thoughts flow, without trying to correct them, and without trying to fight them off. My therapist described it like this: Imagine a tree planted by a river. The leaves from the tree fall off one-by-one and float down the river. You can notice that the leaves are falling, but you don’t try to stop them. You just let them fall and float away. That is how we need to treat the intrusive thoughts. We just let them be what they are. And we don’t try to stop them. A lot of our anxiety comes from trying so hard to prevent the thoughts from happening. In my case, I was trying to “fix” each thought that came by adding other words or thinking of other things, etc. But if we try to negate the thoughts, it just makes things worse. It can cause a lot of anxiety to allow the thoughts to run freely. But we have to learn how to do it. The thoughts often make us feel like terrible people. Or we feel like something really bad will happen if we let the thoughts run freely. But this is all untrue. Understanding these things are the key to conquering your OCD. You need to get to a place where you live your life exactly the way you want to live it— and you just let the intrusive thoughts play in the background like bad music. You just keep ignoring them and keep doing exactly what you want to do in life. We can talk about this more if you want to. I remember suffering from this a lot, and I really want to help relieve the suffering that you have.
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?
Anyone else with contamination ocd have to constantly convince themselves they feel things when they touch them? Like I'm.always scared I accidently brushed or grazed things and I have to be like if I didn't feel it I didn't touch it. Also always left over soap from washing hands, always.
For the past couple of months, I’ve had a really big fear of like my hand basically going down there or objects going down there and like being contaminated. This basically leads me to be scared of being on my own and doing things without people near (because if I do everything in front of someone they would tell me if I did something), also tucking my shirt. This started last October too and I remember crying for like hours everyday. Now I’m better but I do compulsions like tucking my shirt in a specific way so I know my hand couldn’t reach there. I’m scared to even get ready for the day, brush my teeth, etc with my shirt untucked because I’m scared those objects will be contaminated or I’ll do something to contaminate them. I’ve been trying to stop this compulsion of tucking my shirt in for a while but I’m not really going anywhere.
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