i touched someone else’s phone when they handed it to me to add myself to a class group chat and i feel SO gross… i can’t stop thinking about where they and their phone have been and how nasty it probably is. i can’t wash my hands until i get home, i feel so sick
Use the SOS-button it can help you stay with the discomfort. You are sronger than you know.
Stuff existing on you and outside of your body is normal and ok. With contact bacteria they aren't dangerous unless they enter your body from where you eat or rub your eyes, etc. Just wash your hands before you touch your face or eat and there's no risk the whole point of skin and having an outside of your organs is that it gets the brunt of the outside world instead of the the inside where all the important stuff is. Studies show most of what microbes are on peoples phones are usually the same species that live on people's skin regularly anyway. If you are worried about ecoli where they dont wash their hands after bathroom, ecoli is kind of mistaught in laymans terms. The ecoli you hear about causing food poisoning is called shiga ecoli and it has these spikes on it and thats the version that gets people sick. The regular version of ecoli everyone always has in their large intensine and it plays important role. Even if the fecal association is kinda gross to think about, people with normal immune systems are going to usually be fine if they accidentally ingest a bit. Along with immune system because your body is an ecosystem the microbes keep each other in check by competing for resources. Only time normal ecoli is an issue is if it were to be opportunistic and thrive in a spot its not supposed to be One thing that helped me was more or less learning that the danger isn't the existence of the majority bacteria but more when the bacteria is in the wrong place. For example a staph infection is because when staph colonizes your bloodstream, its byproducts damages your blood vessels. But staph is one of the most common bacteria on your skin. It doesn't hurt you and depending on how you see it, it could help you because it is taking up surface area so something worse can't live there. I still have issues touching stuff because when you can't see it than its like ok but what is there tho. But for the most part it's going to depend on what you touch and where you touch it and if it's logical. If you feel you should avoid touching stuff in a doctors office where everyone got the flu, thats not ocd thats a logical conclusion. It's ocd when it's illogical based off the actual risk and distressful. Hope this helps i enjoyed microbiology ironic as it was and it made me realize for me that it's not as much about i feel germs are bad it's I do not have the ability to see them so I can't see what is dangerous or safe. And it tracks because the root of ocd is trying to gain feeling of control and you feel if you can't decipher what is a threat you just treat it all as a threat. Life is weird and even with what i know i still have the compulsions so it only does so much because ocd logic is inherently illogical. Also if it werent for bacteria we wouldnt have wine and cheese. We even have bacteria in the same family of those that make antimicrobial proteins so in a weird way the germs are trying to protect us against the other germs.
@LilyB. i guess for me it’s less bacteria and pathogens specifically and more association (if that makes sense; like where their hands have been/what else they’ve touched) and bodily fluids :( i used hand sanitizer as soon as i could and washed my hands once i got home, im also worried its then transferred to something else i didn’t get a chance to clean
@kirby64 - that makes sense though. part of why we feel disgust/smell things and they smell bad is its evolutionary so we avoid stuff and think its nasty as a way to prevent harm and disease. so a normal and logical amount of that association would be considered regular human behavior which is why healthcare workers only overcome it from desenitization from being exposed so much it sounds like you have a lot of cross contaminations fears and im the same way, its like hands getting dirty isnt the distressor, maybe because those are relatively easy or accessible to clean, but the idea of not cleaning stuff off before you enter a safe zone is whats so bad factually indirect contact transmission (so pathogen on a hand that touched something, another person touched it, second person gets sick) is relatively uncommon. it can happen but if youre main,y worried about things you touched that were plastic, metal, nonporous those are much less likely than porous and bacteria tend to either dry out, starve, or cant survive for wrong temperature, viruses have to have a host to replicate so if they dont have one they cant go anywhere and just kinda inactivate. ive been working through letting myself touch commonly used stuff in public too cause close contact is also a big one for me but even though the biggest thing is you really have to do the exposure, me knowing that at least told me its okay enough to at least try to exposure
I’m so scared. Part of me feels ok and part of me feels like I need to clean everything off. Basically my sweater had a stain on it from food it was newly washed but I decided to throw it in the wash again. While throwing it in the laundry basket I noticed a specific type of clothing that scares me. I quickly put the sweater on top of the used laundry and left. My phone was in the living room and I’m pretty constantly scared it will get contaminated by laundry I’m not sure why but that fear started randomly. Anyway I had to walk past the living room to wash my hands in the kitchen because someone had to use the bathroom badly and was waiting for me to just throw my laundry in to go to the bathroom. Anyway I’m scared I went near my phone or contaminated it with my hands. I can’t remember the details fully either but I just remember walking straight to the kitchen but I don’t know. I’m really scared and I want to clean everything like my phone and everything it was near. The thing is my fear is real because used laundry is so gross. What do I do? When throwing clean laundry in a basket should you wash your hands? Do most people? Even if the article of clothing isn’t dirty? Because maybe my hands accidentally went near the actual gross laundry I don’t know
So Im staying at my uncles house until Saturday or Sunday and I feel like I’m filthy and making his house infected and idk what to do so when I first got here his house had grass I walked through to get to the door so I made sure to wipe my feet at the door and leave my shoes close to the door but I still feel,like I’m infecting his house he gave me and my little brother a room to sleep in and the first think I think of is how I need to wash the sheets when I leave. The first day was hard because I couldn’t shower and I felt so dirty because we had to go on a walk and I was sweating and we also had to water the grass outside and I had the same socks on as I did yesterday and I just felt like they were filthy and I was walking with those socks around the house so now his carpet is filthy and the bed I was laying in is now filthy. And I couldn’t shower because I didn’t have any cleaning supplies to clean it after I was done because I didn’t want to wash in their shower and now clean it afterwards. But I got someone at the store and took a shower and changed clothes and I felt weird about where to put my dirty clothes I hung them on the shower curtain rod but I feel like I just infected the rod. And afterwards I tried to spray off the shower with some Clorox foam cleaner but I feel like I didn’t clean it good and even feel bad about cleaning it because I was afraid the chemicals I tried rinsing off the shower and the bottles I was using in the shower but still feel like it’s infected. And don’t get me started on how I feel about the bags I’m keeping my clean clothes in and also the other bag I’m keeping my dirty clothes the bags are laying on the floor and I feel like my clean clothes are getting dirty from the floor and my dirty clothes are dirtying the floor and the towel I was using I used to dry the bathroom floor and asked where to put my towel he said on the dryer but there was stuff on it so I put it on a box above the dryer but I feel like I just infected everything and also Ik he touched the towel WHST if he gets THISE germs on his kids . Also the covers me and my little brother were using fell on the ground and his kids were playing in them and stuff like that but my little brother said it was fine and still used them but idk and his cover he brought touched my dirty clothes and the floor and he still used them and I just feel kinda ill about that. And today me feeling filthy just multiplied because I can’t SHOWER again today because someone’s toys are in the shower and idk how to get clean becuase we leave soon and idk what to do do I just change clothes? Idk about wipes because I can’t just ask for baby wipes and now I’m walking around with no socks because I only brought one pair and my others ones were put in my dirty clothes bag and now I have to go places no socks just in my flip flops. And last night I went to the restroom because I didn’t want to have an accident in the night because I’m always anxious about that stuff and I went but I feel like I just infected their toilet and I washed my hands after but I went back into bed but my feet touched the bathroom floor so now the bed is hay I feel actually infected and since I’m laying in it I’m infected too. Idk why I woke up so depressed and feel so filthy and guilty idk if it was the pose I was sleeping in or if I think I had an accident idk but we a lot of places to go today and idk what to do I was going to get Lysol at the store today to spray stuff but I don’t think I can get everything and I feel so sick he has kids what if I give them bad germs I can’t live with that
So Im staying at my uncles house until Saturday or Sunday and I feel like I’m filthy and making his house infected and idk what to do so when I first got here his house had grass I walked through to get to the door so I made sure to wipe my feet at the door and leave my shoes close to the door but I still feel,like I’m infecting his house he gave me and my little brother a room to sleep in and the first think I think of is how I need to wash the sheets when I leave. The first day was hard because I couldn’t shower and I felt so dirty because we had to go on a walk and I was sweating and we also had to water the grass outside and I had the same socks on as I did yesterday and I just felt like they were filthy and I was walking with those socks around the house so now his carpet is filthy and the bed I was laying in is now filthy. And I couldn’t shower because I didn’t have any cleaning supplies to clean it after I was done because I didn’t want to wash in their shower and now clean it afterwards. But I got someone at the store and took a shower and changed clothes and I felt weird about where to put my dirty clothes I hung them on the shower curtain rod but I feel like I just infected the rod. And afterwards I tried to spray off the shower with some Clorox foam cleaner but I feel like I didn’t clean it good and even feel bad about cleaning it because I was afraid the chemicals I tried rinsing off the shower and the bottles I was using in the shower but still feel like it’s infected. And don’t get me started on how I feel about the bags I’m keeping my clean clothes in and also the other bag I’m keeping my dirty clothes the bags are laying on the floor and I feel like my clean clothes are getting dirty from the floor and my dirty clothes are dirtying the floor and the towel I was using I used to dry the bathroom floor and asked where to put my towel he said on the dryer but there was stuff on it so I put it on a box above the dryer but I feel like I just infected everything and also Ik he touched the towel WHST if he gets THISE germs on his kids . Also the covers me and my little brother were using fell on the ground and his kids were playing in them and stuff like that but my little brother said it was fine and still used them but idk and his cover he brought touched my dirty clothes and the floor and he still used them and I just feel kinda ill about that. And today me feeling filthy just multiplied because I can’t SHOWER again today because someone’s toys are in the shower and idk how to get clean becuase we leave soon and idk what to do do I just change clothes? Idk about wipes because I can’t just ask for baby wipes and now I’m walking around with no socks because I only brought one pair and my others ones were put in my dirty clothes bag and now I have to go places no socks just in my flip flops. And last night I went to the restroom because I didn’t want to have an accident in the night because I’m always anxious about that stuff and I went but I feel like I just infected their toilet and I washed my hands after but I went back into bed but my feet touched the bathroom floor so now the bed is hay I feel actually infected and since I’m laying in it I’m infected too. Idk why I woke up so depressed and feel so filthy and guilty idk if it was the pose I was sleeping in or if I think I had an accident idk but we a lot of places to go today and idk what to do I was going to get Lysol at the store today to spray stuff but I don’t think I can get everything and I feel so sick he has kids what if I give them bad germs I can’t live with that
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