OCD and surgery

That’s exactly how my ocd started… surgery.

Oh dear lol well the very first thing I noticed (I’m talking years after the fact, not while it was happening) was that I started using hand sanitizer multiple times a day/before I ate etc and this is while I was in bed recovering (literally not leaving the bed) and had absolutely no reason to need to sanitize my hands. Sounds trivial but that was the very first sign and then it SNOWBALLED out of control after that. Eventually I became afraid of absolutely everything, and wouldn’t touch anything at all. I’m not exaggerating… NOTHING was “safe”. Obviously mine presented as contamination ocd but it’s complex because I’m not “afraid” of germs or getting sick or being dirty. It all relates to the trauma from the surgery. I know your ocd is harm related, and not contamination but I’ve never heard of anyone else say their ocd was brought on by surgery. I always say “I was fine when I went to sleep, and had ocd when I woke up” that’s how fast it happened. So I guess if it helps at all at least you know there’s someone else out there who had a similar experience. It changed my whole life.

Oh my gosh, yes!!! That’s so crazy that you mentioned the anesthesia because I was convinced for the longest time that it was the drugs that did this to me. There was literally no other explanation. I’ve also had multiple other surgeries and never had any problem, so it makes even less sense as to why this happened. It did make me laugh when I read your reply though and you said how fascinating it is. I’ll be explaining one of my crazy ocd scenarios to my therapist and she will be like “that’s so interesting” like I’m a science experiment and I’m like “No, it’s not. Fix me😂”

Funny, definitely not. Although I will admit I have laughed while simultaneously crying (I’m really good with coping skills😂) Interesting… maybe if it wasn’t me lol. Is this how things happened for you too, did it start right after you had surgery, or was it a slow progression?