- Date posted
- 6y
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 6y
Be patient and kind toward yourself. You can’t all of a sudden be recovered overnight. That’s not how it works. ERP is the golden standard for OCD treatment but you can’t completely reverse all symptoms that quickly or easily. By all means, make every effort to avoid the compulsive behaviors but don’t get down on yourself because you’re not doing the ERP “perfectly.” That’s OCD trying to tell you that you won’t succeed so you should just abort the mission.
- Date posted
- 6y
Way to go! I’m working on that too with ERP. I can touch the taps now a lot of the time. I can’t if I’m going to eat or prepare food just yet. It is hard but what helps me is telling myself that people without OCD touch taps all the time, the other people in my family touch the taps and they are healthy but what works the best for me is telling OCD it has stolen enough time from me. At the moment that helps push me through the fear. When I’m ready to use door knobs I hope it still works! ?
- Date posted
- 6y
Proud of you! ERP can be so hard to do, but trust me it’s for the best. I’m rooting for you through this time
- Date posted
- 6y
Thank you all of you for such motivating comments. Sounds like I have found a new home where everybody understands what is like to have an OCD which I am suffering for almost 20 years.
- Date posted
- 6y
I use to pour water on the taps before touching them. My therapist told me not to do so. Is it ok not to do so? Because, I believe that pouring water on the taps is not part of my OCD. I have seen many people doing it. One more thing, for me, the reason for not touching things is not always fear of contamination. It is something else which I am afraid if I tell then it may trigger that in someone else.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 21w
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.
- Date posted
- 15w
Does anyone have any tips that helped them? Mine is due to a specific person and I work with them so it’s been really difficult. I’ve started ERP which has been reaaalllllly challenging and I would love to hear from anyone else that has gone through any type of contamination ocd and how they have overcome or are fighting their way through it. Thank you!l
- Date posted
- 6w
I’m really trying to be better at not washing my hands every second and I proud of myself the days I didn’t give in to compulsions, but today I feel a little defeated. I was getting ready for work and I was trying to cover up a pimple on my face, but I had sunscreen on. I wanted to put a pimple patch so I tunrned around got the paper towel in my bathroom and the towel touched the shower wall. I had a wart 6 months ago and although I didn’t have it on my hand… I did have it on the palm of my foot. I’m almost sure I sprayed Lysol on the wall but I forget because I’m ruminating constantly and my mind likes to play tricks on me. I was also in a rush today for work so that’s triggered the thoughts more. I put more sunscreen on my face to camouflage the pimple patch/ pimple. I’m scared that I contaminated my face . I even looked it up on gpt (which is another compulsion.) it was basically saying the percentage was extremely low. It’s like the answers right there but my mind won’t believe it. And I know you shouldn’t trust everything on google. Too lazy to edit, but a small part I left out was that after touching that part of the towel where I thought is contaminated …. I rolled that part on the floor and broke it off. But then continued to still roll it because the part I touched , had touched the other pieces too. I don’t know if that makes sense. So when I finally had that “just right feeling.” I put the paper towel down , washed my hands again but my hands weren’t as soapy bc it still had the tinted sunscreen on them. Washed my hands more and just got fed up and dried my hands off with the paper towel I still feel is contaminated. Ugh😞. I’ll be honest too after having the wart on my foot, I cleaned the shower in itty bitty sections. I think cleaning the whole thing at once had me overwhelmed and especially the early stages after my wart was gone I didn’t want to clean bc I was nervous I would catch another one. I had used so much Clorox to wipe down where my foot had touched the ground on the shower floor. I don’t think I wiped down the outer perimeter but I’ve recently just sprayed Lysol on the floor . I could be better at cleaning my shower more but it is what it is right now.
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