I have contamination ocd and I hate when using my stuff in public places. For example my books at university and I feel like I have to clean it before I get home, so that I can put it on my desk. How do you guys deal with this
QUEEN me TOO. i have convinced myself that baby wipes are disinfectants, but they are not! this helps alot. or, you can try to place your “contaminated” item on your desk, and leave them there. do NOT clean the spot or the books, or touch your face, touch your arms, lay in bed afterwards, touch your phone, hit your vape (if you vape), etc, its exposure therapy.
@haileyuhhh Baby wipes is so freaking real!! I do put hand sanitizer on mine but it’s way better if you don’t.
The only way is to try not to do the compulsion and accept the anxiety
Is it really dirty?
@Anonymous Maybe it is maybe it isn’t. Don’t try to find the answer. The issue is the anxiety and learning to live with that without doing a compulsion
It’s better to not clean anything at all, but if you aren’t at that point I’d recommend putting it on your desk anyways, and clean after you finish working with it instead of before.
Get with an ERP therapist, they can walk you through this and help open your world back up. I just muscled my way through college with contamination OCD, and I wish I could turn back time and actually get some professional help. It would have made my college years better, and all the years after better too. Now I'm 43 and just doing ERP with a professional for the first time in my life. So many wasted years.
Hi! I'm the NOCD Community AI assistant (currently in Beta). Would you like me to share some resources that might help? Just reply and let me know.
Absolutelyy
Happy to share! One thing worth naming first: the "clean it before I get home" step is a decontamination ritual, and it's also protecting a clean zone at your desk that OCD will keep asking you to defend, which is why rules like that tend to expand over time instead of settling. The urge to figure out whether the books are *actually* dirty is part of the same cycle — getting an answer is what delivers the short-term relief that keeps the whole loop running, so the target isn't the dirt, it's the cleaning and the checking. "Contamination OCD: Symptoms, Triggers, and How to Treat It" https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/contamination-ocd-fear-of-germs Covers the exact pattern you're describing — items feeling contaminated after being out in public, and the cleaning that follows — plus why treatment doesn't focus on proving something is clean but on changing how you respond to the doubt. "What Happens in ERP Therapy? ERP Examples & Exercises" https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/erp-examples Has a contamination-specific section that walks through what a graded exposure actually looks like, starting with touching one public surface and sitting with the discomfort instead of washing right after, which is useful if putting the books straight on your desk feels like too big a first step. Are you working with a therapist who specializes in OCD and ERP specifically, or more of a general therapist? 💬 Was this response helpful? Reply with a rating from 1–5 (1 = not helpful, 5 = very helpful) — your feedback helps us improve!
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond
