- Date posted
- 8y
- Date posted
- 8y
I like your idea of following the surgeon approach. Hadn't heard about it before myself!
- Date posted
- 8y
I have to disagree with using the surgeon's method (unless you are actually performing surgery). I am sure the commenter meant well but I have been dealing with hand washing compulsions off and on since I was 6 years old. My hands frequently bleed from washing too much. I even had my dermalogist tell me to STOP because I was going to end up getting an infection from the broken skin. When you feel the urge to constantly wash your hands even though
- Date posted
- 8y
*youve already thoroughly washed them, let the thought exist but resist the compulsion. Tell yourself it's just your OCD talking and try to resist the compulsion. It's much easier said than done - trust me I struggle with it constantly. Ocd will get weaker when you accept that your fear is coming from your OCD and then resisting the compulsion. It's so hard, I know. Hang in there and know you're not alone. Also, aquaphor helps!
- Date posted
- 8y
My suggestion was more something to start with – sorry if that was unclear. It was meant to help you get the compulsions themselves under control and to limit them; it isn't a permanent solution by any means. It's somewhere to start until you can make progress in therapy. OCD treatment usually starts with little steps – my compulsions are routine-based, and my treatment began with helping my compulsion to wear only certain articles of clothing to bed. It began with me changing my ankle socks to tube socks.
- Date posted
- 8y
I don't want to sound critical but I also have OCD- hand washing issues and I don't even wash for 3-5 minutes. That is way to long. And frankly, the suggestion is a tiny bit triggering to some with that OCD. There is a reason surgeons wash that long but we are not all surgeons. I can assure you, no amount of hand washing will protect you from ever getting the flu again. It's not like you can avoid that. I mean you can...if you live in a bubble but that's no fun. I've had the stomach flu so often I'm building an immunity. And I wash my hands and I still happen to get it. It is unavoidable but you can't live in a bubble. But I do agree that it would be very hard to cut out hand washing cold turkey. You can start by lessening the length of time. Or if you feel the need to wash when you really know it's an OCD compulsion, delay the compulsion for a little bit. It's hard and something I struggle with too, but it's possible! Talk to your therapist. I hope they are knowledgeable of ERP and how to help you fight through this urge!
Related posts
- Date posted
- 21w
This is a repost, only because the last post had no responses lol. Please if you have any advice share. I’ve been trying hard to sit with the feeling of anxiety. Actually that’s the problem, recently I’ve been trying to sit with the thought (and I’m able to for a few hours or until the next morning) and then my anxiety comes back so strong and it’s like I need to clean everything off. I see images of gross laundry getting on everything or my hand and then I need to clean everything off to un contaminate it. Sometimes the thought happens later at night so I just sleep through and the next morning I will wake up with intense anxiety about contamination. That happened yesterday and I had to clean everything off and since then I’ve been traumatized so I’ve been doing compulsions like avoiding the bathroom and being around people so I know I couldn’t have done anything wrong. Actually recently my biggest compulsion has been recording every time I get up to go eat, etc so that I know I couldn’t have done anything. Any advice or help???
- Date posted
- 18w
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
- Date posted
- 13w
Hello! I’m new here. Unfortunately I’m not able to afford a therapist but I’ve been doing a lot of research and I think a lot of my symptoms/thoughts align with OCD. I want to share some of what I experience and see if anyone else experiences the same and what resources helped you. I think I mostly experience contamination OCD. I’m constantly worried that something I do/touch is going to make me really sick and/or die. Especially with food, I’m constantly worried that I’ll accidentally have something on my hands when I eat, then I’ll touch the food and get that on the food, eat it and get sick. So I’ll wash my hands every time my hands touch any little tiny thing again and again before I eat, same with any forks/spoons, or I’ll even think I touched cleaner a few hours ago and I’ve washed my hands several times since then and I just washed them again but they still feel dirty so even if impractical I’ll use a fork and if my hands touch the part of the fork that touches the food then I can’t eat the food any longer or use that fork. Also at work I have these thoughts that I know are ridiculous but also give me very real anxiety. Like “if I don’t finish this order before that machine beeps its a sign I’m going to die” and then I have to rush to make sure I finish fast and then I’ll be like ok that’s so stressful I’m not going to think like that any more it’s ridiculous but then the thoughts keep coming back so I have to keep rushing. This is just a little tad bit of what I experience and I would love to hear from others as I haven’t met anyone else like me before. Thank you!
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