Anonymous
- Date posted
- 7y
AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 7y
I like your idea of following the surgeon approach. Hadn't heard about it before myself!
AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 7y
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
AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 7y
*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!
AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 7y
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.
AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 7y
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
tfland7
- Date posted
- 21w
Obsessive hand washing
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.
oneday.x
- Date posted
- 21w
Just experienced most traumatic bathroom visit 😭🙏.
I'm keeping it light hearted but I really desperately need some help. Just to preface this is very tmi. I thought it was just gonna be a quick bathroom stuff. No! That would be silly of course, so number two decided to screw things up ROYALLY. And please bear with me because I am coping with humour 😭😭. So I went, but sometimes, tmi, I struggle to.... Get it all. Out. If you know what I mean. Which is pretty awful to the point I'm like genuinely praying. Because you can't clean up properly if you're not done. So I'm in the bathroom, trying, for over half an hour. And I finally give up pretty much and try and clean up. Oh no, that was a huge mistake. But what else could I do? It was so messy that I wanted to just get in the shower and be done with it. Onto the things I'm worrying about I guess. On the tp (tmi, I'm WARNING 😭😭) it was.... Messy, and there were very loose specks on the tp. Which is an issue, because I used wet wipes which needs to be binned and not flushed, so I have to carry the tp-wipe combo over to the bin, which means carrying it over where my legs are, and thus where my clothes also are. I hate it. I'm now paranoid specks fell into my underwear! Great! Love it. I'm also paranoid specks or just #2 in general went on my hand. And, believe me, with the state of things, it was POSSIBLE. So when I'm finally done and wash my hands, of course that isn't going to feel like enough. I have really short nails, so short they're painful, and I'm always terrified stuff gets under them. So, I use a nail brush while washing my hands. I also filed them down (which HURT) because I'm convinced that could get rid of anything underneath them. But it still doesn't feel enough. Because I have loose skin and hangnails around my nails, and I'm paranoid as well that stuff gets under dry skin. Not to mention my hands are so dry from washing that they're cracked and flaky and they peel, so I am worried that #2 or dirt gets under the flakes of skin. I know it sounds stupid, but I am so scared. Usually it feels irrational but it was such a state that I'm convinced there must be a speck of it on me somewhere. On my hands. And I'm terrified. I know I need to accept uncertainty but I'm struggling right now.
ynnej
- Date posted
- 17w
Any advice please??
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???
Be a part of the largest OCD Community
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond