sarax1998
- Date posted
- 5y
FathomableFathomable
- Date posted
- 5y
Well, the best thing for your long term mental health would be to not do any additional cleaning of it and just wear it. Well done for getting the stain out, I think you deserve to take the risk and get to wear it.
sarax1998sarax1998
- Date posted
- 5y
But it feels so wrong wearing it... for example to sit on a chair at work... i would think that i am making it dirty the whole time
FathomableFathomable
- Date posted
- 5y
@sarax1998 Yeah you probably would have that worry in your mind. Do you know about mental compulsions? Ruminating over a worry is considered one. If you can get the worry and then decide to carry on with your day at work without investigating it or going over the thought, you'll show your brain that you can cope with the anxiety without thinking about the worry obsessively. Your brain can learn that it's not important, and then it can stop giving you the worries and can put a lot less urgency and vividness into the idea. Eventually you will be able to say "yeah, maybe the chair is somehow contaminated, but I don't need to know whether it is or not and I don't need to do anything about it". All from gradually teaching your amygdala. The first step to recovery is wearing the dress despite the worry.
sarax1998sarax1998
- Date posted
- 5y
@Scoggy Thats so true!!! I tried it today to the grocery store..it went well! Maybe i can try it on tommorow on work but that depends on how i am feeling...
AlyoshaAlyosha
- Date posted
- 5y
I feel ya! Start small. Can you wear the dress at home, standing, for half an hour? Then maybe the next day sit in a chair in your own home, and not wash it? Then maybe touch the spot on the dress that feels dirty, and go check your mail and not clean the mailbox. Then the day after touch the dirty spot and go to the store without washing your hands? Slow and steady, and you’ll get to wear your dress. And I agree. You should wear it. I completely understand. I have a hard time with my body fluids. I’m avoiding a set of towels and the left side of my drawer and a pencil (of all things) for bodily fluid issues. Maybe we could team up. You touch the dirty dress and go shopping without hand washing, and I’ll touch my contaminated Bobby pins and go shopping without washing.
sarax1998sarax1998
- Date posted
- 5y
oh i really understand you !! when i have showered i hate to use a towel because i think i will get it dirty ... every towel i use 1x or even less :( same with underpants ... i always wear panty liners because i think that my pants will get dirty ... sometimes I even wear an extra pair of underpants ... if my underwear is dirty I prefer to throw it away from me but unfortunately that is not possible ... same with some stuff... when i touch it and when i think my hands are dirty i must be washed again.. but of course after one week i have so much clothes to wash that my mom becomes mad ...
AlyoshaAlyosha
- Date posted
- 5y
Yeah. I had a towel that got “dirty.” I washed it. I touched it as an exposure and then tried to go without washing my hands. I made it about ten minutes. The phone charger that I touched in my unwashed state is still bugging me some, three days later lol. (And I’ll admit, I caved and cleaned the charger once...still was bothering me.) We can do this!! I hope you get to wear your pretty dress :)
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