My family is getting very frustrated with me for not getting a job during this pandemic, and it’s causing me extreme anxiety. The pandemic has brought up some contamination ocd that I didn’t know I had, and it is being compounded by the irresponsible actions of those in my household. Someone in my household tested positive a few days ago, and then negative a couple days after (the false negative rate is higher than the false positive rate), and so I’ve been extra cautious about staying at home and in my room. It’s not that I’m scared about getting the virus, I’m scared of passing it and causing harm to others. My family, however, has returned back to normal activities. They’re going to work or visiting others outside the home, ignoring the guidance of the cdc. They had even done this before the second test came back negative. They’re now getting angry with me for not wanting to leave the house (let alone my room) and not getting a job, mostly because none of them believe in the seriousness of the situation and think it’s all politically charged. I will probably be getting myself tested in a couple of weeks and move in with my roommate at my own apartment at my university (assuming a negative test), since he is more understanding of everything and is cautious. It’s not that I don’t want to work. If there wasn’t a pandemic going on, I would gladly be working somewhere for 40 hours a week and wouldn’t have a complaint. I’m just anxious about everything right now and no one I live with seems to understand.

I’m losing it completely, I’ve never had a flare up like this with contamination. I’m so burnt out seriously , I feel like I’m going insane. My hands are cracking and bleeding from washing them and my family’s getting very tired of me , they think I should go stay in a hospital or something for a while because of how bad it is. OCD as taken away my relationships with people , I can’t sit on the couch anymore with my family , I can’t hug my dog anymore , I can’t relax ever. I just needed to write this down as I really can’t process my feelings right now as I have too many thoughts , any advice?

Having a really rough night tonight. Currently I'm having a lot of contamination obsessions and compulsions with using the bathroom and when I use it I usually end up spending at least an hour and a half including all the cleaning rituals and showering afterwards and I just started seeing a new therapist to help with this. Tonight it unfortunately hit me in the middle of the night at like starting at 1 am and finishing close to 3 am. This ended up making both my mom and dad really angry with me and this is not a new situation. For context, my dad doesn't believe in mental illnesses at all and my mother is better and much more understanding, but still doesn't believe it's real to an extent. With my mom being more supportive than my dad, it leads to arguments between them a lot especially ever since they brought me home (I recently graduated college and my OCD got to the point where I was unable to have a job or function normally in taking care of myself by living alone). My mom tends to lash out at me when she gets stressed about these arguments with my dad over me because she can't talk back to him and that in turn usually causes me to spiral and get worse and so the cycle continues. This recent time my dad started yelling at me from downstairs because I was flushing the toilet too much for his liking and my mom said some hurtful things to me. I understand that it's not easy living with me especially right now and I can see why they're upset but I really am trying to get better but I can't just get better overnight and automatically be able to control all my compulsions, especially with the severity they're at right now. I'm not really sure how to navigate my family situation like this with a lack of a support network or someone in my family who believes that what I'm going through with OCD is real and it's not just me choosing to do these things. Has anyone else experienced a similar home situation and have any tips on getting through it?

Hey everyone, been doing ok this week but having a little bit of a rough moment rn. So I’m about a year and a half out of college and I still have yet to a real job job. I worked for eight months somewhere which was great but I decided it wasn’t permanent. Now I’ve been unemployed for about four months and OCD is really having a field day with it. Trying to deal with it and just keep applying everyday, but I always feel like my family and friends are looking down on me and/or just plain disappointed in me. Just wanted to kind of vent and get this out of my head before I go to bed. I hope everyone is having a great week!