Dear fellow OCD Warriors: I wanted to tell you about a victory I had tonight. I had to repair a bird feeder that a raccoon knocked down. I of course concluded that the raccoon had rabies and that I would get rabies by touching the bird feeder. I’ll admit that I washed my hands more than I should have BUT I did not take a shower (even though I really wanted to)! This win felt really good and it was nice not wasting time taking a shower. Would you please share a victory you had recently?

Great job, David! Even though you still performed a compulsion (washing your hands) in response to your obsessive thoughts, that is a great improvement over having to take a shower. You should be proud of your progress!

That’s AMAZING David. Congrats on your success! You inspired me tongiht

That’s awesome! I had a victory last night, cooking food at home in a skillet

@JJjj the key is to start small. If you were to touch your tire without washing your hands after, that would probably send you into a full blown panic. Take small steps before taking a huge leap. For example, how when David touched the bird feeder, he still washed his hands after, but he did not shower. You need to start with small exposures and work yourself up to potentially touching the tire without washing your hands. Even when you start with the small exposures, you will still feel anxiety, but I promise you it will go away after you continue to expose yourself to your fear.

David, the biggest accomplishment so far was to open my car from outside (outside handle). For years I am opening my cars with inner handle- first opening windows with remote and then manually with inner handle. Tire is out of scope for me right now.

I posted a quote on here that I thought fit very well with OCD, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” I know right now the exposures feel impossible, but once you actually do it, you will realize it wasn’t actually impossible and you will feel so much better for your accomplishment of facing your fears and no longer letting your OCD control you.

Thanks David. I have to say that it seems really stupid and when my colleagues asked, I simply told them about my OCD.

Funny thing was, that later they asked how I managed to do “remote” windows opening. It is hot these days here and sit into car after 8 hours parking outside is like sit into hot oven. Funny how this stupid phobias and OCD let us to find out some unusual and new rituals...that actually help other people to find comfort.

Thank you, everyone, for your support. I love this group! Congrats, Sairwah, on your achievement!

David, you fear contamination from animals ? I am asking because when I told somebody about fear getting contaminated - especially about rabies - people does not understand my fear.

Hi JJjj! Yep, that was exactly the fear I had.

Well, I am suffering exactly from this - each and every day I have to sit in my car and drive to work over animals that were hit on the roads. I am always afraid that piece of it could be stuck on my car and suffering from enormous fear that I could get contaminated. Hard to live with that specific phobia and OCD.

I know this would be REALLY hard, but if you touched the tire when you got home and didn’t wash your hands, you would be taking a huge step in the road to recovery. The anxiety will go away for you, just like it did for me when I didn’t take a shower. Please let me know if you take on this challenge.

Some days ago I have to fix defect on my daughter’s car. On the way to tyre service I ran over “animal doughnut” on the road. Being frustrated and full of fear I saw tyre repairman checking the tyre with his bare hands. Instant panic ! What if he would want to shake hands with me after repair was done ? Imagine me - PURE horror. I am glad he did not want to shake hands with me. So, as you can see, I am a beginner in fight, touching tires is not possible now.

JJjj - I think it’s GREAT that you open the car with the outside handle; that’s amazing progress!!