- Date posted
- 4y ago
- Date posted
- 4y ago
Sounds like some good exposure opportunity practice!
- Date posted
- 4y ago
So far I can’t bring myself to do it. What do I do?
- Date posted
- 4y ago
The best thing to do is to accept that it's a possibility that happened and do your laundry anyway. The point of the soap in the washer and the heat from the dryer is to get things clean and kill germs. I have severe contamination ocd and have to do my laundry in a communal laundry room that people leave a mess alllll the time so I'm not just saying this flippantly because I can imagine your anxiety right now. The best thing to do is not avoid the machines; instead, throw some laundry in and show your ocd who's in charge. Good luck!
- Date posted
- 4y ago
I am worrried about the bug body parts spreading in the clothes.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@Stealthhero22 I understand. But even if there are, which you would probably notice if you checked the machines, they will wash out when they go through the rinse cycle! That's the whole point of doing laundry!
- Date posted
- 4y ago
@Stealthhero22 I have found far worse things than bug legs in the machines I need to use ?? but the alternative is to not do my laundry...and that's not an option. It will be okay, I promise you.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
I also have contamination OCD and laundry plays a big part of that. I’m very particular about laundry and prefer that I do it myself as a result. Given my living circumstances, I often have to use communal machines or shared family machines. I can’t say I know how you’re feeling exactly, but I can relate to the situation where a laundry/dryer machine suddenly feels unclean. There are some compulsion mechanisms I have used in the past to cope with this kind of situation but those are not healthy to give in to and just make the OCD worse. Like @ans87 said, don’t avoid the machines, try to accept the uncertainty, and show the OCD who is in charge. I know that’s not easy, I struggle with that myself on a more than daily basis.
- Date posted
- 4w ago
Fungal laundry
Related posts
- Date posted
- 16w ago
I have contamination OCD that causes me to excessively wash my hands/clean items with disinfectant wipes. I know I just need to start with small exposures but how do I do that without spiraling? I tried a while back by just touching the outside of my dishwasher and not washing my hands after and it led to me being unable to even exist in my house. I basically lived on my couch for three weeks as it was the only 'safe' space that I had not touched with my dirty hands. I had to take a week off work to clean my house to make it somewhat liveable. I still haven't got round to cleaning everything though so things like my kitchen are still no-go zones that I don't enter. I just don't know how to start ERP without it making everything worse. Any advice would be appreciated. I am not seeing a therapist at the moment due to financial constraints.
- Date posted
- 13w ago
Every day my ocd makes sure there’s a new reason for me to stay trapped in my mind rather than being the mom I want to be that my kids need. Instead i’m stuck in my head depressed and pushing them away. The other day I was braiding my daughter’s hair like I always do and her hair is really long so when I get to the end of the braid I can see her butt in my peripheral vision and I looked down and I immediately got upset asking myself why did I look down?(the ocd has made me question everything I do now). I know it’s just because I was at the end of the braid and I just looked because I was already looking in that direction. A normal person wouldn’t even think twice about it. There was no inappropriate reason behind it at all but of course my ocd latched onto the situation and said I looked down because I wanted to look at her butt. I was so upset and said to myself “I don’t understand how the ocd started an intrusive thought because she was wearing baggy pants. I could understand if she had on tight pants and her butt was more noticeable” and the only reason I said that is because usually the only time my ocd starts intrusive thoughts telling me i’m looking at my daughter in a wrong way is when she has on leggings or a crop top or bathing suit ect. Now my ocd twisted what I said to mean that I like looking at her in tight pants. Nooo! That’s not what I meant but now the ocd won’t stop trying to make me believe that. I don’t ever look at my children in any inappropriate way. I hate this. I hate ocd and I can’t live like this anymore.
- Date posted
- 13w ago
This flare up is getting worse. So my son brought me a paper he needed signed for school yesterday and I asked him to get me a pen. As he got the pen I was just looking at him and unintentionally glanced over his private area and immediately freaked out with guilt. My ocd started telling me I was staring and that I wanted to look there. I know I wasn’t staring and I don’t ever want to look there. Anytime I accidentally catch a glimpse of my children’s private areas I always immediately look away and feel so guilty even though it wasn’t intentional or wanted but my ocd is making me believe I did stare and now the memory of it is blurred the more I try to remember it exactly to disprove the ocd. I feel horrible and I don’t know how I can ever get past this. 😪
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