I'm finding it very hard at the minute in relation to Covid 19. Ocd tells me contamination is everywhere, even just walking past someone in a shop, even they haven't touched me I feel that they have contaminated on me by things shedding from their clothes. If they aren't wearing a mask I feel they have contaminated me by just breathing. I was stripping off my clothes after coming in from outside but I'm tryi g not to do that and I'm finding it very difficult. It very hard at the minute to distinguish what is a rational thing to do and not a safety behaviour. Just in a constant state of worry. Can anyone relate or help in any way?

Contamination OCD

catattak

Date posted: 5y

Wanting to share this with you both. It helped me a lot. I'm not leaving the house except for medical appointments but its helping me live more calmly in my home https://youtu.be/zoXXRRC3opk

Rosie38

Date posted: 5y

Thank you, its quite long so I will watch it later. Thank you very much.

ocdillustrated

Date posted: 5y

It's a really difficult time, especially for people with contamination OCD. The boundary between reasonable and unreasonable precautions has shifted. Here's the iocdf webpage all about covid and ocdhttps://iocdf.org/covid19/#more-info

Rosie38

Date posted: 5y

Aw thank you so much, and I'm sure it was hard to avoid reassuring me. But I do appreciate it. That's exactly it, I'm angry and tired because of the ocd bully and so angry thaty partner needlessly upset my safe zone. I coukd maybe see through it if it was something nessecary. But then again I shoukfnt be putting restrictions on get actions because of my worries no matter what. It's just a nightnare and I'm so fed up with it

Crissy

Date posted: 5y

I can definitely relate. I’ve barely left the house in the past 6 months. I haven’t been to the grocery store or anywhere public. I like to go running, but even that feels difficult these days knowing I’ll likely pass people on the street. I’m moving soon, and I’m feeling extremely worried about movers touching my things 😬 I honestly don’t know what’s reasonable and what’s not.

Rosie38

Date posted: 5y

We are thinking of moving soon too and I'm dreading it!! I will be out a fortune in surface cleanser. I've already ordered shrink wrap to cover my mattress. Its just horrendous, I'm even watching my partners everymove to see what she hads touched and hasn't. Ocd and that 0.001 percent that you might over overlooked. It's a bully as who can ever be 100% certain of anything. Perfect certainty doesn't exisit and our tired brains are always searching for it. I try to talk myself round. Reiterating that I've done my best with the cleaning and that's all I can do

WhatATripp

Date posted: 5y

I am also on this wild ride with Covid anxiety/contamination OCD. Totally relate to your situation. I've just started therapy through NOCD and it helps to have someone just listen to my irrational fears, then give me tools to help put those fears in their place. She also acknowledges that right now, it can be tough to tell the difference between a sensible habit and an OCD compulsion. So I do my ERP exercises as assigned, and try not to get discouraged when the anxiety takes over and I give in to whatever compulsion numbs the fear.

Rosie38

Date posted: 5y

Thank you, I am trying to use the erp but it's hard and I am getting angry at my partner because I imagine in my mind that she didn't wipe things down correctly. And I keep asking her to reassure me which I know is wrong. For example I left her to wipe some items down that someone she works with brought In the house. She wiped it but admitted it wasn't thouorgh as it was an electrical item. Now my mind feels its contaminated. Normally this would be fine but because of covid I'm worrying and feel that it needs wiped again. Do I just resist and trust that it's OK? It's the 5% uncertainty that covid is living in there that drives me mad. She was then fiddling with the item and wouldn't wash her hands she looked at me with distain when I made her use hand sanitiser. I feel her hands are contaminated with covid now. I know I shoukd use ERP for this but what if I am being rational and there was a risk and I then ignored it and 2 weeks from now we have contracted the virus. My head is mangled.

Rosie38

Date posted: 5y

@Rosie38 Why does going through this, every little thing makes me irritated and angry

WhatATripp

Date posted: 5y

I don't know. Maybe because we get scared. And exhausted from the constant state of worrying. And it's so hard to sit with the anxiety and do nothing. So everything runs together in OCD glop and we get mad at everyone around us for upsetting our safe zone. I wish I had just the right thing to say that isn't a reassurance, that would help you, me and everyone else here get better in the snap of a finger. I don't, or I'd be the hottest thing in OCD therapy right now ;) Let's just keep fighting the fight. OCD is a bully that can be overcome.

ynnej

Date posted: 24w

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???

oneday.x

Date posted: 22w

Really need help, can't move on from contamination

This is a long one lol but basically, a couple of weeks ago I went to the toilet (#2, sorry for the tmi). Let's just say it was messy. I remember that a speck of.. #2.. Fell off the piece of toilet paper. This was probably the worst thing that could ever happen. I can't remember clearly but I'm pretty sure my jeans were on the floor underneath near where the speck could have fallen. There was also a towel. I don't know exactly where it fell as it was so small, but I made sure both the towel and the jeans went in the laundry basket and I cleaned the floor near there. Fast forward to like the next day. My mum does most of the laundry, so she will have picked up all the towels and clothes from the laundry basket and taken them to the wash. The problem is the speck. I don't know where it went but if it was on the towel and she picked it up.... Thus, contaminated mum. And she also puts clothes away that are dry. I remember that day she put my hoodie in my wardrobe, and I haven't worn it since because I feel it is contaminated. I haven't worn the clothes that have touched the hoodie. This leaves me with not a lot of clothes. And today I finally snapped and picked up a sweatshirt that had maybe touched the hoodie. And now I'm just sat here spiralling, wearing it. What if it touched the speck? What if the speck touched my mum and then touched the hoodie which then touched the sweatshirt I'm wearing? Please I'm so scared.

Contamination OCD

flowerpetals

Date posted: 19w

spiraling over anxiety

contamination ocd has really been messing with me the last couple of days. usually i only struggle when i can connect something to possibly throwing up, but this time it doesn’t matter. so earlier, i took a shower and i also use a wash cloth to wash my body. after i showered i cleaned up my dirty clothes and towels. then when i came back to grab my phone, there was a soap speck on my phone so without thinking i just wiped it on the back of my crewneck i was wearing. well that then spiraled into me thinking what if the soap was from my dirty wash cloth. i know most of you are probably thinking it’s clean since you use soap to clean ur body. well i clean every inch of my body, including my bottom so that’s where my anxiety is gravitating towards. this sounds so ridiculous saying it out loud, but i just have so much anxiety over it. i tried my hardest not to change but i did. at first i just changed my crewneck, but then i had to change my shorts cause my crewneck touches my shorts. but then i changed my shorts. and now i feel like my shirt is contaminated cause i was wearing it with my other shorts before changing. moral of the story, i just have so much anxiety over it and i feel like i shouldn’t because it’s really not a big deal. and i don’t want to change again because that seems ridiculous to me. plus now i’m connecting the contamination to my bed since i was laying on my bed before i changed. i hate life, this sucks.

Contamination OCD

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