I’m new to this app and really happy to be within a community of people working through same thing. I have been working through contamination ocd since the start of the pandemic. It’s debilitating mentally. It just wants me to seek certainty in every compulsion and also reassurance and researching online incessantly. Anyone else struggle with this specific ocd? Wiping down doorknobs every time someone touches them. I can’t even sit outside in the grass I’m afraid of the pandemic. I won’t touch my groceries for three days. I miss my old self. I literally feel like a different person since March.

Sure :3 1) Do not get your information from social media, and take news articles with a grain of salt. If that sort of media triggers you past what you can resist at the moment, cut yourself off from it until you’re far enough in your recovery that you can do effective ERP with it. 2) The virus is not absorbed through the skin, blood, or digestive system. It has to reach your respiratory tract, which requires your nose and/or parts of your mouth and throat. This is why we wear masks. Fabric masks are good for laypeople who are able to routinely maintain suitable distance from others; even though they don’t *shield* as well as surgical masks/N95s, cotton wicks away moisture and helps to dry out (and therefore deactivate) the virus. Double-lined/layer masks are even better at this than single. Given the circumstances, I personally think that if you have surgical masks or N95s available, you can wear them without worrying about it being unreasonable compulsive behavior, so long as you are not taking them away from someone who needs them more (ie someone in healthcare). 3) The counsel to wash your hands frequently is to cover for potential human error, because many people put their fingers in their mouth or nose without thinking about it. That’s another bonus to wearing a mask; it’s a tangible barrier between your hands and your nose/mouth. Washing is considered “better” in general because soap and water will clean away debris from the hands, but a solution with 75% or higher amount of alcohol WILL kill the virus. If you’re in the habit of washing your hands with soap and water often/intensely enough to crack open the skin, switch to the proper alcohol hand sanitizer and reserve hand-washing for certain times (before/during/after food prep, before and after eating, and after using the toilet. I also wash once every few hours or so because the sanitizer makes my hands feel sticky after awhile). 4) Similarly, the counsel to wash countertops, doorknobs, and “high-touch objects” are also to cover for potential human error. The virus won’t jump off a surface and into your nose by itself. 5) Taking all this into account, it’s important to be choosy about what you’re going to be Most Vigilant about. Wearing your mask when you leave your house, and cleaning your hands before you put them near your mouth and nose, are the things to be most vigilant about. You don’t need to clean your hands after every single interaction with a solid object; you’ll run out of cleaning supplies extremely quickly and you’ll only feed your panic. I don’t think it’s necessarily an overreaction to clean objects that you bring into your house, particularly if you’ve come back from a high-risk situation (such as the hospital), but I also think that if you forget to do it or want to make resisting cleaning such objects part of your ERP, it’s okay, so long as you’re vigiliant about the important parts (mask wearing in public, and cleaning your hands before they come near your face). 6) If you’re in the right headspace for it, keeping perspective and learning how viruses actually work might help maintain your calm. For instance, I know that it takes a certain amount of virus to cause an infection, and I know that outdoor transmission is far, far less likely than indoor because of air circulation/wind dispersal, so I know that taking my dog for a walk or working solo in my garden, even without a mask, is a safe activity since I can remain far enough away from other people. 7) It also helps to remember that the CDC/WHO is directing the public to do what they consider to be The Most But Still Within Reason, so the pool of potential infectees stays as small as possible. For instance, one meter/three feet is a clinically significant distance for preventing transmission in many cases (sneezes can reach further). But because that’s within a natural range for humans, it’s much harder to keep that as a strict boundary. Six feet/two meters requires more attentiveness, which makes it easier to maintain. So if I make a mistake and end up closer than six feet to somebody, I can defuse the initial panic by remembering that keeping as much distance as possible and making sure my nose/mouth are covered is still good protection. 7) It’s also helpful for me to remember that the virus does not waft off of people like a pheromone. It takes respiratory droplets that are expelled by coughing, sneezing, and talking. If I realize that I’ve gotten close to somebody, I can take the edge off my fear if I can recall that the person hasn’t coughed, sneezed, or talked in my direction. 8) The big thing to remember is the same with all OCD: the 100% guarantee that we will not get sick does not exist, so it is pointless to focus so hard on trying to make it happen. We are only capable of minimizing risk, and we can best do that by following the counsel of people who have spent years and millions of dollars studying diseases and how to avoid transmitting them. 9) Idk if this is relevant to you, but if you have Responsibility/Scrupulosity OCD like I do, the temptation to go overboard protecting *others* from COVID19 is very, very, very strong. For me, it’s helpful to remind myself that anything I do for others’ sake—such as wiping down door handles in public spaces—is a kindness, not a moral duty. Something that I want to do, but that I am not required to do (beyond what the law and my workplace policies dictate). I might not be able to stop myself from compulsive cleaning every single time I get the urge, but I can stop myself more often than I used to, and if I “forget” I can defuse the feeling of guilt by recalling that it’s not my responsibility to keep the virus away from someone else’s respiratory tract; it’s theirs. I hope this helps you in some way :3 Just remember: wear your mask in public indoor spaces, clean your hands before they get near your face, and deploy your ERP/coping skills when you feel panic welling up inside you.

So I just double-checked, and it is actually 60% that will do it 👍🏻 Please forgive my error 🙇🏻‍♀️