Question around contamination ocd and ethics. If you can give feedback I'd so appreciate it. I have a fear right now that over touched something in my house contaminated with covid. Rationally it's so unlikely its contaminated. Just the side of a bookshelf I may have touched yesterday when I felt my hands were contaminated. Realistically i never should have had the concern to begin with. However, i feel guilty doing erp to ignore it, because by not washing my hands and continuing to touch common surfaces in my house, I feel i am spreading it. Is it unfair to my husband to push past and keep going because then hes exposed to what I've touched? ERP gets a lot more confusing when addressing fears that you yourself are the one spreading contamination because you have independence and dominion over yourself to say "I agree to this exposure". When you fear you are the person doing the spreading, its other peoples dominion. Thoughts? Help? Any philosophers out there? Lol

Struggling with a lot of the same things I mainly have worries about OTHER people not my self like how my actions may contaminate others

I am going through the same. It’s been really hard for me to decide what to touch and how to handle stuff especially because of fears for others.... I wish I can give you a better answer, but I think we have to try to be careful but not let our OCD take over. Of course it easier to say than done. I am struggling with this pandemic and my ocd so much that I feel most of the time OCD just takes over completely....

I’m not sure if ERP allows this, I haven’t started it, but could you discuss with him if he thinks you’re putting him at risk and if he doesn’t, then go ahead and do that ERP and if he does, just wash your hands?

I don’t want to “reassure” in the sense of telling you that nothing bad could POSSIBLY happen, but because of my own experience, I believe in sharing facts: 1) The risk of fomite transfer is already very low. That is per the CDC. Cleaning high-touch surfaces is a good idea in general, but in the situation you’ve presented, it doesn’t seem to me that the risk of anyone in your household catching COVID19 has increased by any amount of significance. (Obviously I don’t know why you felt your hands were contaminated, but I’m leaning towards the idea that you weren’t in a high-risk situation prior to the bookshelf incident.) 2) It is your husband’s responsibility to himself to make sure his hands are clean before he touches his eyes, nose, or mouth. It is NOT your responsibility to him to ensure a completely sterile environment. He is already aware of the existence of COVID19, and presumably fully capable of commanding his own actions, so it is up to him to protect himself in household situations.