- Date posted
- 6y
- Date posted
- 6y
Thanks guys, I thought I was going crazy. I’m gonna try to just ignore that feeling of washing them push through. It seems like if I touch something that I feel is dirty and feel the need to wash my hands, if I get distracted or wait like 5 min, I sometimes can’t remember what I was worried about and move on without washing. But then next obsession starts?
- Date posted
- 6y
Hi there, I am sorry that you're struggling with this. I also am having trouble with hand washing now. From what I have been learning in therapy it's best to practice Exposure Response Prevention. Try to start with noticing when you feel the "impulse" to wash, notice the thoughts associated with the fear and resist performing the compulsion (hand washing). Stopping compulsions is the key to beating OCD. There is also such a thing as mental compulsions such as mentally reviewing a situation (it's a form of checking). You can do this! I need to follow this myself..
- Date posted
- 6y
Thank you. I’m going to try this and hope I improve!
- Date posted
- 6y
Thank you gardengoddess. I will try this for sure. I think i maybe slowly improving but still have much not progress to make.
- Date posted
- 6y
Hi, I have this problem too. I managed to (sort of) get it under control by postponing washing my hands each time I had the compulsion. If my OCD was telling me to wash my hands, I would set a timer (usually for 20-30 minutes). When the timer was finished, I was allowed to wash my hands. Over time you can increase the time on the timer. When I started using this technique I could only postpone for one minute but it does get better if you persist with it although I do understand that it is difficult. I hope that makes sense. Good luck! ?
- Date posted
- 6y
Lil Z, you are not going crazy. You can rest assured about that. Although I can definitely relate to the worry about "am I going crazy"? That worry alone can be apart of OCD, and increases anxiety. It sounds like you're building some great skills for yourself with your OCD! Great job keep it up! I understand what you are experiencing. The idea with exposure response prevention is not to ignore the feeling that results when we are facing an obsession (such as feeling the need to wash our hands in response to a fear -usually sparked by an intrusive thought). I think what you're doing is GREAT!! Going forward, I recommend allowing and accepting yourself to feel the feeling you are feeling such as anxiety, etc whatever the feeling is that arises from not washing your hands, sit with it. Allow it to be present without obeying what it is compelling you to do (wash hands). As you practice this over time, the compelling need to hand wash should dissipate. Go you!! The idea is to sit with the feeling, not push it away. Delaying the hand washing until the need disappears can help too!!
- Date posted
- 6y
You're welcome, I hope it's helpful. I definitely understand how hard OCD is. I've just been learning about my OCD more recently and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface.
- Date posted
- 6y
I’ve just started doing this worse than I ever have before and it’s caused my hands to be red and dry and painful. I haven’t found anything to help me at this point in time unfortunately, I just want you to know you aren’t alone I’m dealing with this. ♥️
- Date posted
- 6y
I hope it goes well!
Related posts
- Date posted
- 25w
Hello, i have very severe contamination ocd, and as i am writing this i feel my hands are dirty lol, but anyways i wanted to know if there’s anyone specialised in Contamination ocd? No matter what type because i really need help and i looked up things but it doesn’t help please!!
- Date posted
- 24w
sorry this is super long i just wanna know if anyone else has been thru something similar bc i feel super alone 🩷 i have super bad contamination ocd. it was bad already but my house was like my safe space until a few months ago someone brought something into my house that i considered ‘contaminated’. and so then i felt like that part of the house was contaminated, then it spread to everything outside my room (since family is moving around touching stuff) and then somehow i got convinced everything in my room except my bed is contaminated and i need to wash my hands after touching it. in my mind its like the contamination just infinitely spreads to things after the tiniest bit of touch. idek what im afraid of anymore or even what the original thing was but i can’t let it go. when i have to wash off contamination i have to wash at least 4 times or until it feels right, or sometimes take rlly long showers and wipe down all my stuff. i even throw away food and clothes or just whole items sometimes because they feel so contaminated i don’t want them in my space. i can’t be super near people or have anyone touch me, and i also can’t bring anything new into my room since it had to go through the entry of my house which feels contaminated. i feel like all i do is lay in bed and then wash my hands and do compulsions so i can go eat or do other stuff around the house. also i never go out because i’m bc people outside make me feel dirty, and i hate thinking about how many people have touched stuff in stores or in public and stuff. so im just in my room worrying all day. i feel so trapped and the contamination/avoiding it is all i think about anymore i barely have time for anything else and im never present when i talk to people because im worrying about if i accidentally got contaminated. im starting erp next week and knowing that im going to have to expose myself to things is really freaking me out. does anyone else have this kind of ocd ? im exhaustedddd 🥲🥲💔
- Date posted
- 23w
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???
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