- Date posted
- 6y ago
- Date posted
- 6y ago
I wanted to be a nurse at one time but I couldn’t because of my contamination ocd. I was in school but when I did a clinical at the hospital that’s when I realized there’s no way I could do it which really sucks because I’m having a hard time figuring out what I want for a career. Ocd gets in the way a lot of the time..So I’d love to know the answer to this question as well if there is anyone on here!
- Date posted
- 6y ago
?♀️ yes there is at least me and one other nurse on this app. I did not start with contamination OCD, only you harm and then POCD, and then lastly I developed contamination. When I developed contamination it took me completely by surprise because I hadn’t had an issue with germs before. I basically had a meltdown slowly through half of 2018 and ended up having to quit my job for a while and was seeing a BUNCH of therapists. What actually worked best was getting my meds changed and then slowly re- engaging in my work. I still go to therapy 2x/ week. Everyday is a constant exposure and I choose 1-2 things to work on at a time. I am currently working on my fear of contaminating the IV. It helps most of my fear is of me making others sick, not myself
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Thanks for the responses! I have been a nurse for 3 1/2 years. I never had contamination ocd until my nursing career. I did have POCD/sexual thought ocd years ago, which got better! Anyway, my contamination ocd got to the point where I quit my job. My last day of work was 12/15. I’ve been trying to find jobs since then in healthcare/nursing that are more behind the scenes. No luck yet! I also just started therapy for the contamination ocd last week. Hoping to get help. WorriedDriver, you sound like me! Other than the fact that I fear I will get a disease vs making others sick.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Some advice I got was go move to an area with less broad scope of practice ex: OR, psych, procedural area so that there are fewer variety of tasks and it’s easier to do ERP. I also take 200mg sertraline and 2mg of Abilify (started getting really depressed) and the combo has allowed me to get the OCD under control. I also switched units which helped because my old unit really triggered a lot of my OCD thoughts just because of bad memories of having so much panic about contamination there
Related posts
- Date posted
- 23w 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
- 16w ago
Hello! I am really looking for some advice. I have been struggling with OCD for a few years now and it drastically affects my daily life. I am going to give a quick run through of my OCD, and then the current situation I am in now. So for almost 2 years now my most prominent themes of OCD have been getting sick with the stomach bug (emetaphobia) and watching someone die/ having to see large amount of blood or do CPR on someone (I just graduated nursing school). Last year I stopped eating out, wouldn’t touch any of my food with my hands, would wash my hands until they bleed every day, bleached everything I touched when I was in public etc… I would have these major panic attacks all the time and the thought of getting sick hasn’t left my head 24/7 for 2 years. I was unable to complete my nursing school clinicals due to panic attacks each time I was at the hospital afraid someone would die and get these terrible images in my head. I didn’t sleep ever, barely graduated. I did ERP after school and was able to make up the clinical days I missed. Got to a point where I was eating again, felt like I was able to get my hands clean just by washing them. I have been doing exposures every day, and have accepted that getting sick will probably happen at one point and I am okay with it as long as I am at home when it happens. So locking myself in my apartment for 48hr every time after I could have been exposed to the stomach bug is major progress for me and I have been overall doing much better. Fast forward to now: It’s time for me to start my new job on a med/surg floor in a hospital. This week I have made it through a few days of orientation with panic attacks day and night but I am doing it even though I am petrified. I don’t feel ready for this big of a step, being exposed to both of my biggest fears constantly. Today at orientation the girl sitting next to me told me she had been vomiting all day, and continued to run out of the room a vomit the rest of the day. I now am 90% sure I am going to get sick and feel as if I would rather die than continue this amount of stress and anxiety I have felt from just a few days of being on the job. This is my BIGGEST fear and it’s coming true and I don’t know if it’s worth putting myself through this every day at work to just be having constant panic attacks and be miserable. I know with OCD you have to face your fears but I have been pushing myself and trying so hard and I don’t feel like it’s worth it to work this job. I would also feel incredibly guilty for quitting on the first week, but there are a million other nursing jobs that are not in a hospital. I think this is too big of a step for me right now but I wanted to see what others think. Any advice at all is so appreciated!
- Date posted
- 14w ago
It started when I became an adult, and started receiving my mental health diagnosis. I hyper fixated on each and every action I did and how it could be related to my diagnosis’s. It then lead to fixation to my physical health — making appointments and seeing every specialist I can to rule out every possibility. I currently have been suffering with obstructive sleep. I woke up the past few days with severe pain from the lack of sleep whilst believing I was oversleeping. Luckily my fit watch tracks my sleep cycle and it turns out I am not receiving any sleep. I had an extreme panic attack — bursting into tears on the phone with my mom wondering what this case might be. She told me it could be sleep apnea and that a simple sleep study could figure this out. However, knowing my family history I made appointments to every specialist I can to make sure it is nothing serious. The unknown of health can be scary to me. Watching my mother suffer with her physical health chronically since I was a child lead me to be very conscious and aware of how my body is functioning. This morning was one of the worst moments of physical pain. I should just take one step at a time with the sleep doctor instead of taking measures to see every specialist that could pertain with this issue. However, that is very hard to me. I don’t want to ever wake up in the pain I was this morning. Does anyone else suffer with health-related OCD? And if so, how do you find a sense of ease during moments like I expressed?
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