Husband emptied the dishwasher that I washed twice because I thought there was some chemicals from work on them. I don’t remember what dishes were in there soooo ☹️

I’m sorry you went through this. It’s just I work with chemicals and this one I thought was on my arm is dangerous. I ended up eating from a bowl and a fork that could have been in there 😢 OCD sucks.

I’m sorry, I’m not trying to ask for reassurance.

Definitely isolating! And thank you ❤️ No one really understands how stressful it is having contamination fears around chemicals.

@RaeStruggles Man made chemicals are in literally everything. It's sometimes difficult to even sit on a couch that isn't my own because I wonder where it was made and how old it is and if it has fire retardant on it. Haha. Geez. It's exhausting. I hope we both find some peace for this type of thing. Eating a bowl of cereal should not cause anxiety!

@Prairie So true!! Thank you for your help ❤️ If you ever need to talk, drop a comment! I’m in here frequently to try and support others.

Oh just realized you were thinking about other chemicals not dish detergent.

I do have to thoroughly rinse my dishes out of the dishwasher. So I kind of feel you. I don't think I'd put drain cleaner in the kitchen lol. I totally get the coffee thing. I have made pots of food and thrown it all out because maybe something got in it. Do you by chance have other chronic health issues? You don't have to say at all. I'm just curious, because that's honestly what I think triggered my fear of chemicals.

@Prairie Yes I have a lot of chronic health issues and spent years trying to figure out why and reading about stuff caused me to have a bad case of chemical ocd

@violet444 Same here. I couldn't figure out what was causing my issues either. And now that I have a diagnosis I'm so afraid of others getting sick or me getting sicker. Aww. I'm so sorry. I hope we can both get to a better place.

@Prairie If you feel like it, tell me what health problems you are battling. I am experiencing fibromyalgia, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and adrenal insufficiency. Hope you feel better mentally and physically

It also helps me to think about what is the root of worrying for example Is your concern your family will get sick if they use “contaminated” dishes plenty of people get sick and that’s just how life is. Random things happen and we figure out how to fix the random things

@Twrecks That's the issue, though. Like maybe if I can control the amount of toxic substances, there will be less of a chance that stuff just happens. The basis for the fear isn't irrational. It's much much easier said than done to just move on, because people feel like if they move on they risk their lives and the lives of the people they love most. It's difficult to not care about that a whole lot and just accept that stuff happens.

@Prairie Yeah I hear you, just think about people who don’t have ocd, they don’t care about chemical s and they don’t die of poison or something or at least most of them. Anyways good lick