Amber
- Date posted
- 4y
adaptocdadaptocd
- Date posted
- 4y
I feel like I can relate. I threw out clothes because they felt contaminated with guilt last week. When my mother made a negative comment about my prom dress years ago I almost cut it up. A person I felt discomfort from gave me expensive headphones as a gift and I felt the need to break them and throw them away in secret. If I’ve had feelings or thoughts I feel guilty about I feel like I’ve “contaminated” the relationship I have with a person. When I’m shopping, my thought process makes distorted leaps about why I can or can’t buy something (Ex: This color of shampoo reminds you of a bad event from years ago, so you can’t buy it”) I also experience the need to “fix” a situation if I feel afraid that I’ve caused a specific feeling in someone even if there’s no evidence to ground it. I didn’t recognize this type of issue to be abnormal until I gained more insight into my OCD.
Amber Amber
- Date posted
- 4y
Omg yes!!!! Someone once gave me a very expensive phone case and I threw it away because there was something about that person I did like. The shampoo example is something I go through, too besides I don’t use a certain brand if I had used it before and something bad happened. All the examples you listed are ones I’ve experienced but in slightly different ways. It’s refreshing to see someone that has it like me because I can’t relate to a lot of people here
Amber Amber
- Date posted
- 4y
@Amber Didn’t*
Amber Amber
- Date posted
- 4y
Here’s a good article I found on it https://ocdclinicbrisbane.com.au/mental-contamination-2/
adaptocdadaptocd
- Date posted
- 4y
@Amber It’s wild how normalized something will feel to you after you’ve lived a certain way for so long. The more clarity I’ve gained into my OCD, the more of these distortions I’ve recognized. People often don’t talk about the fact that OCD isn’t just a singular obsession in a person, it often manifests in a variety ways at the same time.
Amber Amber
- Date posted
- 4y
@plathocd Yeah, mine was fairly normal and contained until the pandemic. Idk if cleaning for the virus triggered something in my mind, but my compulsions became 100x worse
Nzz Nzz
- Date posted
- 4y
Can you explain it a little more? Somethings I used to do for example was if I bought clothes with an ex bf, I couldn’t wear those clothes w someone else. Would the clothes be emotionally contaminated?
Amber Amber
- Date posted
- 4y
I have the clothes contamination issue as well
AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 4y
I didn’t know that was a thing until now! I’ve felt that way with clothes I’ve gotten from an ex or clothes I’ve worn for special occasions with my ex. I had to give those clothes away!
Nzz Nzz
- Date posted
- 4y
^super relatable
Amber Amber
- Date posted
- 4y
I also have contamination issues with certain names I see. If anyone has a certain name, I’ll treat them differently or try to avoid them. Its based on if I had a bad experience by the person with the same name
woeismewoeisme
- Date posted
- 4y
I think I might have that, but not to an OCD extent. For example, I used to have 2 separate glasses, one I would wear when I'm indoors and another outdoors, I would never have been able to switch the glasses because I felt that the emotions associated with being indoors and outdoors would "mix" and I felt that being particular about glasses was a way of being "tidy" about my emotions. This probably doesn't make a modicum of sense but it went away eventually so it doesn't matter haha.
Amber Amber
- Date posted
- 4y
Yes, I have a similar issue, but it’s with my sunglasses. If I wear a certain pair somewhere I feel like something bad will happen. Usually sunglasses feel contaminated based on experiences I’ve had in them. For example, if I was wearing a certain pair around someone I didn’t like, I would wash them and not wear them to go see someone I did like. It’s peculiar and the contamination is based on emotional reason whether than the fear of getting sick
Related posts
hopefulxmess
- Date posted
- 24w
Intrusive emotions. Anyone else?
I posted about this the other day and a therapist responded that if it has the usual ocd tells, then it’s most likely ocd. I’m just wondering if anyone else has experienced this. They say even if it’s new for you chances are others have had the same or similar ocd experience. So, this is new for me and just like when I get an intrusive thought i’ve recently been getting what I call intrusive emotions. I will feel something like sad or jealous in a situation when in reality I don’t feel that way at all. For example, my ocd targets certain family members and if one of them is watching tv and thinks a woman is pretty i’ll suddenly feel sad or jealous when I don’t actually care or feel that way because that’s my family member and I don’t think about or feel for them in any inappropriate way. Also, sometimes when I have a harm intrusive thought my ocd will say that I want something horrible to happen to my family member and I will feel like I actually want it but that’s not what I want or how I feel at all. Is there anyone who has had this or something similar happen?
Anonymous
- Date posted
- 19w
Tw/ Contamination ocd
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!!
bun <3
- Date posted
- 19w
everything around me feels contaminated :((
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 🥲🥲💔
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