- Date posted
- 6y
- Date posted
- 6y
I was like this too. I can’t touch my family or boyfriend as I have contamination ocd of dirt and also greasy substances such as moisturiser and suncream. I won’t touch them or anything they have touched or took on holiday and touched. I am now going to therapy and it’s helped as she can advise me and discuss what exposure to do and when the best time to do it is in my daily schedule. It’s client lead and she has helped to ensure that the exposures I start with are not too difficult as it puts you off. You need to start super small. So I am contained by suncream so my first exposure was to buy a towel the same colour as the one I took on holiday as I associated it with t however it did not have suncream on. That’s how little I started. Hope this helps x
- Date posted
- 6y
There is something which I have been researching since starting exposure as I keep backing out and hate it. It’s called TMS I think however it is not covered by nhs and is expensive. It’s meant to work for OCD. the medication my doctor put me on has helped sooooo much. I was put on omega fluoxetine 60mg and I am like a new person already. It’s so much easier to do therapy and live my everyday life though one day I wish to live my life without therapy and tablets! Good luck finding what you need. It’s hard and I’m lucky to have found this app as so many people do not understand x
- Date posted
- 6y
I have the same issue. Major contamination at my job. I work at a mall which triggers my exposure to a contaminated public bathroom and makes me feel contaminated every single day. No help in the horizon tet
- Date posted
- 6y
i come understand. my biggest fear is food or kitchen items that others have touched. won’t go near them. this has caused much tension and many fights. my biggest piece of advice would be try to communicate
- Date posted
- 6y
It’s literal hell. It’s torturing yourself to get better. It’s like watching someone die over and over again and you can’t do anything to stop it. At least that’s what it feels like to me.
- Date posted
- 6y
Locustmoon I understand and I’m sorry to hear it’s so difficult for you. If I could give you a recommendation try sticking with ERP, it was so hard at me too at first I felt like I was about to bust with all the anxiety but trust me it does get better when you practice daily and have faith that it’s what it takes to make you better!
- Date posted
- 6y
I’m sorry that you have to go through this. I know from experience it’s hell. I’ve had exposure therapy a while back but I never want to do it again. It was one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. I’m looking for alternative solutions if anyone has any.
- Date posted
- 6y
Yeah it’s great to find people that understand. I want to try TMS I just don’t know how to go about getting referred . I’ve been on 60mg of that stuff too. Over time unfortunately it lost its effect. I’m just so defeated i don’t know what else to try. Once a month with my therapist isn’t working
- Date posted
- 6y
Locust moon im sorry to hear your dealing with this. If I might ask, what turned you away form exposure and response prevention?
- Date posted
- 6y
I see my therapist every week and ended up going private because the nhs ones just weren’t doing it for me
- Date posted
- 6y
Bigruss I am curious about erp but not sure it will work for me. My contamination ocd is so bad since I have to use a public bathroom daily at work and it’s not the cleanest. While that is a fact, I still can’t imagine exposure such as touching the door handles etc. I may just bust too
- Date posted
- 6y
With ERP You can start as easy or as hard as you like. It’s horrible but it’s the best and quickest way to deal with it and get better. I started my really simple and easy and hardly had any anxiety because it was something that didn’t bother me too much. Just to get the idea of it. We’re building up to now doing ERP for the actual contamination x
Related posts
- Date posted
- 22w
My last and almost life long theme/sub-theme largely subsided recently and my ocd felt like it wasn’t even an issue. Then I went on winter break from uni and being alone made my mind come up with a whole new topic to obsess over. TLDR on my fears, my advisor wouldn’t email me back for a while about signing up for classes so my mind started to worry “what if he doesn’t in time and you can’t enroll this semester and you lose this whole life you just built and all these new friends” So when that issue was resolved my mind found other scarier ways I could be uprooted from my current life and friends that I’ve grown so attached to. Then my mind remembered back when I was struggling with false memories and scrupulosity and I essentially made a post on a forum 2 and a half years ago saying I did something or was convinced I did something that I never actually did. Now I’ve been spiraling about someone finding it reporting me and I either get seen as a horrible person or arrested or something over something I never actually did but “admitted” to out of fear of going to hell. My mind won’t let it go and keeps finding new reasons for it to be “valid” “logical” or even inevitable. I feel like it’s just hanging over my head and I can never rest easy. Especially when I try to focus on my daily tasks or plan for the future I get this horrible flair up of “why plan for the future when this could come back in that future and you get uprooted from all of it” my mind won’t rest without certainty being uprooted won’t happen but certainty doesn’t exist, at least not with ocd. This sucks and I miss being care free.
- Date posted
- 18w
I’ve shared on here before that I don’t have the best relationship with my parents but I still care for them a lot. I love them. This disorder has been so debilitating for the last 4 months. It keeps getting worse. It’s been attacking any physical contact with my parents. Any touches, hugs, playful jabs, caresses, anything. Anything that’s supposed to be pure and loving. My brain jumps to it being inappropriate, or weird or just comparing it to something sexual. Then I just feel so uncomfortable. I don’t know if I’m just hyperaware of how I feel, I tense up badly or if I’m checking how I feel. I don’t know. It breaks my heart. It genuinely hurts so bad. I feel like a child who just wants to cry in her parents’ arms but OCD is trying to take them away. This feels so painful, I’ve been dealing with so many themes but this specific situation hurts the most. I feel devastated and scared. If anyone else has been through this or has any advice, I’d really appreciate it. And if not, just knowing that someone heard me would mean a lot. I feel so deeply sad.
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- "Pure" OCD
- Mid-life adults with OCD
- Relationship OCD
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- OCD newbies
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- Date posted
- 16w
Im having a OCD specifically contamination OCD flare up all month and I don’t want to feel this way going into March, I’ve thrown out clothes, towels, stayed up for hours doing compulsions, washed my hands till they crack and bleed, I have washing pilling up cause I’m so overwhelmed by all the extra things I’ve added cause I thought it was contaminated. It’s completely draining me to the point where I’ve become sleep deprived and are avoiding part of my home because they are deemed contaminated to me…I only moved in a few months ago, I had a roach problem and using baits and insecticides really messed with my ocd too. anyone have any tips or tricks to make this easier? I wasn’t doing this bad in January :( thankyou in advance :)
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