- Date posted
- 6y ago
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Hello! Fellow nurse here. There’s at least 2 other nurses who use this app on here! There is no quick and easy answer. My contamination OCD decided to focus on the fear of giving my patients sepsis. Is your fear is getting or giving germs? What has worked for me had been finding a medication combination that works for me 200mg sertaline + 2mg aripiparazole and lots of therapy. Scripting in particular helped me. Also watching videos as exposure.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
That’s tough. Nurses have a tough job. Have you spoken to anyone about it?
- Date posted
- 6y ago
What are your triggers and compulsions? As a nurse I’m sure hand washing is tough as it’s already oftentimes necessary. Hang in there!
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Mine are both, giving (to my family) and (me) getting germs. It is very frustrating. I feel "infected" whenever I see my hepatitis B and C patient. Everything about them including blood is my trigger. I try to avoid them as much as possible. This is sad. It happened after my ward full of hepatitis C patients. It is kind of traumatic. Anyway, thank you guys for supports. I'll try my best.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
You must stop avoiding them. This is a compulsion. If this is too hard right now, try imaginal exposure. The good news is the Hep C is now curable through medication. Additionally, you are probably vaccinated against Hep B as a healthcare worker. A script could go like this: I am afraid I could be exposed to Hepatitis at the hospital despite taking standard precautions and become infected. If this happened, I would be horrified and feel like [insert feelings here]. If I became infected I could accidentally infect my family members and I would feel so guilty. [Insert additional catastrophic thoughts here]. Ex: I would be resistant to treatment and die a prolonged death from liver failure. Despite these concerns, I must accept the uncertainty and act according the facts and not because of my fears. Record the script on the loop player and listen to it until it no longer triggers you.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Yes
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Well, nurse has something to do with patient, right? From IV to intubation assistance, it is for me very painful that I cannot perform what I used to do. It is a nightmare everytime when you have to think whether you will be infected after procedure or patients are hepatitis positive or not. It is really disturbing.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
This is my life!
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Thank you, worried driver. Thanks and thanks again.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Wow, it occurred to me before to be a nurse but I did not due to the germ aspect/did not want to touch anyone. Were you recently diagnosed?
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Was it a recent diagnosis?
- Date posted
- 6y ago
By a psychiatrist, yeab
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Wait sorry, brain fart. I am curious, how much does it interfere with your ability to get to your job?
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Holy crap. I have contamination fears that I have worked on when they originated from 1992. I cannot imagine what your going through. Have you been advised to go though CBT or ERP therapy?
- Date posted
- 6y ago
I have tried ERP recently. Is it gonna be helpful? My psychiatrist said it takes time you have to bear with it.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
I am actually a psychology major for my masters and studying theories of therapy. It has great research behind it. I have been practicing on my own in small spurts and am having success.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Thank you, rachel1979
- Date posted
- 6y ago
I am currently having a lot of problems not with contamination but with checking rituals. A lot. And realized today that I missed my doctors appt. For meds last month. Thank God the nurse practitioner can get me in today for my meds.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
Is anyone on this thread still here? I am also a nurse with contamination OCD.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 25w ago
My mind keeps telling me “something is wrong with you. the weird feeling you are feeling or the weird tingling you are feeling or there is a weird mark on your body. Those are actually a severe symptom and by ignoring it you could die!” Or especially the constant, “go to the emergency room because this impending doom you are feeling, yeah that’s because your gonna die shortly” It doesn’t help whenever people say “well if something was wrong your body would tell you” because my mind keeps telling me that what I’m feeling is proof something is wrong and I need to get it checked out. That I actually am severely sick and that I need to get it checked out as soon as possible, that if I get one more test than I’ll be okay because it will prove nothing is wrong. How do I tell my mind that it’s just anxiety whenever my mind keeps telling me “well if you keep saying that you could be ignoring something more serious.” Or “the doctors are just brushing you off..something is wrong with you” It’s hard to live with my thoughts whenever they are constantly coming up with ways to challenge me and challenge logic. New reasons on why I need to get this checked out because “I’m just being ignored” or “no one is listening to me so I’ll just end up dying” My symptoms range from weak and shaking legs and body to dizzy and unbalanced and dissociated. Recently I’ve been getting this tingling feeling inside my head and on the back of my neck. And my temples have pressure on them. My body keeps coming up with new symptoms I need to worry about, whenever most of them are probably caused by severe and constant anxiety. So severe I can’t even leave the house because I constantly worry about whether this is severe and something will happen if I leave the house. I need immediate ways to start fixing this because it’s especially horrible whenever my period comes around and my anxiety/depression is already higher than usual. I’ve even started considering taking medication (Zoloft, 25mg) which is another trigger for me, I worry about the symptoms I might get from taking it. That’s how you know it’s gotten pretty bad whenever I’ve come to taking something that I’ve been actively avoiding. What are your thoughts? Do I take the medication? What are ways I can deal with my symptoms that seem so severe in the moment but pass by once I’m not anxious? What are ways my thoughts can ease and I stop taking every symptom as something serious, because at the end of the day my anxiety is most likely the reason I have these horrible symptoms. I’ve always been extremely healthy and everytime I go to the doctors they express how healthy I am with all the tests I’ve had.
- 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
- 19w ago
Guys I need help. I feel so alone . Basically I have this compulsion where I feel the need to write everything but this stems from me being anxious about EVERYTHING. Like my mom came in my room and I was irritated and snapped, immediately regretted now I keep writing “don’t be mean to mom next time” but I keep thinking about it. Then I think about how I finally left my house today and all the surfaces I touched that could’ve been contaminated and now I’m writing “next time don’t touch this and this”. Then I think about all the things I need to be doing for this week and I’m writing “don’t forget to do this and this” even though I’ve written it 5 times already. This is what happens everyday btw. My brain always thinks about something I need to be doing and making me anxious that I’ll forget it which is why I write it down on my notes app. I’m sooo mentally exhausted I need help pls!! Anyone have any advice ? I used to think I need to stop the writing but really I need to stop the anxious thoughts coming into my head . People say I need to accept the thoughts and let it go but that’s too hard for me
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