Guys, my wife is suffering from contamination OCD since the out break of corona specially as we got our first baby during the epidemic , she can not stop thinking about the matter she keeps washing her hand after everything and wash for like 5 or 10 mins , her hand is got eczematic due to the overuse of the soap , even after vaccine she still afraid . I do not know how can i help her i feel distress as well and sad since i find my self clueless about what i should do ?

I have contamination ocd and was stuck on hand washing in the past. The top layer on both of my arms and hands actually fell off. I probably washed my hands over 100 times a day and now I only wash them a few times a day. One exercise that helped is getting her to write down ervery time she washes her hands, the reason, and her anxiety level on a scale of 1-10. Once you see a trend maybe see if she can stop washing when something causes her an anxiety level of 1 and then eventually work her way up to things that give her an anxiety level of 10

My contamination OCD got so much worse since the pandemic began, so I totally understand what your wife is going through. My advice is this: 1. Learn everything to can about the OCD cycle and learn about how ERP therapy works. 2. Help your wife find a therapist to help with the ERP process OR have her use the tools on this app to practice ERP on her own. 3. Do not offer reassurance if your wife asks you, "Is this clean? Are you sure that's not contaminated?," etc. She/you may feel that reassurance is helpful, but in the long run it makes OCD worse. 4. Ask questions here - it's a great community that's happy to help. Sending good thoughts your way. You are not alone in this.