- Date posted
- 6y
- Date posted
- 6y
Its hard to explain but I will try my best. Where you dont won't to go to a place where someone a person place or thing that bothers you may have been. You could look it up and it would explain it better to you but its called emotional contamination OCD. The OCD website has some info on it. Hope that helped some
- Date posted
- 6y
This was my biggest issue actually. My therapist called it "Creative associations". It ruled my life. I was so scared of associating something I loved with domething that I hated, that I started avoiding the thing I loved because I was scared I they'd get "contaminated".
- Date posted
- 6y
What is that?
- Date posted
- 6y
I think I defiantly have dealt with and deal with aspects of this!
- Date posted
- 6y
Yaaaassss!!!
- Date posted
- 6y
Ohh okay so there are others. Lucius so in your opinion was therapy hard to do for the "Creative Associations"? I have trouble doing the erp for this part.
- Date posted
- 6y
Kinda yes. What worked for me was putting the triggers (names for example) on cards and shuffling them with cards that had the name of the thing I wanted to "preserve". Then you just pick random cards and repeat until you get "used" to it ifbthat makes sense. It was really hard but in the end forcing myself to do the things I didn't want to contaminate while forcing myself to think about the triggers took away the power of the triggers.
- Date posted
- 6y
Were you ever scared of becoming contaminated yourself? Sorry so many questions I'm just trying to figure out the best approach to this. I don't really have much help near me for OCD so I only get to see my therapist every so often and I'm kind of trying to figure it out in between sessions.
- Date posted
- 6y
Don't worry about it! In my case no, it was all about ruining the things I loved. I was actually in a really similar situation when I found out about mental contamination. It took almost 2 years before I got real ERP for it. But once I started really challenging it, it didn't really take that long to get past those thoughts. It was miserable at first but once you get the ball rolling it becomes much easier.
- Date posted
- 6y
Thank you so much for the advice. It really helps to hear your story. Not in a reassurance way but I was just curious how therapy worked for this part of OCD
- Date posted
- 6y
I'm glad I could help. It's not really common and it's hard to talk about.
- Date posted
- 6y
I know that's what's so hard. It is hard to talk about. My therapist knew it was emotional contamination and I know she can help me get the right help I just don't get to go as near as much as I would like to.
- Date posted
- 6y
Its just hard work and I know I have to do it. I just don't have the nerve to go against what I feel keeps everyone around me safe. Uhh this condition sucks!
- Date posted
- 6y
It definetly is really hard work and it was super scary for me when I started but it gets much easier once you get past the initial anxiety.
- Date posted
- 6y
Any other suggestions on this topic from anyone else?
Related posts
- Date posted
- 23w
Does anyone have any tips that helped them? Mine is due to a specific person and I work with them so it’s been really difficult. I’ve started ERP which has been reaaalllllly challenging and I would love to hear from anyone else that has gone through any type of contamination ocd and how they have overcome or are fighting their way through it. Thank you!l
- Date posted
- 22w
This is a long one lol but basically, a couple of weeks ago I went to the toilet (#2, sorry for the tmi). Let's just say it was messy. I remember that a speck of.. #2.. Fell off the piece of toilet paper. This was probably the worst thing that could ever happen. I can't remember clearly but I'm pretty sure my jeans were on the floor underneath near where the speck could have fallen. There was also a towel. I don't know exactly where it fell as it was so small, but I made sure both the towel and the jeans went in the laundry basket and I cleaned the floor near there. Fast forward to like the next day. My mum does most of the laundry, so she will have picked up all the towels and clothes from the laundry basket and taken them to the wash. The problem is the speck. I don't know where it went but if it was on the towel and she picked it up.... Thus, contaminated mum. And she also puts clothes away that are dry. I remember that day she put my hoodie in my wardrobe, and I haven't worn it since because I feel it is contaminated. I haven't worn the clothes that have touched the hoodie. This leaves me with not a lot of clothes. And today I finally snapped and picked up a sweatshirt that had maybe touched the hoodie. And now I'm just sat here spiralling, wearing it. What if it touched the speck? What if the speck touched my mum and then touched the hoodie which then touched the sweatshirt I'm wearing? Please I'm so scared.
- Date posted
- 15w
Hi all, I’m new here and just recently got diagnosed. I’m trying to make sense of a lot of things and could use some perspective. I feel like I’m the only one who has contamination themes and does not have the compulsion to clean things, but rather to run away from the mess. I would really love to hear from someone who can relate, because right now I feel like I’m making it up. Details which might either be useful or triggering: My kitchen is the best example. I might leave a dish or two in the sink and say “I’ll clean it up soon, it’s no big deal.” But then—because of a combination of factors—it will probably sit there for a couple days. Around day 2 or 3 I develop an aversion to dealing with it. It gives me ick. And the longer it sits, the ickier it becomes—realistically and in my imagination. And because I’ve stopped doing dishes, they really start to pile up, and each day, getting started feels like more work and more confrontation with disgust. I will start thinking about how I need to do dishes, or take out the trash, and then get hit with a horrifying mental image of bugs (I’ll spare you the details) or other really disgusting things happening. That image brings me shame and makes me scared to deal with the mess. When it really piles up, I start getting images of the nastiest hoarders’ houses I’ve ever seen, and I start catastrophizing about the future I’m doomed for. So mostly I just watch tv to get my mind off it. (I swear I’m not just lazy 😔) This is true for food too. I will be unsure if something in my fridge is a little too old, so I decided to hedge my bets and I avoid it. I let a lot of food go to waste this way. The biggest problem here is I don’t throw it away when I decide it’s bad. I just side-eye it. Maybe because I know it’s silly to decide 6-day-old soy milk that smells fine has a “bad vibe,” and I think I may be able to get over it later. But then the food actually spoils and I don’t want to touch it to throw it out. I actually had a week or so in June where I couldn’t open the fridge because it smelled bad. It took every ounce of emotional energy and an external deadline to force me to clean my kitchen. I had a couple of meltdowns but it felt great to get my space back. Of course, it’s a cycle and it got bad again. The crazy thing is, I love to cook and I even like doing dishes. And I do dishes every day at work, no problem! But I’m spending so much money on takeout because my kitchen is always trashed. :( Is this super crazy? Does it even sound like contamination ocd? Am I alone in this? Any feedback would be helpful.
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