- Date posted
- 6y ago
- Date posted
- 6y ago
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 ago
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 ago
What is that?
- Date posted
- 6y ago
I think I defiantly have dealt with and deal with aspects of this!
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Yaaaassss!!!
- Date posted
- 6y ago
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 ago
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 ago
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 ago
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 ago
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 ago
I'm glad I could help. It's not really common and it's hard to talk about.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
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 ago
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 ago
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 ago
Any other suggestions on this topic from anyone else?
Related posts
- Date posted
- 20w ago
Dose anyone else experience that your OCD calms down and goes to the back of your mind during- feels almost safe and unaware of it but as soon as it's over and youve calmed down all the intrusive thoughts come rushing back 10x worse? I've had really awful panic attacks because of it the past two nights and it's exhausting I haven't been with another person in over a year because of how bad it was after and not being able to explain it properly to partners "no I'm not crying because of you" "no you didn't do anything wrong" I feel insane- like I'll never be able to have a normal functioning sexual time alone or with others do to it the compulsions that come with it are exhausting it's like the need to cleanse myself of filth like I'm disgusting and horrible until there's no traces I did anything in the first place I'm just so tired dose anyone have any tips of how to work through this- or at least be able to enjoy myself without crying afterwords? I have no idea what subtype this would even entail? I'm going to go with contamination I guess ?
- Date posted
- 15w ago
So, I know my capacity to get fixated on things. And it's normally something that's relatively remote but, my latest issue is really getting to me and I was wondering if people have any advice. I'm avoiding getting too into specifics, as I don't want this to get reassurance-y but, in essence.. I came to the realisation recently that people who I'd been "friends" (feels like the wrong term now) when I was younger were not very nice people, and normalized a lot of very unpleasant behaviour towards other members of the group. They really normalized it, sold themselves as figures of authority, as older and more responsible and grown-up than others, and looking back, they acted horribly. And coming to this realisation, that I'd been manipulated into just accepting their behaviour has just... broken me. My OCD has latched onto it and I can't stop feeling irreversibly tainted by it. I've talked to others about it, and they've reassured me, told me it's not a big deal and that I hold myself to too high a standard, but none of that sticks. I feel better for a bit, then think 'Maybe when you told them you were skewing it to make yourself look better' or 'Did you leave out a crucial detail'. I keep ruminating over and over, trying to remember exactly how everything played out, trying to figure out if I fed into the behaviour, if I did something bad myself (because y'know, I feel like I was accepting of it at the time, so what does it say about my own values?). I know I need to stop doing all this if I want to improve, but then some part of me keeps saying 'So, you're just going to let yourself off the hook then?' Normally, I can rationalize my own fears to some degree, assure myself something won't happen, but the realness of the situation, and the fact I only came to understand the reality of it because the thought had been bothering me means it feels so much more all-encompassing. I know confessing in itself is a compulsion, but I keep feeling that if I'm not I'm somehow concealing what I 'really am' from others around me, and any positive interactions are me deceiving them in some way. I feel like I can't enjoy anything in life right now, and a good part of me feels I should not enjoy it ever again. If anybody has any advice on it, I'm all ears. Or even hearing if you relate to these feelings, I might appreciate the solidarity at least.
- Date posted
- 11w ago
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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