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I turn 20 this year and wonder if I’ll be able to have kids and start a family if I have contamination ocd. My partner is great and we’ve been together for 4 years and I’m just thinking about how in the next 10 years id like to get married and start a family but I constantly see kids as germ carriers. I want to be a good mom and a good partner but sometimes I can’t even kiss my partner.

Does your ocd ever make you feel like people/pets/loved ones are somehow "contaminated"? I have about 1 real bad episode per year.. that my dad & my cat are somehow "contaminated" just because I had scary thoughts about them. The belief that they are "contaminated/messed up", leads to depression. It is the scariest thing. It's like an emotional contamination fear.

I already have the herpes virus, HSV-1 in my body. I have had it since 2020. So I obviously have the antibodies in my bloodstream. Even though I ALREADY have the virus, I am still so afraid of getting herpes all over my hands, and that it is everywhere in everything that I touch. It sucks because it consumes me non stop all day 24/7 and my parents say I have nothing to worry about because I already have the virus but I still worry. I have the virus downstairs. So nothing orally. But I still can’t even brush my own teeth without gloves because I fear what if I do have it orally and I’m just not showing symptoms. My main fear is getting it in my hands. Can anyone relate to this or does anyone have anything to chime in

Hello anyone reading, I just wanted to vent here because at this point i’m not sure what to do or if i’ll ever be normal and my OCD is causing my mental health to go down the drain badly. It’s so debilitating I can’t do anything daily other than focus on it. I can’t feel comfortable anywhere, not even in my own home. I deal with the type of OCD where i’m convinced things are contaminated with chemicals or feces or any number of things. TMI: For example when I used the bathroom the other day in a public one and it went off on its own so now i’m convinced I had feces all over me so I had to shower and wash my clothes. Now i can’t even sit in my car cause the seat supposedly is covered now too from the drive home. I can’t touch anything on my floor or anywhere for that matter without washing my hands like my phone charger or my feet/shoes/ankles, door knobs, handles, anything cause i don’t even know why anymore. I’m terrified of cleaning products being on me or touching them, people spraying anything. I can’t have my windows down in the car anymore because i’m terrified of someone’s window washer fluid getting all over me. I watched a video about a guy accidentally drinking paint thinner cause he kept it in a water bottle and had to convince myself that my water wasn’t paint thinner and etc These are just some of the examples I have and I don’t know how to get over it or handle it anymore and I feel like I’m literally going crazy. Any suggestions or advice would mean a lot. please

Everyone meet: the bag. He’s been around for almost a year now. It is time this bag is conquered and OUT of my room. I suffer with severe contamination OCD and have difficulty cleaning. About seven months ago, a mouse was discovered in the house, and was suspected to have originated from this very bag…This bag that I used to carry miscellaneous college supplies when I moved out… Mouse poop was discovered underneath it. And ever since then, I’ve been TERRIFIED to clear out this bag. EVERYTHING, I mean EVERYTHING inside is “contaminated.” Mouse poop!!! MOUSE POOP! My luck! And don’t even try to search up the diseases mouse poop carry, because I did and now I can’t even touch this bag without panic. See that packaged item next to it? It is untouched, because it fell on the bag. 🤦‍♀️Even being within a RADIUS of the bag can cause “contamination,” as if the bag emits a poisonous smog. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ Guys, even as I say this I’m understanding the ludicrousness, but I NEED to deal with this bag. There’s so many precious items inside. All “contaminated.” Anyone have any idea how to do this!!?

I don’t know if this will be useful to anyone but, If you need reassurance about your OCD I found this Yale-Brown test is helpful. https://www.intermed.com/content/uploads/Yale-Brown-Obsessive-Compulsive-Scale-Y-BOCS_July-2022.pdf My OCD-free boyfriend took it and didn’t mark a single thing on the sheet, while I had a ton. It was reassuring to know that I’m not being dramatic about my symptoms. Google also describes OCD as having fear of contamination, but there are way more types out there. This test ( https://ocdtest.com ) can help you identify what kinds of OCD you have

I’m here because I’m looking for help. I’ve tried CBT but my therapist isn’t specialized in OCD and I don’t know what else to do. I’m terrified all the time, I wear a mask every day and wash my hands till they are raw. I don’t know what to do, I didn’t have anywhere near the levels of anxiety and depression before the pandemic that I have since the pandemic started, I am terrified of everything, I had Covid once but I am terrified that I’m a ticking time bomb because it does cause long lasting symptoms and can disable or kill you even after one infection and that’s what terrifies me. I’m forced to go into the office with people who don’t mask and don’t care about coughing up a lung and not covering it up. I can’t sleep without feeling like something is wrong with my heart or my body and I am constantly afraid of going out and being around people and crowds. I’m terrified of Covid and getting it again and losing my life and quality of life because of it. I’m also terrified of losing my wife because she doesn’t want a partner who just stays in the house all the time.

I have been an emetophobic since i’m a child i’m 32 now and over the last few years i have never been worse. I’ve truly spiraled and my contamination OCD is ruining my day to day life. I can’t go to any store or pick up my son from school without coming home and scrubbing my hands raw and spraying everything i have touched with professional grade disinfectant. My hands are so bad they are split , bleeding and so red and dry and i will keep washing them over and over even though it burns. If i touch something in my own home and i feel it’s contaminated i wash my hands and spray until i feel it’s clean. It has taken over my life and now with this norovirus outbreak i am just not handling anything well. I am at a loss and sometimes feel like i’m a lost cause.

Hello. I have been on here for a while but this is my first post. I'll cut to the point. I've always wanted kids. And now that my husband and I are trying for a kid.. I'm so nervous about it. I have a hard time touching doors and foreign objects because of germs as it is. And i'm worried all pregnancy is going to do is increase my anxiety. The fear is so intense that tonight I told my husband maybe I don't want kids?.. I do. But I don't know if I can put myself through hormone changes like that when I feel like I can't even control my anxiety most days nows. I've felt like this for 3 years....

I wish I wasn't so paranoid. I hate when I give in to my fears whenever I'm about to eat something just to end up avoiding it instead. There are some moments where I eat confident and ignore the intrusive thoughts, but most of the time it's spent in agony. My relationship with food has completely changed. It's gotten to a point where when I do get myself to eat something I cant help but pick at my food and spit it out if I feel something that doesn't "feel right". I can't keep being babied anymore and I know it's up to me to put an end to this new fear, but I'm so scared. This is so exhausting I hate living like this everyday.

Hi I’m new to talking about my ocd, since I never knew what I had, I always thought I was crazy till I found out was ocd was and started doing research. Im glad I am not alone. I’m looking in doing some therapy soon, I was just wondering if anyone had any advice or tips on how they try to work on their ocd on their day to day, I struggle with intrusive thoughts, compulsions and contamination.

I really hope this doesn't invalidate anyone with depression as I have no idea what it is like. I have not obtained an official diagnosis for OCD, I am pretty confident that I am somewhere on the spectrum though, especially with contamination OCD. When my thoughts about contaminations and hand washing got more severe, my relationship with my brother had worsened. I can't engage in physical interactions with him like hugging or even sitting next to him without feeling contaminated to the point i have to change my clothes. It sucks because I think it affects him aswell, like I am invalidating his experience with depression.

My contamination ocd has gotten so bad over the last 6 months. My roommate moved in with his girlfriend and I’m living in my own now, which makes it harder for me to suppress the urge to wash my hands. It makes me not want to do anything but stay at home. I’ve gotten to the point where I can’t even rationalize it anymore. Today for example, my girlfriend got out of the shower before me and wanted to get a new towel so put the towel on the floor. I didn’t have any clean ones except for the one that I use to wipe down my dogs feet after she steps in poop or mud or something. The towel has been run through the wash, but after using it I see that there were some brown streaks still on the towel, making me think that the towel didn’t get fully clean in the wash. It’s completely killed my mood and now I’m sitting here feeling anxious because I can’t do anything about it without feeling weird in front of my girlfriend. She’s very supportive about things like this, but I’m worried she’ll feel bad. Just wanted to vent, hoping it’ll make me feel better until I can go home and shower again

In my culture, nail clippings are associated with bad energy. I cut my nails and a few of them are stuck in the sink basin (the water isn't going down). I can't really fix this until Sunday, but now I'm scared to do any important action/thing I want because I'm scared the action will be contaminated with bad energy.

I have contamination ocd and I get alot of ocd thoughts that really can drive me mad. If I'm not worrying about one thing, it's something else. I'm constantly worrying and obsessing about either food poisoning, catching a cold or flu off of someone, getting an infection or just getting ill from some sort of harmful bacteria. I wish it would all stop. I feel like I have to be careful with what I do in life because I need to be safe

Hi. I'm in college and have severe germaphobia. I find it really hard to sit down in the classrooms knowing someone else has been sitting there, or knowing that others have put their dirty backpacks and even skateboards on the chairs/tables. I often stand for the 75 minutes. I know I can wipe them down. Anyone else feel this way?

Saw hiv posts on TikTok im scared it means something

I'm having a bit of a crisis tonight. I didn't have many clean clothes so I figured I'd do laundry when I woke up (my sleeping schedule is all messed up). I'm weird about touching the laundry soap, I have to shower immediately afterwards so I started laundry and showered. I got out and put on my last pair of underwear and a T-shirt. I didn't have any clean shorts or pants, not a big deal but I feel weird. Whatever. The washer gets done and I go to put the stuff in the dryer and I didn't notice my partners hoodie was in with the dirty clothes. The same hoodie they were wearing a few months ago when our cat had worms and it jumped on their shoulder, leaning something on it. I don't know if it was dirt or poop but my biggest fear is worms/getting worms so I've avoided that hoodie like the plague. I tried ignoring having touched it or that it was mixed in with all of my clothes so I hung up the hoodie but I also had to touch a hanger that isn't ours, I don't know who touched it last or how long it's been sitting there collecting dust. At this point I started panicking so I threw the clothes in the dryer and took a second shower. When I got out I couldn't stop thinking about my clothes being contaminated so I had to rewash them, which means a third shower. But before that I dug around in my dresser for some old clothes to wear that I might of forgot about and sure enough I found a pair of shorts at least so I put them on the bed on my blanket, put the clothes back in the washer and took a third shower, it was mostly cold this time. But when I got out I realized I had touched the shorts on my blanket with my contaminated hand and that they touched my blanket so I threw both off in the floor with my feet and dug through my dresser again except with my foot this time and found a really old pair of shorts that are two sizes too big. At some point, too, I knocked off my 2DS charger onto the floor so I can't use that anymore until I clean it. All of my outside pants are now in my floor, the clothes are washing for a second time and at some point tonight I'm gonna have to wash my blanket and take a fourth shower. I'm so exhausted, I can't take this anymore. I want to cry.

I was at the gas station and the guy next to me pumping gas was talking to me and wanted to shake my hand. I have HIV OCD and I’m afraid that somebody will prick me and why Avoid handshakes or touching people. I ended up, shaking his hand as “exposure therapy”. I told myself to not live in fear and challenge myself and do an exposure to prove to myself that I can handle it. I’m sitting in my car and I’m trying not to let the negative thought get to me. I know if he would’ve pricked me, I would’ve felt it, I would’ve had a bloody stingy finger. I remember his hands being soft. I’m trying really hard to overcome my fears.

So I dropped my phone in the toilet yesterday, and everything seems to pretty much work properly, but I can’t help but keep thinking what if it’s not working properly, what if something is working slower, what if the audio doesn’t work right etc. And like what if it’s not clean after being in the toilet even though I washed it to death. Someone please help and tell me if this is just my OCD, these thoughts will not stop and I’m stressed out.