Struggling to cope with worries of being contaminated

[phil06]

I've suffered this for years but latley it's been worse. I feel everything will contaminate me here's a few examples..when I had a flat pack built some wood glue got on my bed covers and I wanted to throw them away but on this occasion I never. Sometimes I do get the urge and throw away. Today I flooded the toilet in the bathroom and despite it being cleaned I feared carrying germs onto laminate surfaces from my feet. My dog urinated on my last laminate floor and for years I'd get paranoid the smell had set into the floor.

I'm bad with hand washing I have all these routines. Its so bad my skin has gone red expczema like. I fear bleach or any cleaning chemicals. Also under cooked food worries me even if it's well cooked I keep doubting.

In my efforts to be clean I seem be more unclean especially blocking toilets like today. Does anybody else here suffer OCD. I just feel urges to throw away and fear contamination all the time. Big accidents like today make me more anxious. I get this fear with everything's anything :weep:

[molkogirl]

Hi Phil, I can totally relate to what you are saying. I suffer with ocd too, although mine is not confined to contamination.
I would also have been scared of wood glue, i have a fear of bleach and other strong chemicals too.
I am also bad with the hand washing. I have 2 cats and on accassion they have messed on the laminate floor, this causes me massive anxiety. If i had the money i would buy new things all the time because of the contamination but i just have to put up with the anxiety as i cant afford.
A good idea to help your hands is get some decent hand cream and put loads on just before bed but put some of those exfoliating gloves over (to stop it rubbing off while your asleep). In the morning you should see a slight improvement to the skin. I do this to help my hands.
I just bought the book 'break free from ocd' i haven't read it all yet but it is quite helpful. Teaching you cbt methods to overcome your problems.
Hope this helps
Take Care
Sarah x

[brambles]

Phil, don't worry about wood glue because it was most likely PVA which is basically the same stuff kids use to stick glitter on cards (and their faces :doh:) and make paper mache. There are other types of glue which can be quite nasty but they're generally not used for sticking flat pack furniture together. Just pick it off!