Strange OCD - please help me!

[true nature]

Hello there,
I've been researching forever what type of OCD mine might be, but I haven't found a good answer yet so I turn to you, hoping that someone can relate to my problem. So how did it start? Well, many many years ago, as a kid, I was taking a bath, and as I was about to start shampooing, I might - MIGHT - have swallowed a bit of that shampoo. It resulted in me washing out my mouth and spitting out everything I had after I had got out of the bathtub. It has become worse over the years. Now, I can't cook, bake, take out the rubbish, clean, shower, go to the loo or go near a bin/sink without ritualising cause I fear that I might have come in touch with...well I don't really know, something poisonous. I know it's completely irrational, but I keep doing it and I just don't know how to stop.
Can anyone help me??

Thanks for reading.

[MRS STRESS ED]

Hello true nature there is no easy answer and no quick fix ,I have had therapy its helped me alot but I wont lie I struggle still with ocd and the rituals argghhh ocd ,I fight this daily like im sure you do
,my therapist asked me if I didnt do these rituals what would happen I said something bad to my family

she asked me not to do one of my rituals it was so hard not to but eventually I managed, it played on my mind but guess what she was right nothing happened have you had any therapy it can help xx

[true nature]

Hey,
no I haven't had any therapy yet. Trouble is, I still live with my parents and I can't let them know, they wouldn't understand. Plus they think psychotherapy is for the "mad" ones and they'd sure prevent me from going there. I don't know...it's not that easy. :( But thanks for sharing your story xx

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hi,

This is quite common, it's call Contamination OCD. You will see a description of it on OCD UK's website here:

http://www.ocduk.org/types-ocd

I have several forms of OCD, touching, some checking and Magical Thinking, but I have also had intrusive thoughts related to violence.

Some of my rituals at my worst of the GAD, I really struggled to live with. What I found was that CBT was only partially successful because my GAD was keeping it where it was i.e. I was just too anxious to drop the habits. I have tackled this very successfully over the past couple of years which is mostly due to using Mindfulness meditation.

This taught me to control my thoughts better (pull them back into focus or away from areas I don't want them to stray into), made me more relaxed and more forgiving/accepting of all this. I found that my attitude changed over time, 6 months after my CBT had ended, without any other technique to try and change - the meditation was influencing my thinking, something which you will find studies of.

Mindfulness is now blended with CBT to become MBSR in the US and MBCT in the UK, by well respected doctors. These take the form of 8 week courses with different weekly meditations.

Look on the therapy board because there are threads about this and various courses, downloads, apps,etc.

It sounds like your parents have an old fashioned view, no offence intended. If you are an adult, you could access these services without your parents knowing if you wanted to, couldn't you? I don't know how it works in Germany.

This is still quite common in the UK. We have a campaign running over here called Time To Change, have a look because it is aimed at reducing stigma of mental health disorders and it has a lot of personal stories on. It might help your parents to understand that this is all common these days and it doesn't carry the same stigma as years ago. I don't know about where you live though, the views of your community, etc, so this is just from my experience.

[true nature]

Hey,
yes I think Contamination OCD comes closest to what I'm experiencing. I've heard of mindfulness meditation too and that it can help cure many illnesses...I tried accepting my OCD but it's really hard as it interferes with my day to day life, making even normal actions like cooking/cleaning etc. a nightmare.
In Germany, alas, I think that OCD in general is still a taboo topic - the only mental illnesses that are more accepted are depression and eating disorders as they are very common, but that doesn't help me of course. There is a website for OCD sufferers but in terms of public awareness, there's nothing. If I can't find anything useful, maybe I'll start a little campaign myself, who knows...but something has to be done!

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yes, why not. Get some media buy-in if you can and push it out there.

OCD seems to be a more accepted issue in the UK as there have been various TV programmes about it. I can't remember seeing anything about anxiety disorders really, other than one. The media in some cases look for certain types of OCD though, mostly cleaning & hoarding and completely ignore the rest of us.

Anxiety is perhaps more acceptable to people, like depression, because to some extent they have felt low moods or fear. They haven't felt an overwhelming need to check the taps 30 times before they leave the house (I haven't had this one but have done other forms of checking) and I found when my OCD was slightly strange in that by not doing something I would feek anxious, because it wasn't like that, it was like it was normal to do this over & over and part of the normal day. So, it's not always about feeling anxious if you do or don't do something.

Try the Mindfulness. I know the guys on the Health Anxiety board are into acceptance, but to be honest I don't fully agree with it because I believe that it is only one tool in the toolbox. HE has it's specifics though so that might be more effective for them. Mindfulness includes acceptance anyway, it's just not all about it.

CBT is supposed to be good for OCD but I found it wasn't great for me and it was hard just to work against all the different issues with not many sessions in the therapy. It may help you though, some people benefit more than others.

You fear that something may harm you, because it could be contaminated. Mindfulness, with acceptance included, will help you to trust yourself more and trust others. I found with my OCD that I was doing a lot of checking because I didn't trust myself and as I learned to control my throughts, more, this subsided and I felt more able to trust that I did something ok the first time.

There are other people on here from your country, and many others. Anxiety disorders have no boundaries but this is good because some countries are more open or more advanced than others so it gives you more information. You may find OCD UK a useful website as well.