Still struggling with fear of prions

[sportboy]

Hi.

I understand that the cause of this disease are prions. That if you eat or come contact with sick animal's brain tissue or meat. Also you can get it from medical instruments.

Also, you basically can't destroy prions and they survive for years.

My contamination OCD is getting worse and now I google and google why I can't get this disease in everyday life. I understand that if you would get it like that then billions of people would be dead already.

I don't really want to google so much and thought that may be someone knows about prions transmission.

My concerns are situations like when you drop a sandwich and eat it anyway or some soil/dust goes into your mouth.

[ServerError]

Well that's now how the disease works. Eating a dirty sandwich will, at the very worst, give you a dodgy tummy. Most likely, you won't notice anything.

But really, what you need is not facts about CJD. You'll never get this, even if you decided you wanted to. What you need is help with your anxiety/possible OCD.

[sportboy]

Yes, my OCD is really bad at the moment.

I'm not very worried, because even cows didn't get it years ago in my country(wrong flag profile). So there is not a single case in my country.

But still I think why I can't get it that way. When there are prions on the ground and they got into my mouth. I've read that sheeps get sick this way but no danger to humans.

[ServerError]

Your thought process is totally and completely skewed. It's utterly irrational. That's not an insult, by the way. My own thought process was irrational when I thought I'd had a heart attack or was developing schizophrenia.

You can't get rid of this by force or by seeking reassurance online. And certainly not by Googling. You need to seek some help. It could change your life.

[sportboy]

My OCD stories are so crazy that I'm embarassed to even write them down here.

But now I have obsession about this disease.

I got some relief after reading that not a single cow has ever had it in my country.

So, now I've been obsessing two days about situation where sick cow would get into textile factory. Yes, TEXTILE FACTORY. And then of course workers hide it and it somehow died and my clothes got infected. I sometimes without noticing bite my shirt or clothes. I'm not joking.

I feel like I'm truly going crazy, but I can't stop these thoughts.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I feel like I'm truly going crazy, but I can't stop these thoughts.

You have no control over generating subconscious thoughts, you can influence them though. The more you keep reacting with negative reactions to these thoughts, the more it just reinforces the need for them to be there. It valids their existence.

You can't stop them as they are a normal brain process just as Mind Pops are and they drive people mad too. Just as you can't stop anxiety, only normalise to remove a disorder.

Aim to reduce your reaction, make it positive/neutral. This starves the subconscious of the negative feedback and those core beliefs around these thoughts will get mothballed.

These thoughts are also very susceptible to increased stress levels. The more you get anxious, the more they come and the more intense they can be. But that's also true of the opposite therefore work on reducing your stress levels.

[sportboy]

I'm still struggling with fear of prions. Bats and rabies were a little bit more realistic and I feel this is the only place where I can write this.

I picked tons of berries from the forest in July.

So, couple of days ago when I ate them (frozen), I got that idea. I picked them in the forest but there was a old barn(is it correct word? Place where cows are.) and now I can't get it out of my mind.

I live in Europe, but far away from UK and there hasn't been a single case of mad cow disease in my country ever.

But my brain keeps making all kind of scenarios. There are new researchs that it is possible to get prion disease from plants. We know that prions stay in soil for long time and plants can take them from soil.

So now I think that may be they buried cow corpses where I picked my berries and these berries were infected with prions and I will get vcjd. Animals were in the barn years ago, not recently.

I don't even tell this story to my friends and family. They are always supportive about my stories about bats and everything but one side of me knows how irrational it is.

Could anyone tell me why I shouldn't worry about it or how to get it out of my head?

[Elen]

Hi

This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your thread was merged with another of your threads

It is nothing personal it is just to make it easier for people to follow your story and to give you advice as a whole.

Elen