Re: Everything contaminated
This is just the same issue expanding outwards, Phil. This is how it goes for some of us with OCD, some people have many issues with different seventies, some find they jump from one complete form to another, others focus on one severe one.
I have to admit to yourself that you need some help with this and accept how your OCD is at the moment. Learn about it, OCD charities encourage this.
I'm not sure whether you are seeking reassurance on these contamination issues because I don't see advice about it helping you which is often the case with OCD. It seems to me more worry about it but you can't seem to accept this and move onto the next stage. I understand that, I've been through it before and it's still a challenge for me now.
Would it help you to see other people with similar problems and how they are moving forward?
Re: Everything contaminated
It may help yes as at the moment I don't see it getting better.
Right now I feel need to throw away as it makes me feel safe. Also how do I get over the idea of something being ruined can I do more cleaning to ease the worries? I don't think exposure would work for me must be other ways indoor want to touch a toilet pan and then go touching door handles or something ..?
Re: Everything contaminated
If you keep cleaning it or throw it away you are reinforcing the anxiety because that is a compulsion. Compulsions serve nothing in OCD other than to reinforce the need for the obsession to be there. This is one of the reasons why ERP works as it gets you to confront things in a steady way.
A therapist won't have you doing anything as anxiety provoking as touching the toilet pan and then door handles. Thats an older exposre method that is not used much now called "flooding". Flooding doesn't work for a lot of people but ERP is more successful because it builds up towards the big fears allowing your confidence & resilience to build.
In ERP the therapist may start small with just the thought of contamination, use a picture, do some visualation of a scenario, use a verbal recording, etc. They may not do that with contamination as opposed to other forms of OCD but they do with some other forms before they push onto more feared objects.
The thing is Phil, you are posting in a GAD section on a forum with not many of us with OCD. The OCD board is a bit quiet and so this is why I was wondering whether it would be worth joining the OCD forums alongside here because you will have more people with OCD to talk to. I joined here more for my GAD as I have made a lot of improvements with OCD before joining otherwise I doubt this place would have been enough on that side as it's too quiet.
Re: Everything contaminated
I have been on OCD forums before and had hardly any replies.
The OCD forums here use to be a bit busier I notice it is more quiet now.
Today I've had extreme thoughts like having to sell the house but my head says even changing windows would still mean my house was contaminated at the window sills. Sounds crazy but my head says that and I blame myself for allowing an anxious situation to occur. I may feel a bit better with new blinds and windows but my head says I will have 25 years of a mortgage thinking this place is now unclean. To give you an idea I don't touch door handles or carpers in my parents due to toilet bags in those locations. Now had this window cleaning kit sat on the same bin where the bags were I now feel my windows are dirty.
This probably sounds silly but real to me. Who knows I may have found another reason to feel I want to sell the house but this is one I found I went from feeling happy to feeling I don't want to stay here.
I wish somebody could say something to ease but I spend another day worrying so I ain't getting anywhere.
Now toilet water is usually dirty so most people don't like it. Anything placed on these bags may not be directly unclean or visibly but the germs will get there that doesn't trouble me it's the fact I know it's happened. Do other unclean situations happen with others on here? If something toilet relegated e.g a leak happened would you worry if you don't suffer OCD? Does anybody feel anything is ruined?
Re: Everything contaminated
Another day another anxiety day.
Today I bought a new clothes airer as my girlfriend put dirty towels on the old one so I threw the old one away even though it was new. My anxiety eased after throwing away.
Had new window quotes too however I still feel even with new widows I will get anxious as my mum may have put the window cleaning kit on the stone works of the window? I know it sounds silly but the fact these germs have now contaminated my new house is a disaster as all week I had been trying to avoid e.g not letting a bed into my house. I don't know why new Windows wouldn't ease my anxiety maybe the stone work worry? I am going to post over at OCD forums too maybe see what extra help I can get..it really is a struggle
Re: Everything contaminated
Phil, you are not going to get any "extra support" from OCD forums. You are not going to believe anyone or anything germ-related at this stage.
You need urgent professional face-to-face help which you won't get from online forums despite people's best efforts. Continually posting about your fears is only serving to escalate your OCD symptoms.
Please will you take this advice on board?
Re: Everything contaminated
Pulisa,
I recommended this to Phil because NMP has very few people on here talking about OCD. The OCD forums I mentioned are charities and they don't operate like this place. Their aims are more towards seeking help than just posting and hopefully Phil will find some support from people with similiar contamination worries so that he can see that he can move forward because they can. Hopefully he will find himself more engaged in discussions about how to move forward as opposed to just worrying & reassurance.
I agree Phil needs to speak to his GP too but I think anyone with OCD needs better peer support too and there is so little of it on NMP from my experience as this place is more HA and the OCD board is often dead with only a few people posting on threads. I remember he mentioned having therapy in the past which helped a bit and he needs to seek this out again as he is spiralling and it will just get worse.
Re: Everything contaminated
Re: Everything contaminated
Terry, I fully take on board what you say about the OCD forums and the support they provide but it seems to me that Phil is at the point where he just posts about the severity of his symptoms and to my knowledge is not seeking professional therapy. If an OCD forum can point him towards specialist support then I think this would be a huge step in the right direction for him but purely posting about his escalating symptoms with other sufferers may not be helpful? These are only my views. I feel that Phil's contamination issues are now severe and apparently unchecked-he really needs urgent help.
Re: Everything contaminated
Yes, I agree with you but unless Phil is a risk of harm to himself or others, he's going to go in the queue for therapy so unless he wants to try meds he will still be doing this. If he can link up with some people faced with the same issues they might be able to support each other and offer practical steps towards challenging it. Some of the charities even have peer workgroups to move forwards, I think I put him a link in this thread somewhere about a search facility for it. With something like that it would be only about using techniques to challenge it and it's better than waiting around months for therapy. Phil clearly has a reassurance seeking compulsions going on on top of his cleaning compulsions and yes posting with others won't help at all but thats not I'm advocating, I mean talking to people in the way the charity I went to handled it where they also turned the discussion to progression with goals and some CBT stuff.
I feel that unless we can give Phil ways to challenge his thoughts, unless he finds the strength within himself or gets professional help, this is what will continue. I think Phil knows he needs help but he's getting consumed by all this and on a few occasions he has talked less about contamination and more about help so he has periods where he can rationalise more but he's clearly not managing to us.