OCD about food and contamination - how do I get over this?

[Frenchflower]

I'm hand washing at every opportunity, I can't eat from takeaways or restaurants because I don't know the use by date on the food, or whether it has been stored properly, or whether the people handling it have clean hands or not. I won't cook meat at home out of fear of undercooking it or contaminating the worktops, chopping board, sink etc. with bacteria. This is driving me mad :( I'm having CBT but at the moment progress is very slow, is there anything else I could mention to my therapist to try? I'm not on any medication at the moment and really don't want to go on any if I can help it because I have anxiety about medication and tablet contamination too!!

any advice would be really appreciated x

[westofengland]

My mum had a version of this - fear of poisoning us kids - and i have health anxiety and a current obsession about asbestos

I was talking to my mum today and she told me that her problems were triggered by lots of stress (dad made redundant, sick parents, work worries). I am now in a similar stage in my life (widower, three bolshy kids, relationship problems, demanding job)

Stress is often the cause and driver of OCD

All i can say is, you need to keep working at the CBT and try and throw logic at your problem - we live in a very health and safety conscious society and supermarkets are VERY CAUTIOUS when it comes to sell by dates. Likewise any restaurant that sells dodgy food will soon get reported to the council and be closed down

Your problem is not dodgy food, it's anxiety about dodgy food - if you can get to this state of mind, you will be halfway there. Believe you me, I have bad OCD, but i don't worry about food at all - my obsessions are to do with other things, but i can see the similarities between us

It boils down to being able to tolerate uncertainty, which is something we have to work at

Good luck, Geoff

[jsl298]

Hi

I really understand how you feel about this as I also worry about the same kind of things. The only difference is that I am an environmental health officer and have studied food safety and what happens when it goes wrong. In some ways this was really bad for my worrying as I learnt all about the horrible things that can happen when food is contaminated. However I also learnt about all the ways in which you and restaurants can control the safety of the food you eat. There are a lot of very strict procedures in place and although they won't always work you can be reassured. In your message you mentioned that you don't cook meat for fear of undercooking it. Did you know you can buy meat thermometers in the shops? They come with instructions and you just test the temperature of the food and when it reaches the required level you know its ok to eat. As for contaminating surfaces, just remember to use limited equipment ie don't wave it round the kitchen and disinfect the surfaces and equuipment before you use them again.
Remember to wash your hands before handling food and after handling raw meat, eggs, fish etc and you reduce the risk.

As for eating out a lot of local authorities now run a scores on the doors scheme whereby every food business is given a score based on their food safety procedures. These are often shown on the door of the premises and on the councils website. Check out your local area and try going to restaurants that get top marks.

These are a couple of simple ways to increase the safety of your food that many people who don't have OCD will follow. However, as OCD means your worries are out of control continuing with the CBT is essential. It worked for me. Good luck.

[Boogity]

I also have this problem. Like jsl298 i have gone through the food safety course and got my permit. This was the start of it all, very scary stuff. But ive been on the other side of things, ive been a shift supervisor at several food serving locations And i must say that most of the time almost no one follows the rules and guidelines, to an extent. Each location is usually given a warning that inspection is coming. Giving that location ample time to kick into overdrive and get the store in top shape before inspection comes. After that they could care less. Of course im only speaking from what ive seen personally, and its disgusting. I dont mean to make things worse for anyone, but this is why food is such a problem for me. But as jsl stated, a meat thermometer is definitely the way to go. Keep up the good fight.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I worked in a different industry and it was the same with the industry regulators who would give you a date and even tell you what they wanted to discuss!

So, what happened? All the things that were going wrong that no one cared about, no matter how much everyone tried to raise it, which were going to be seen were suddenly the be all & end all.

Days after thery had been, it all went back to service as normal and all the stuff that wasn't working stayed that way.

Sadly, regulatory bodies are yet to catch onto the law enforcement approach of not telling the criminals when they are coming!