Can anybody recommend a wash basket?

[nomorepanic]

Why ? Because you have to stop throwing things away like this. What do you actually do with the stuff you can't keep?

You are supposed to be challenging yourself not just giving in to it.

Just clean them with anti-bacterial wipes.

[MyNameIsTerry]

why do people tell me to to keep the items when it makes me feel much worse and replacing helps me?

Believe me I can keep the stuff but it would still be on my mind I would still feel the items are dirty.

Because you are acting out compulsive activity and accepted scientific fact that this only keeps these disorders going.

There is a simple test for this. Why haven't you replaced all the other items in your house your GF touched at that same time she touched the current items you are worried about? You aren't focussed on them hence you don't care.

OCD can be very selective. Regardless of a root cause, and whether one can even be found for the current theme/object, it's not based in rationality or logic therefore it can be as selective as it wants to be.

There are plenty of ways to try to recover but you won't do so whilst making yourself worse through feeding obsessions. At some point you want to receive an intrusive thought or trigger and automatically respond with "who cares". This isn't possible if you consciously reacting by telling your subconscious that your jeans are a big scary bear.

[phil06]

Because you are acting out compulsive activity and accepted scientific fact that this only keeps these disorders going.

There is a simple test for this. Why haven't you replaced all the other items in your house your GF touched at that same time she touched the current items you are worried about? You aren't focussed on them hence you don't care.

OCD can be very selective. Regardless of a root cause, and whether one can even be found for the current theme/object, it's not based in rationality or logic therefore it can be as selective as it wants to be.

There are plenty of ways to try to recover but you won't do so whilst making yourself worse through feeding obsessions. At some point you want to receive an intrusive thought or trigger and automatically respond with "who cares". This isn't possible if you consciously reacting by telling your subconscious that your jeans are a big scary bear.

My therapist says count the thoughts and let them pass by ignore them I mean easier said than done? They do the opposite cause me worry and distress.

For me to get better I have to cope with toilet germs and dirty washing germs. The reason I won’t replace whole house is I was on holiday this happened so I want to replace my iPad camera and phone at a cost of over £2 thousand pounds

Like I say the letter box troubled me for months and I never had confirmation the envelope came from the bin. The thought may be neaturlized but I still won’t allow things like a phone case though the door. The good news is I am using the bank card however everything feels tainted. I remember these “contamination” issues the problem is the list is building up and like my last house I made a post that “everything is contaminated”

But yes I never replaced the front door I only went as far as getting a quote for a new door. I find it more difficult to replace expensive items where as cheaper items I replace in days. The issue is as the list of contamination grows I either replace it or avoid. For example I won’t touch the kitchen door handle without washing my hands.

People may say not replacing something is fine and doing well but let me talk about the tainted feeling. It feels like somebody has spoiled or smashed up my item. Something I would feel proud and happy about I would now feel sad about and think about replacing it. I get a tingling sensation and anxious feelings when touching the tainted item. I feel anger, annoyed that the item got contaminated in some way. The item doesn’t feel perfect I get negative thoughts that it’s cheap and nasty and someone else’s phone or camera is better as it’s new and clean. I think about the people who this never happens to maybe there dirty washing is store better. Over all the items just feel wasted and ruined nothing anybody has ever said has helped that tainted feeling. I moved house to escape the windows issue it helped because I never had to see those windows again. I really fear only spending 2 grand will give me some relief and happiness again? I can see it’s irrational however let me explain it’s not the germs or fear of getting harmed by germs that trouble me it’s the i can’t live with it being tainted how can I deal with this? Something being tainted isn’t easy to look up online it’s a selective issue and not sure how to tackle it

[phil06]

The only way I have been able to challenge the thought is:



*I touch my partners stuff that she put in her dirty washing case then touch my phone - no anxiety

*I wear clothes in a suitcase that surface has contained dirty washing and clean. At home clean washing only goes on clean surfaces where as a holiday the clothes sit on a case which also has dirty washing at one point so when I put my phone in my pocket is that not the same type of germ I would be touching as hit the rucksack?

 That said these thoughts continue the iPad and iPhone never got touched but I touched headphones in a bag where someone never washed there hands after putting there dirty laundry in a case?

---------- Post added at 00:02 ---------- Previous post was at 00:01 ----------

I want to get to the point where cleaning is enough can you see that’s progress for me I could bleach, clean use anti bacterial wipes and all sorts and feel stuff is clean and yes that’s ocd over cleaning but atleast it’s quick, cheap and doesn’t cost thousands of pounds?

How can you reassure me the dirty washing is clean? Do others wash there hands after doing the laundry

I may be able to just replace the rucksack here..

[nomorepanic]

How can you reassure me the dirty washing is clean? Do others wash there hands after doing the laundry

Absolutely not - why would you need to? This is your OCD again.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Some of this is where you need guidance from your therapist on what the non anxious would do. Perhaps a list of scenarios you could refer to that you then use to challenge your thinking? That would be a CBT way.

As Nic says, why would you wash your hands just because you picked up dirty laundry? The laundry may be no more dirty than the clothes you are currently wearing. If the laundry is soiled then that's different. And if you were due to eat or do anything else that requires ensuring greater levels of hygiene you would obviously wash them.

Good, challenge that thinking. Use the examples you have that pick holes in it.

I'm not sure I understand what your therapist means by counting the thoughts? And I'm afraid countering anxiety so often will mean increased initial anxiety or nothing getting better until your body adjusts those adrenaline levels (as the exposure model demonstrates) so it's a matter of allowing enough time to see the change and repeating it all until your body starts to show differences i.e. less intense anxiety, intensity fading quicker, etc.

Took me years, phil. I'm a long way off being what I would like to be.

There are others on here who understand the tainted feeling that is felt in Perfectionism themes. Some have talked about having to replace watches and when they arrive they feel they are tainted shortly afterwards and the cycle begins again, others have even mentioned about a tainted GF.

I've felt it myself but it's less of an issue for me because I had/have much larger themes in my anxiety. I went through lots of themes, many together, but some were much more prominent resulting in the others being more background issues.

Acceptance work will be very important to you as well as exposure work and changing your thoughts (Cognitive Restructuring).

[phil06]

Some of this is where you need guidance from your therapist on what the non anxious would do. Perhaps a list of scenarios you could refer to that you then use to challenge your thinking? That would be a CBT way.

As Nic says, why would you wash your hands just because you picked up dirty laundry? The laundry may be no more dirty than the clothes you are currently wearing. If the laundry is soiled then that's different. And if you were due to eat or do anything else that requires ensuring greater levels of hygiene you would obviously wash them.

Good, challenge that thinking. Use the examples you have that pick holes in it.

I'm not sure I understand what your therapist means by counting the thoughts? And I'm afraid countering anxiety so often will mean increased initial anxiety or nothing getting better until your body adjusts those adrenaline levels (as the exposure model demonstrates) so it's a matter of allowing enough time to see the change and repeating it all until your body starts to show differences i.e. less intense anxiety, intensity fading quicker, etc.

Took me years, phil. I'm a long way off being what I would like to be.

There are others on here who understand the tainted feeling that is felt in Perfectionism themes. Some have talked about having to replace watches and when they arrive they feel they are tainted shortly afterwards and the cycle begins again, others have even mentioned about a tainted GF.

I've felt it myself but it's less of an issue for me because I had/have much larger themes in my anxiety. I went through lots of themes, many together, but some were much more prominent resulting in the others being more background issues.

Acceptance work will be very important to you as well as exposure work and changing your thoughts (Cognitive Restructuring).

She wants me to use a small note pad and count how many times I get them in a day and let the thoughts pass. Not sure it will work but she has been trying multiple approaches in each session.

Often these contradictory situations don’t stop the thoughts coming they still don’t feel right or perfect. Right now I just can’t imagine my partner not washing her hands after touching dirty washing that said I use to wear clothes work work twice I don’t anymore as I couldn’t find a place I was happy to put them over night but it’s amother example where I would put my phone in a pocket which well it must be dirty washing because today I only wear them once and I wore them twice sometimes three times I never bothered.

So my question is why do I get these contradictory thoughts? What do I need to do to reach the stage where cleaning will help? I would rather still have ocd and over clean than be spending thousands of pounds needing to replace items.

Obviously my ocd is at its worst when I’ve had to move house because of it. I wish there was some sort of intense treatment for me to improve it quicker the nhs has not helped and I’ve had to go private. That said I’ve never went to a doctor and begged for help or Cbt I have just tried to deal with it. After I had a break down they told me Cbt wasn’t suitable for me and in past years i went fl doctors they fobbed me off with medication like propranolol and blamed long Cbt lists and never gave me it. I tried various private therapies a mixture of free and paid and nothing helped it either confused things or was a waste of time. I once had a theripst who I paid couldn’t help me and she fobbed me off to a free service.

Luckily the theripst I havd now doesn’t rush me out the door and has time to help. Years ago I did get good Cbt on the nhs but I was only 16 at the time. It kind of sucks that basically half my life I have had to battle this and the nhs have failed me on it.

I can relate to other anxiety themes I had bad anxiety for years and the ocd was mild. Only twice 2015 has the ocd over taken everything else the reason was I moved out of my parents and during that time I blocked toilets and coping with things that happened in my own house made my ocd worse.

Right now I could provide a big list of what items are tainted in my house most of it not worth thinking about. I worry about it intensely until the next issue comes up and it swaps and moves to the back of my mind. I still feel my own house has to be more clean however that’s a good thing the cleaner the house the more I can challenge the ocd and say it’s cleaner than other homes.

So my goal here is to switch my ocd onto over cleaning or just cleaning of items rather than disposing of them. The good news is I never got a new front door only got a quote for the door. I don’t feel it’s perfect anymore will I ever reach the stage where I think it is again? My thought pattern is “incident happen” > “item becomes tainted” > “worry” > “compulsion to clean” > “avoidance of replace” each is broken up into stages do you feel here I need to tackle one at a time I have had mixed advice on some forums which said I can over clean do the compulsions before I reach a stage where I require no cleaning atall?

I imagine wanting to spend thousands of moving home is ocd at its worst? I am surprised that a simple ocd condition can be so bad.

[phil06]

anyone?

[phil06]

Update

The rucksack I replaced it with a new one due to the ocd but I never replaced the expensive stuff.

The jeans I had thoughts I pooped I decided to wear those jeans

So nothing replaced that was expensive yet. Not ideal replacing one thing but so far not replaced expensive stuff

[Scass]

That’s great.

I do understand the feeling that something is tainted. I have experience of it myself, and all I can suggest is swallowing those feelings because they are just feelings and not facts. The more you ignore them, the less they will effect you. You are showing yourself that you can move on and be fine, you’re fighting back and you can be strong. Be proud of yourself!


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