Cat in Cambodia

[claire92]

Hi everyone,

I've been doing really well with my OCD and reached a point where obesessive thoughts don't control my life. I've had ERP and have made a lot of positive life changes.

But something happened yesterday that shook me off balance. I'm in Cambodia at the moment, and I do try and avoid most animals due to rabies OCD. But I was staying at this guesthouse village and there were 2 cats there. I've always been scared of cats since I was very young, and this one actually followed me into the outdoor shower and only when I turned the water on did it scarper! I felt its tail brush against my leg which is how I noticed it was there and I jumped out my skin!

But all I felt at the time was it brush against me and I know that. Yesterday evening, so like 10 hours later I started feeling a bit of pain much further up my leg, above my knee on the inside, and I have a little scratch there. No idea where it came from, and I know that I would have noticed if the cat had reached up there and scratched me, but my OCD is just running riot.

Like a few others, I was triggered by that recent news story about someone who died of rabies and also being back in South East Asia where rabies is a concern worries me. I had a similar OCD spiral a few weeks ago when a monkey brushed past me, but I didn't discover a scratch later so I managed to hush that one.

How do I deal with this?! I'm struggling - I've already tried to do a lot of the things I worked with my therapist but this feels so real and so scary.

[Phuzella]

I don't know a lot about rabies but I'm sure you would have known of it had scratched you. When cats scratch it's instantly painful. I'm sure you're fine .
How's Cambodia?

[BlueIris]

Agreed, it's hard to miss being scratched by a cat.

[Darksky]

And you said yourself, it brushed against you. That's all it did for certain. Cat scratches are not sonething you can suffer and not know about it. I have cats and boy do I know it when I get scratched.