OCD and contamination

[Rox]

Hi
Does anyone else have OCD with intrusive thoughts about contamination? I would really like to hear if anyone has these and how you deal with them.

[Patty]

Hi Rox,

I get a lot of thoughts about contamination. Because of this I do a lot of hand-washing & clothes washing. If anything falls on/touches the floor I have to wash it. In the house I like everything to be 'clean'. For example if someone touches a door handle with 'dirty' hands I have to clean it. I can't stand it if someone's shoe touches a chair that I have to sit on - especially if it's fabric. It can be very difficult to deal with at times. Thinking is this or that clean??

I have read a of book on facing the fears. To be honest I haven't tried any of the 'exposure' exercises yet. It says that the way to overcome the fears is to gradually face them. E.g. not washing something when you think it really needs to be & then when you see that nothing bad happens the fear loses its strength.

Best wishes xx

[gtrgrl3369]

I am also the same way when it comes to germs. I wash all the time and disinfect everything with lysol. No shoes are allowed in my house because I dont want germs from outside trampled all over my carpet where I walk. There is also antibacterial soap at every sink and tub. I am very germ phobic. It doesnt effect my life where I wont do things or go anywhere but I am very aware of everything I touch and eating out is not an option for me. I dont know if the person touching my food has washed or not. My family knows that anything that I might touch has to be disinfected. I have alot of quirks when it comes to my OCD, but I also make sure to live my life too.

[freakedout]

Hi Rox

Unfortunately I have a bit of thing about dirt, and a bit of a thing with germs, and a bit of a thing with food being contaminated, and I have a bit of a thing with dog dirt thanks to some of my family members tredding it through my lounge in the past (I have a new carpet now!). I have a bit of a thing with hands, I don't like touching hands, even my own childrens hands sometimes and I dont like it if other hands touch my food ie my husband or kids. The more time that passes the more difficult I find it to hide the disgust I feel at certain things I face in daily life. Whilest most of the time this lot is manageable, some times it all thrashes my head and I crack up. The way I deal with my anxieties is to wash my hands, clean things with attention to detail, and decline offers of potentially contaminated food and drink.

Freaky

[bab]

hiya

i have contamination fears too - mine really interferes with m life in the way that if im out and i need a drink - ill see which bottles of water look ok etc and if not i wont have one - same with other stuff - im a big handwasher and i always swap cutlery in a restaraunt - i also get scared that my food has been tampered with

[Rox]

Hi all
Thanks to you all for telling me how the OCD and contamination affects you.
I can really relate to all of you. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed by all the checking and contamination on some days. I feel like screaming and running away. I have a major problem with dog dirt and when walking outside, I am always looking where I walk and will not go to parks or the woods. I also have fears that if my clean washing has fallen on the floor it is dirty and needs to be washed again. I, too, don't like shoes in my house. I want to ask people to take their shoes off, but then I imagine they will think I am being silly and I feel so anxious asking people to do this. I also spend so much of my days thinking if this or that is clean and whether I should clean it, also knowing that if I do clean it, it will take me such a long time. I get exhausted and it really gets me down.
Anyway, one day at a time, I think. Some days I find it a bit easier to face my fears.
Rox x

[bab]

rox - im the same with the washing and boy doesnt it make so much more work lol x

[Rox]

bab - oh yes, things take me sooooo long to do and I do get frustrated as I constantly keep trying to fight the urges. x

[arron91]

i can really relate to all of you im the exact same, im only 17 years old but my fear isnt just dirt or germs, this sounds crazy but im afraid 2 touch anything or anyone who uses drugs, and living in scotland there are plenty here so if i go in to the town centre or anything i cant touch pretty much anything, i had a friend who turned to drugs and i find out he had taken methadone and other things and i had came in contact with him and for weeks i just felt like i had this drug on me, i just have this crazy idea that if i touch something thats been touched by anyone whos touched or used drugs and touch my face or my fingers go near my mouth that the drug has got inside me and i get a very bad anxiety attack as i did when i find out what my friend.. well ex friend had taken, i also cant wear any of the clothes i wore that day because they feel cotaminated, i used to smoke normal cigarettes and if my hands felt contaminated i couldnt smoke because i felt that if im touch the cigarette whatever i fears on my hands has went on 2 my cigarette and im smoking it so from suffering without a smoke when i felt contaminated used to get my stress levels even higher and i got so frustrated as i have a short fuse anyway lol, but i gave up the cigarettes about 8months ago so thats 1 good thing i suppose lol, i usually feel safe in my house because no one in my house takes drugs but sometimes if i know my mums touched anything that i feel is cotaminated she can spread it thorughout the house, and if my mum goes shopping and takes the bags back on the bus i cant eat or drink anything she took because i feel buses are so dirty because everyone uses them, i find pushing the bell is the hardest i usually have 2 put my jumper or whatever over my hand 2 ring it, im the exact same with shoes aswell i hate them in the house dragging the dirt everywhere! well iv writtin way to much so ill stop boring you know but this is the 1st time iv got this off my chest, my mum knows i have ocd but she doesnt know all this, my family are the only people who know because im so embaressed about it and iv not yet sekeed help from any professionals.

[Bill]

This is all to do with keeping in control. Keeping "life" safe. The trouble is life means risk so it cannot be controlled which means that whenever life forces us out of our safe zone, our anxiety shoots through the roof because we feel we've lost control.

Taking pride in things and taking reasonable precautions are perfectly acceptable but when we take them to extremes, they can interfere with our day to day lives.

For instance, trying to keep everything spotless can then keep our anxiety raised so that things that don't actually matter then become a problem such as an ornament which isn't quite straight or net curtains that aren't falling exactly. No one would notice except ourselves.

To learn to cope with anxiety we need to learn a more relaxed approach to life. To allow a spot of dirt to stay on a shirt by resisting the urge to put it straight in the washing machine.

If anxiety exists at one particular level, it can develop into other areas creating anxieties like agoraphobia.

Part of our make-up is often perfectionism. We need things to be "just right" and it troubles us if they're not. Perfectionism makes us intense so we become greatly aggitated when others affect what we felt was "just right".

Of course also if we feel under alot of stress at work or at home, the OCD can become more intense.

My OCD began in my teens when I had trouble locking things or checking things were switched off. I didn't tell anyone about my problem so it developed into contamination issues making me constantly washing my hands. Intrusive thoughts began to trouble me making me want to keep repeating chores. I couldn't even switch a TV or radio off, or close a book because of words I'd heard or seen. My life became a mess!

However, it is possible to overcome OCD but you really have to Want to. What I mean is that it has to become more important to you to stop rituals than to want to keep things irrationally spotless.

You then have to take a gradual approach by firstly listing all the rituals you want to stop in order of what you consider to be "the easiest to most difficult to resist". You then tackle what you consider to be the easiest to resist such as not washing your hands before you eat a sandwich. You stay on this task until you feel no anxiety in achieving this goal. You then move on to the next task on your list until there's no anxiety and that's achieved, and so on until you reach your most difficult task.

This Does work because I tried it myself so that even when I do still sometimes get an urge to repeat something I Can resist it. However, I know it's very difficult and it can be frightening but the anxiety does slowly go down with every task that been achieved so that you can then lead a more relaxed life.

You see, with every task that's achieved you prove to yourself that there was actually nothing to fear so your confidence gradually builds for the next task. Even the most difficut tasks then become easier because you remind yourself "Well, everything was ok resisting my last task so the same should apply to this task" and so on.

It just takes time and one task to be achieved and the rest become easier to tackle. Honestly...it worked for me and I know of others too!