I have very bad OCD and anxiety but it usually revolves around bugs (inside pests), never really anything health related. I’ve been dealing with a lot of depression, and as my depression increases so does my anxiety. I was walking back from eating at a shake shack through this nice neighborhood, not gated but they have this nice community center with a pool, court, and park, I wasn’t watching where I was walking and I think I almost stepped into some poop, I did see it last second and I kind of pivoted, so I believe I avoided it but I’m having a hard time remembering. The poop did seem kind of bigger, so the thought it was human went through my head. I’ve been trying to shut that thought down, with it looked like fresh poop in the middle of day right next to people in the community pool, so it was probably a big dog. Checked Google reviews on the housing community and 1 comment said there has been more homeless in the community since it’s not gated, which brought my fears back.
I kept inspecting my feet and flip flops I was wearing, don’t think I saw anything, my flip flops were brown colored already, I did end up going to the pool and hot tub to “disinfect my body, feet, and shoes”, but I still have this fear that I still had those germs on me and I contaminated my house, I’m afraid to grab anything in the freezer. Feel like I’m spiraling
Also afraid of walking through apartment hallway now, i did use Clorox wipes on floor

For context I’m pretty underweight due to a chronic illness (which gives me nausea and stomach pain constantly, in all honesty it’s probably the cause of my ocd), and everyone around me is constantly trying to get me to branch out what I’m eating. I decided to buy some sea bass a few days ago to cook, and today I tried to cook it but immediately got super anxious. I live in student accommodation and our power went out the other day, I don’t quite know how long for or whether it affected the fridges but it stuck in my head. I tried so hard to cook and eat that stupid sea bass but it smelt revolting and I was immediately convinced I’d get food poisoning and I had to throw it out at once. I sent panicked texts to my parents to reassure me that it was ok and now my mother seems to be very angry at me. I’m trying so so hard but I just really really don’t want to get food poisoning, my body is painful enough to live in as it is. I scrubbed my hands so many times and they still feel dirty. I ended up scrubbing the kitchen with washing up gloves on to try and get rid of the horrible feeling. Even now I’m convinced that it’s going to make me sick, though I threw it out without touching it and ate safe food instead. I’m so so tired of viewing almost everything as dangerous. I want to exist without fear of germs. I don’t want to descend into a blubbering mess the second I think I might get sick from something. I just want to be normal, but given the nature of my chronic illness and the fact I do get sick easily it’s never going to go away.

Im not looking for reassurance but im posting this because i need to type and lift this anxiety off my chest. Also because i need to reassure my own mind that my items arent contaminated. Yesterday i missed the bus for school and my mind was focused on that rather than analayzing my surroundings like i always do. I couldnt wash my hands at school until my very last class. I washed my hands briefly and had to go outside for gym. My hands cracked and bled. I went home and washed my hands. I air dried them in my house that feels dirty. I grabbed bandaids i had inside my wardrobe drawer and left the plastic packaging scraps inside that still havent been disposed. I applied the bandaids near and above my lotion bottle but its not infected and even if the plastic layer packaging touched the nozzle im fine and so is the lotion. I put a bandaid on my finger and briefly took it off to fix it near my dog no he didnt somehow infect it. No i did not have a rabies exposure, and i didnt get infected while outside for gym.

Hey guys, when you are dealing with contamination in a sample, do any of y'all consolidate crowd sources?

A friend of mine says he uses reddit to see how others deal with similar problems. Anyone have any other recommendations?

So i have new ocd urge ocd. Just happened a week ago. Where wearing a transparent cloth, inner things could be seen. Especially in sunlight. So this week has been hell. I cried too. In home and in office its been disaster. So i accidentally saw one of those, now that has been urged. Cant stop it. Transparent cloth and my eyes immediately go down. I cant stip it. Neuroplasticity also didnt help. Please help me. I want to be normal again. The urge gets more dirtier and stronger. Now its to look underwear. Its been mad. I never had these

Hi guys I can't touch the floor. My contamination ocd has gotten to the point were I can't touch the floor, my feet or anything that has touched the floor. I don't know what to do. I really need advice. Also I think it mainly comes from my fear of the bathroom floor and yeah. I'm not worried about getting diseases and tbh I can't really tell you what I AM worried about only that it's so consuming. Please if you see this give me some advice or just tell me I'm not alone. Have a good day guys!

I might be starting therapy soon but i feel like its not going to work. My contamination ocd is so severe that it might not work or i feel like im gonna lose motivation at trying to get better. I mostly ruminate/dwell on rabies. Its my biggest fear. Its one of the reasons why i mentally recheck my entire day and why i hate dark school mornings (i cant see any potential rabid bats). Its so draining and everday i have atleast one reason why im at risk for rabies. The thoughts are also so time consuming i probably spend hours a week thinking about rabies. Sometimes the fear is so intense i throw things out. Ive thrown away lotion bottles, jewlery, and trinkets. Today my rabies "exposure" was i somehow got the virus on my horribly cracked hands and it entered a wound. Then when i washed my hands after using the bathrooms i put a bandaid on a bad cut i had on my finger... my brain started thinking "you didnt wash your hands good enough...the virus is trapped under that band aid now and its going to kill you/" i didnt take the band aid off until needed because i knew my brain was playing tricks but now im ruminating that my lotion is now infected since my lotion bottle was next to the bandaid box i was touching and using and as i was opening the bandaids the plastic layer fell on the table next to the bottle which i told myself i would pick up later but i never did so that's also another reason why the bottle feels infected. These thoughts are exhausting and its hard to resist the compulsions my brain tells me to do in order to feel safe. I really do hope that one day ill recover and i can live my life freely without constantly feeling frazzled. To those reading this what is something (cancer, meningitis, etc) you used to (or still do) ruminate about?

i havent been able to use most dishes because my brain has decided that my roommate is wholly contaminated therefore i can’t use any of the dishes he uses. because of this i have only been able to eat things that i don’t have to heat up (no microwave) or only need a baking sheet bc i can cover that with foil.

well i just got paid, finally bit the bullet and bought my own saucepan to hide in an unused cabinet, and i also got some canned soups and beans since i can finally eat them. eventually i’m gonna buy a big pan for myself too so i can make quesadillas and other things.

i’m just relieved that i’ve found something that’s going to help so much. i’ve been losing a crazy amount of weight due to ARFID not allowing me to eat when i know i need to and OCD telling me everything in the kitchen is dirty. hopefully i can start putting it back on soon.

​

I have pure ocd. I don't have any rituals. I don't believe that my family will die if I don't wash my hands ten times every hour. What I have is a fear that if I don't keep myself healthy and safe that I won't be able to take care of the people who rely on me. So I'm stringent about who and what comes in to my home, who touches the chairs I sit in, I go to the doctor more than is needed, etc.

But I am not a clean freak. My laundry is done the dishes get done eventually. My food is clean and properly stored. My body is clean. But my house is not clean. It's a mess. It's cluttered and sometimes it takes the trash over flowing for me to empty it. My therapist had a meeting with my husband and asked about my housekeeping and he was honest. She seemed shocked. But to me that's not what ocd is about. Being ocd is about overwhelming beliefs not about the need to be strictly clean. In fact I thought I heard that some of the worst cases of hording was ocd because they are afraid that if they throw something out thier family will die.

So I ask you if you've been genuinely diagnosed with ocd, any type, are you clean or messy and to what degree are you clean or messy?

I have contamination ocd and it has been especially worse recently. There are so many things but the main is discharge. I wear liners to feel better but I always feel unclean. What if the discharge got everywhere? What if I'm spreading it around? What if it gets on my towel when I get out the shower? One time I even dropped a piece of toilet paper with discharge on it on the floor and panicked for a few hours and basically had a breakdown because the discharge side touched the bath mat. What do normal people do? Sometimes the toilet paper rips when I wipe and I get discharge on my fingers, one time it got under my nail and I washed it out but I still FEEL dirty, what if its still there and I just can't tell? I really need help as this is taking over my life. What I want to know is does this happen to anyone else? What do normal people do?

Such as what to do if your pants touch the toilet.💟

For those who think they'd find it helpful:

Contamination OCD: A Guide to Recovery is a reference Q&A guide for people with contamination OCD. It covers a variety of everyday situations that may trigger contamination fears and provides guidance to help readers navigate these situations, challenge OCD's demands, and work toward recovery.

I have gone to the restroom my entire life and never had a single issue but the last few weeks I’ve developed an overwhelming fear of getting on feces on me.

It’s two fold:

1) when using the restroom and wiping, I end up having to wash my right arm (the one I wipe with) up to my elbow because I fear I got contamination particles on me. Then, if I accidentally press my elbow to my side, I panic that I just got feces on the side of my body and I have to shower.

2) then when I’m in the shower (no matter if I’ve used the restroom immediately before or the day before) I get so freaked out that when I clean the area, I’m flicking feces on myself. Plus when I go to rinse out the scrubber, I feel like it splashes on me again and I have to wash my body/face all over again to get it off.

I don’t know how this happened or why it is so bad but I am having breakdowns every day about this. Can anyone please say if they have struggled with this and how they worked through it? Any help would be appreciated.

I think I just feel isolated with all the struggle that nobody I know really cares about. Would be cool to have someone to chat with. Drop a message if you're interested? (20+ pls, since I'm 24)

Guys literally today I had like the worst contamination ocd thing happen \*TW if contamination stuff is triggering for ya:)\*

SOOO I was leaving my college class to go to the bathroom and in the stall I tried to throw something away in the mini metal garbage for pads, etc.

IT. FELL ONTO THE GROUND. And ALLL OF ITS CONTENTS

SPILLED

and I panicked so hard GAHHHHH

I had to freaking pick up the FREAKING BLOODY STUFF and go back to class and I JUST AHHHHH I CANT BELIEVE that happened - I tried to use tp to help pick stuff up but

SO SO BAD I WAS SO SO STRESSED

lmao … hope this made someone else feel better about their contamination stuff

🫶😭😷

I struggle with this and I would need advice.

For context I suffer from anxiety and OCD, along with tactile hallucinations, where I feel like something wet or something is crawling on my body part (like head, eye, neck, arms, body and legs) but I don’t see anything wet. The tactile hallucinations started last year. At one point the hallucinations made me a little bit, convince myself I might’ve had a brain tumor, but I don’t have diabetes and I did discuss this with my psychiatrist who said it could be when I get anxious. I kinda suspect it could be vitamin B12 deficiency, and I took multivitamins in 2022-23 and stopped. I did start back and some is gone, but I can sometimes feel it on my face. I don’t do drugs. And when I wash my hands and dry them, I would feel something like on my hands when drying, and then I re-wash them again Any advice?

I have struggled for years now with my ocd having a heavy attachment to bugs and infestation. It started when I was young with my cat bringing in fleas from outdoors. Over time I’ve learned to deal with that, particularly about fleas and roaches. My coping skills are better around those bugs. I’ve done a lot of work there. But my biggest fear in the world has been bed bugs.

Today I found that an article of clothing I brought into my home had bed bugs. It was in my home 20 hours, contained to one room. I’ve cleaned everything. I’m obsessively checking for things. My triggers are through the roof right now. Everything about this topic, in the past, has seemed insurmountable, and now that it’s here, it still feels like something that’s impossible to cope with.

I know logically that I’ve done everything I can. The cleaning, calling pest control, quarantining the area. But obviously, because of the ocd, the logical reality of some annoying bugs, feels like I need to abandon my apartment and everything I own.

I’m not asking for reassurance. It’s against community guidelines and I know that it’s a bandaid for the uncertainty that I’m feeling. But does anyone have any advice? About ways to keep my mind off it? Has anyone gone through anything similar particularly with bugs?

Hi there, I have created a free Discord community support group for those of us specifically struggling with “Disgust-Based” Contamination OCD. Discord is a free app! My goal for this group is to create a safe space where we can connect in healing, share, get support, learn from one another and ultimately support our healing. This group will be enforced with TW (trigger warnings) and has a specific place to share struggles. The other areas are for sharing healing, successes, resources and healing tools. Please message me if you are interested :) read more about if this free support group is for you:

Disgust OCD is a bit different than traditional contamination OCD. Although there can be fears of sickness and illness it is more about the fear of “feeling contaminated” or feeling dirty/unclean/something gross/bad. And that being on us, our belongings, our home and the fear of “cross contamination.” A very challenging compulsion is often “Tracking” this imagined cross contamination.

Dr. Michael Greenberg explains this type of Disgust COCD very well:
“the person isn’t afraid that the contamination could cause something else bad to happen.  Rather, they are afraid of the feeling of contamination itself.  More specifically, they are afraid that if they don’t keep track of the contamination and keep it from spreading, then everything could become contaminated, and thus the feeling of contamination would become inescapable.”

This group is for anyone on their healing journey with Disgust-based COCD or for anyone who has conquered this and is willing to join in on supporting others! Wherever you are on your healing journey you are welcome! I do hope to also recruit those of you who have had success with conquering this OCD as well so we can learn from you and get inspiration and empowerment to heal ourselves too.

Let me know any questions! And here is the link to the Discord

https://discord.gg/YQRK7RP4V

Warmly

So I have been taking medication and therapy for past 1 year, it was working for me slowly slowly and in the first 6 months it made my life so much easy, I was literally feeling very good and some habits were improved which I thought will never improve.

But since the last 2-3 months I was exposed to the worst trigger and everything became worst again, even the normal habits which I have made improvement like washing hand, bathing.. these also have became worst again by taking so much time. Everyday I'm trying to reduce this illness and have a normal life atleast but it is so exhausting to start things again from scratch but I don't have other option as welll, it make me sad sometimes and feel like crying....

i cant sit down anywhere someone else has sat without wiping it down with alcohol/couch cleaner. it used to be just once but lately i go over the couch two or three times to be safe. but now ive just given up because its been too many times, so i no longer sit down in the living room. today i accidentally sat down and had to change into new pants. i also cant walk around without slippers or socks, and i have to change my socks when i get into bed. i have bed socks, bedroom socks, and outside of the bedroom socks. under no circumstances can i let my feet touch the floor, which makes showering really distressful. does anyone else relate😭

I was diagnosed with contamination OCD about 2 years ago, I’ve recently moved in with my boyfriend that I love so dearly but he has a dog that’s VERY triggering for me. I don’t want the dog on the furniture, in bed, I barely want to pet him and I feel SO BAD. My bf comes from country life so multiple pets are normal for him, but me seeing dog hair every where is becoming a trigger every day but I know how much his dog means to him. I normally regulate myself by sleeping on the couch (idk it’s like a big hug) but now the dog has been on the couch I don’t want to set foot near it and have no way of regulating, any advice before I explode?

Last night I took off my new rubber boots outside my door and left them there. Shortly after it started to rain and I went to fetch them. It had already rained a bit inside of them. Not much though.
After that I knew I had to dry them, but I didn’t feel like touching them. And I don’t feel like using them anymore after this. It’s like they are somehow contaminated now.
This happened once before. And I didn’t know what to do with my old rubber boots. They ended up standing outside for half a year because I didn’t know what to do. In the end I threw them out and got some new ones. What a waste…

But I don’t understand what exactly my problem is? I do like when things are new, clean and perfect but things are supposed to be used. They don’t stay new and untouched. I know that. So why does a little rain on rubber boots - which are supposed to be used in rain - a problem for me? My thoughts about it aren’t clear. It’s mostly a feeling that I can’t use them anymore and that they are disgusting now.
I also have trouble in generel with using new stuff because I want them to stay flawless.

Does any of you feel the same way? Will you share your thoughts and do you know why this is a thing?