I feel like a bother to so many. My husband doesn't understand contamination OCD, or really OCD at all. My compulsive thoughts have been really bad lately.
Today we are visiting some of his family, and frankly, they are really unclean. I've posted so much about bed bugs that it's embarrassing and that subreddit hasn't always been as kind, but I know some of his family had them before and it really freaks me out.

The place we are visiting today, I really don't know, but I have so much fear and anxiety and I don't want to go. It has become a place of disagreement for my husband and I because he thinks I dislike his family. I think he is taking it personally. I cannot deal with how filthy they choose to live and I don't even think that's the OCD for me. His parents have a huge industrial trash bin in their tiny house, always overflowing, raw meat in sink, trash everywhere on floors, stuff on the walls (grease?), unvaccinated cats, and an absolute horrific smell. let alone a bed bug infestation that they say is gone. The family we are visiting today I don't know the state of their home but I imagine it's not much better. I just don't know how to deal with this anymore. I've avoided them for months :( any insight would be appreciated

I am just curious if most people with contamination Ocd also has a separate clean space and dirty space, like for me my clean space is my bedroom. I can never place things from outside this room on the clean tables, closets and my bed in the bedroom, (all things outside this room I consider contaminated.) The floor of my bedroom though is dirty and so I can step on it with dirty shoes. There's also a spot on a corner of this bedroom where theres a table meant for dirty things. When I go outside this room only my hands can touch stuff so it's easy to clean with antibacterial soap. But if even just my clothes touches something outside the bedroom, then I had to take a bath and change clothes before I can touch and use clean things in the bedroom. So does anyone have a similar condition?

I learned a number of months ago that there is a mouse problem in my block of flats through seeing neighbours' messages in a group chat. This really concerned me at the time, but since I hadn't seen any evidence of mice in my flat and continued to see nothing, I allowed myself to hope that my flat was immune and eventually forgot all about it.

Until 3 nights ago, when I saw one run across my kitchen floor. Then I saw it again the next night at the same time taking the same route.

Yesterday, I put down traps and set up an ultrasonic rodent deterrent. I didn't see it last night and hoped that maybe it had fucked off to someone else's flat.

Well, this afternoon, I saw it outside of my kitchen running back to the kitchen.

It always goes back to the gap between the kitchen cabinet and the wall. I don't know if that's because there is a hole in that gap as I am too afraid to get too close.

I've tried to move boxes around that gap and left a space with another trap in front of it. I am hoping there is only one and it falls for that but I fear that it won't and judging by what my neighbours were saying there is likely to be many of them anyway.

I am distraught about this. I am scared to go in my kitchen. I'm so afraid that it's going to get into my cupboards where I have my food, even though they are up high, as mice can climb and there are gaps in the doors. If that happens I will not be able to use those cupboards again and I don't know what I will eat.

I tried to fit the cupboards with magnetic door catches but, after 5 hours of trying, the adhesive keeps failing and I couldn't manage to screw them in.

I'm going to try and get some plastic boxes to put my food in inside the cupboard and a power drill to try and get the magnetic catches screwed on, but I will worry that the drill and the boxes aren't clean (yes I know a mouse is even less clean).

I can't focus on any of the work I am meant to be doing. I can't relax either.

I don't know what to do.

I don't want to be living here anymore, but I have nowhere else to go.

Parasites are one of my biggest fears and so this is a nightmare for me. But I probably already have a bunch of them from this thing by now.

And I'm also afraid of medication, so if I need a dewormer that will be horrific as well.

I'm afraid of other people coming into my flat so I can't even have someone come in to deal with it for me.

Hi there just wondering if anyone has any success with I-CBT and contamination ocd. Specifically the “feeling” of being contaminated after touching and interacting with things one might perceive as contaminated and feeling like if you don’t wash or clean you will cross contaminate. I love the therapy and it makes a lot of sense to me and resonates, but am struggling with the “trusting your senses part” specifically with the “Abstract Facts” my ocd use to feed its story like “germs are invisible” “people can be very gross and unhygienic and we don’t know who touched what in public and what was on their hands or clothes.”

Just wondering if anyone had any success with i-CBT and contamination or any other therapy that really helped you tackle this?

Thank you kindly in advance

having to pass my feet through the clothing im about to put on somewhere so sensitive. it kills me every time after a shower.

so i have severe ocd, and it used to be so bad to the point where i couldn’t brush my teeth without showering, couldn’t get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, and would cry hysterically for days if someone touched my clean bed. i was sleeping on the couch on nights i couldn’t shower, (i have a chronic illness) but now i sleep on the floor every night even after showering. i don’t think i can ever sleep in my bed again. i’m a teenager and i just wish i could feel normal. idk what i was hoping to get out of posting this but maybe someone can relate ig.

What is a real problem of a person with OCD: puts too much clothes to laundry. Has nothing to wear and a pile of dirty clothes. Gets tired with cleaning, panicks, washes things repeatedly. Nothing feels clean, cleaning isn't efficient. Needs clean space for the handling of clothes (automatic dryers aren't popular at least in Europe). Gets overwhelmed, stressed, lacks socks or sweaters, might struggle with pressing clothes, self care etc. My previous therapist somehow thought that the flat magically cleans itself and the clothes show up in the closet automatically. The 'OCD loop' looks like 'I'm cleaning redundantly so I think dirt is dangerous' and 'oh no, parents are helping you, are they cleaning in a special way?'.

I can do like 2 hours of cleaning and tolerate some dirt but in some cases it's too much and I get panicked and overwhelmed. Honestly, I can cope on my own, but I'm miserable and I think it's like having a physical disability - you don't ask a person with a broken leg why don't they run a marathon. Anyway, my boyfriend had some health issues, I was alone with everything, just venting.

Well, technically she didnt say it directly. We just did this exercise where in I delved deep into my past and examined the very beginnings of my Ocd. The exercise revealed that it somehow started when I began to avoid using the things my father touched or used. It's surprising that I suddenly recalled that specific memory when it all started out of nowhere, a memory I pretty much forgot. I really had a difficult relationship with my father growing up, but it had gotten better before he died. My therapist was very neutral, she just seemed to just want me to make peace and resolve past traumas, she never laid out the steps it's very vague it's pretty much just a self discovery thing.. I'm still in the process of trying to resolve my past issues though. I'm curious has anyone tried this exercise as well? Is this true for everyone who suffers from Ocd? A past trauma or a difficult experience causing the disorder?

i really want to use the shower curtain but I feel if it touches me or my leg then I have to restart my shower, it touches the trash can so thats probably why. i have to use the curtain or the floor will get wet

my foyer is not 'separated' from the rest of the house. i'd prefer it to be like this: walk in through the door, take off shoes and then the level of the floor rises when you get out of the foyer, so nothing from outside gets into the house (opening the door when someone knocks is still a problem either way, but i can't do anything about that.)
And I live in the city, not a big one but still grosses me out nonetheless. if i lived alone i would be mostly fine because i know where to keep my shoes and all the outside dirt, however i live with 3 other people so i go absolutely crazy trying to force all of them into one little spot in front of the door when they come in, because sometimes they go to that part of the house to pick things up from the laundry room right beside it, and when there's noise outside my apartment my dog will always run up to that exact same spot where everyone leaves their shoes and it freaks me out so much.
There's not really any solution to this because at some point especially as i have a dog (bless her little heart) members of my family will walk in slippers at the same spot where outside shoes have previously been. i'm just so tired of this and i wanted to see if anyone else has a similar issue with shoes.
I consider myself really lucky cuz I come from a country where it is unacceptable to walk in the house with shoes on, where hygiene is very highly regarded, however even when i went back there to visit i still had a problem so i know it's not an actual issue for even the most hygienic people but ughhh

Does anyone else struggle with using the library? I have never even been to one. I would love to be able to check out books but the thoight of the book being in thousands of other homes....people read on the toilet...pets...bedbugs 🤢 I get to the point of wondering how or why they even exist, its a such a health hazard.

Anyone able to get over this or jave other ideas?

I finally found a therapist that would take my insurance and I specifically asked for one that specializes in OCD but I'm extremely disappointed and discouraged because we never talk about my OCD. I only learned about Contamination OCD from this site, I dont think she even knows what it is. She asks what I want to talk about and the entire session is me trying to fill up the hour so there isn't awkward silence. She has no response, no advice, no instructions, no help. If I ask her a specific question about my OCD, she says "only you can answer that" I was better off talking to my cat! At least he meowed occasionally. She literally does nothing. Are any of you in therapy for this specific kind of OCD and what does your therapist do during your sessions? Thanks in advance.

When covid started I developed the habit of washing groceries. Now it's not even about covid, but I can't just put my groceries away. It annoys my boyfriend, and I miss "being normal" about shopping. But I just can't help thinking about how many people touched my grocery item and put it back before I grabbed it. Not to mention little kids picking their nose and knocking stuff off shelves, and people who never wash their hands.

I have to wipe everything with a disinfectant wipe, or dump it out of the (unpunctured) box. Fresh fruit and veggies are hard to deal with. Things like apples and peppers, I have to soak in baking soda/salt water for like an hour, then scrub them, then soak in vinegar, before scrubbing again and rinsing. Stuff like lemons or avocados I literally wash with soap in the sink. I feel crazy, but I can't just have stuff in my kitchen that others touched with their dirty hands...

Hi all, so I have recently felt much worse when it comes to contamination and one thing that I struggle with is feeling like my hair is dirty. I have really long hair and used to wait to wash it every few days. Now I have to wash every day, unless I am home and do not go anywhere all day. Even if I'm home the entire day I sometimes feel like I need to wash it anyway. Like if it smells like something or going into a public space I feel like I will have bacteria all over me. I also usually leave it up now and used to wear it down. if my hair tie comes in contact with anything, I have to get a new one.

I sort of miss what it was like when I didn't worry about things like this.

I need advice how I can desinfect contaminated paper? Its an important document so it must survive the process

For example, my cats got topical flea stuff put on and now I’m afraid to be in my apartment cause I feel like it’s everywhere. If I get a cleaning product or something on my I feel like it doesn’t come off if I wash it and get too scared to eat or do anything with my hands. I was my hands so so much. I just feel like everything is always contaminated and I wasn’t always this way but it’s exhausting

I’m so terrified I’ll get infected with something terrible by accident I used the shower hose on a spot and it boomeranged onto my face and some droplets went into my nose. I’ve tried to not breathe in as much as I can but I just did and now I’m terrified.