r/ContaminationOCD

Hi, I have this thing where I need to wash my hands an excessive amount of times per hour/ even more per day. I don’t go full out crazy when I’m at in class and I can’t wash my hands but when I’m at work i do it a lot too like at home. I wash my hands for 1 minute to 5 minutes. My hands aren’t dry or soar, I’ve had chemical burns in the past but my hands are smooth and always have been.
I used to say “it’s because I like the smell of soap” which is true, I love the smell of soap for some reason but it’s felt like it’s because I feel dirty and unclean for no reason. I also brush my teeth way more than in the past, like 4-6 times a day?? But that’s because I like feeling minty and I like the taste of toothpaste…(I think..) I also take showers basically every day or several times per day because if I don’t I feel unclean and uncomfortable. For me this is normal and just being a clean person.
Anyways I’ve gotten remarks from “washing my hands too long” and “too often”. Can I do something about it

The thing was as big as one of those fake plastic cockroachs but very much real. It felt and sounded half way between stepping on a peanut shell and stepping on a light bulb.

I was cleaning the toilet earlier and I stopped because I think my eyes got watery…they stung for a bit but I’m not sure if it was just the smell or the waterlines was the bleach from the spray bottle entering my eye…now anyone would just flush their eyes right with water right just in case…but I can’t because I have to mask at home so I only wash my face in my room or I would have to run the air purifier for hours in the bathroom…I’m not sure what to do can I get blind if I actually have bleach in my eye but don’t rinse it? It’s quite hard for me to rinse because honestly I don’t have a source of streaming water in my room, just a cup of water…I don’t know what to do

Not sure if I’m allowed to ask for advice like this on here but I’m desperate and don’t know where else to turn.

I’m 36 weeks pregnant, so could be days off giving birth. Last week my husband and I bought a brand new car seat for our baby. For context - he met me at the shop after work and he is a tradesman. My contamination OCD is particularly bad when I am buying new items, but when they are expensive or for my baby it’s a LOT worse.

All went fine, but it was heavy so he had to carry it back to our car. I asked if his hands were clean and he said he’d washed them before coming. But when we were almost back at the car I noticed dirt/brown dust on his shirt (near the box). He said it was from some toolboxes he had to move when he arrived at the shop. Then it clicked that washing his hands before arriving was irrelevant because he has since touched dirty tools. Cue freak out.

The car seat is wrapped in plastic and in a box but we all know how contamination OCD works. One of the toolboxes had been in another tradies car, the other had been at a work site.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it or bring myself to open the box, so we went back to the shop the next day and bought ANOTHER car seat. Ridiculous I know, but I would just return one and get a store credit. Again all went fine but, as we were leaving, the shop assistant said “you’re lucky, our store manager just brought this over from the warehouse and it’s the last one”

Cue second freak out. She brought it over how? In her car?

I ended up ringing the store a couple days later and asking how they transport stock from the warehouse to the store (it’s a small business). I said I’m paranoid as they’re baby items and I like to know where they’ve been. I understand it’s a weird question but they were very rude which made me feel worse.

They said they often bring things over in their personal cars, as the store room can’t fit a lot it in. My issue is that I have no idea how she lives, what condition her car is in, etc. Does she smoke, have pets, is she renovating her house? (I have a fear of things like asbestos)

So basically, I’m now very close to giving birth, I have TWO brand new car seats and don’t know which one to open. I can’t buy a third. But I feel I am faced with choosing between one that my husband carried with dirty hands, and one that has been in an unknown car. I guess they could have both been in her car.

Please help me OCD community. I’m desperate and know you’ll understand. What would you do? Which one would you choose?

When Covid became a thing few years ago, me and my girlfriend (college students/young professionals) started tracking things that could pass the virus to us or to her parents whenever she visited.

After looking at things from this perspective, I'd notice many people not washing hands after using the washrooms, picking things up from the ground, touching door handles or commuting in public transport with soiled clothes or sitting in a seat where someone may have puked on (drug overdose issue).

This started grossing us out. We were already washing our hands as soon as we got home, but this led us to sanitize accessories and change our outside clothes if we touched any unfamiliar surfaces and wiping down our couches/sofa after guests leave. We were wiping down groceries to everything that came from outside the house.

I did find these actions reasonable to maintain good hygiene and help preventing spread of viruses, and I haven't been sick with anything since I started this.

We've been long distance for the last 4-5 years: she's moved back in with her parents and gone back to normal. I, however, live alone and continue to do this till date because I cannot unsee or reprogram my brain after seeing all the things I have seen. It just grosses me out!! Plus I have ADHD which doesn't help. And its probably gotten worse over time. For example, I don't go to parks unless I have to, I don't go for walks unless it's a forest/nature trail or I plan to take a shower after, I prefer take-outs or sitting in the car over dine-ins unless its important or a special occasion.

The thing is now we meet each other once every 3-4 weeks and whenever she comes over I'd disinfectant her belongings so she doesn't have to. But if she or an extension of her touches anything dirty again before touching me or coming to my bedroom, she refuses to washup, wash hands or disinfect the accessory. Her reasoning: she's already done it once and she doesn't wanna do it again because a little bit won't hurt and I should learn to be okay with it.

My bedroom is my safe space and it makes me utterly uncomfortable if its not clean enough. I'd believe when in Rome, do as the Romans do but she calls me wanting to keep my safe space safe, being "controlling", and making her uncomfortable. I've been called "too much", "mentally sick" and "ADHD is not a thing" to name a few.

I don't keep on washing/disinfecting things constantly if they're already clean, but from a non-OCD person's perspective, I have severe OCD and I don't deny it. She could be more accommodating too and work with me for possible solutions but she doesn't want too.

Has anybody else gone through this? How did you go about this? We've been together 9+ years and I would want to salvage the situation. Or are Contamination OCDs destined to stay single forever?!

P.s. I had seen a psychiatrist as well but he only gave me depression meds and suggested to work with my family doctor for my OCD. My family doctor has since retired so we never actually worked on my symptoms. But finding this subreddit today made me feel seen, and not lonely.

I rent a room and I have a private bathroom. No one what so ever is allowed in there. The guy who I rent from told me out of his own mouth his company will use only his bathroom. I’m in my room and I hear my toiled flush, A COUGH and a 2 second use of my sink then door closed.

1. it’s a violation of my personal space.
2. I’m going to have to go and bleach everything down, cleaning off my products I have sitting on the sink, and throw away my paper towel because she touched it.
3. Im not even fully comfortable with my space yet to even touch certain surfaces yet and I’ve been renting this room over a month.

So very upset because I know it’s gonna take me a while because I can’t just one and done and consider it all clean. Being exposed to bleach and ammonia so much is not fun now that that person violated my personal space I have no choice. Literally cost me money and time.

I'm not talking about the kind that is on a $300 bidet- those things are time consuming to clean (I personally have a handheld bidet that I clean daily). My point is, I really think there should be a very simple mechanism attachment that when a person pulls the lever of the handle down to flush the toilet, it automatically closes the lid by a swing action.

I've actually asked ChatGPT how to design something like this and come up with a prototype. I feel like it could be relatively cheap and somewhat easy to install, just need to get the mechanics right. I'm so sick of having to explain toilet plume to people who are unaware what it is....the signs in my bathroom to close the lid, sometimes people don't even read, and they're extremely obvious 😂😂

I'm at my wits end. Someone please invent this, i am hemorrhaging money into clorox wipes

I counted the slices of bread I had in the fridge in preparation for my sandwiches in the morning. I woke up and made my sandwiches but there were only 5 slices. I thought, maybe I miscounted. I was extremely sure I didn’t miscount so I asked the present person in the house if they ate any, she said no. I texted the other person that lives here and he said he did. I now can’t eat the sandwiches I’ve made. Is there any way to get over this? I just feel like I’m wasting food constantly.

If they had asked and I witnessed the them not touch it when taking out the slice they wanted or I took it out myself, I would’ve been fine. I now can’t eat the only easy food I had left and I’m on the verge of a breakdown because my autism routine has been thoroughly affected as well.

Has anyone with contamination (food relative) OCD found a way to get over this and just eat anything?