r/ContaminationOCD

I got bit by my pet vaccinated cat(liya) on 27th may but the thing is liya had gotten bit by a stray cat nearby on 18th may and immediately also got a rabies shot for it. She bit me after her second shot of rabies.

And I got a rabies immunoglobulin shot on day zero itself and the doctor said IF I SPOT THE STRAY CAT THAT BIT MY CAT THEN STOP(since it’ll have been almost ten days from 18th to 28th+) and not take the second shot.

So on 29th may my mom and dad said they saw that stray cat. And I was fine too I ignored it.

And now it’s 4th July today and I’m convinced I have rabies. I did go to the same doctor who gave me the shot he reassured me that the chances are zero. But I felt like he took the fact the the stray cat lived for 10+ days as the only reason to dismiss my diagnosis.

Like my body is having these weird symptoms:
- Pain near the wound (which is healed without any redness, swelling, etc)
- random body aches
- sore throat (which healed without said I have throat infection)
- headaches
- ear ringing tennatus, never had this before.
- not able to bear loud noises. Like my ear starts to hurt.
- I feel like I’m salivating more, not drooling just more than usual. And my saliva feels bitter.
- my body (shoulders, arms, neck) randoms feels hot like chills but hot.

It would be a relief if my cat was alive but unfortunately she died on 3rd June from a dog attack. That would be 14 days after the bite. And didn’t show any severe symptoms.

Idk what to do I’m literally so scared.
Should I be worried??

Howdy, for a ling time I’ve struggled with OCD and particularly germaphobia and the idea of contamination. One of the number one things I hate to do going outside is touching anything that other people would often touch, particularly things like door handles, shopping carts, stair way rails/banisters, elevator buttons, or the grab bars on the c-train, all things that are frequently touched and need to be in order for me to navigate outside. I tend to become very paranoid about accidentally touching my face and getting sick after touching any of these and it can be quite the stress of having to constantly sanitize things like my lip balm or phone when I get back home.

So, recently I thought of a solution that might help, gloves! It seems rather simple when I think about it, but I wanted to try and see if wearing gloves would help at all in easing my anxiety about touching everyday objects and if anyone has any advice on where to start searching.

I have a few hopes in mind for what they’d be, mainly that they’d be light weight and not too insulating because my hands themselves tend to be very warm and I sweat easily and get very sensorily frustrated at the feeling of hot hands, so something thin but ideally water proof. Knitted gloves are nice, but the fact that they’re just knitted fabric strands with a bunch of holes between them makes my brain think it’s not a suitable barrier and that whatever I touch will quickly seep through like a towel for grime. The last thing I have as a qualifier is that my hands are rather small, very few gloves tend to actually fit me size wise because I have short rat doll hands that can never reach the finger tips and I’d really like to be able to keep some dexterity. Other than my first option being latex or silicone, I was hoping for something I could potentially wash and reuse rather than throw away and run out of if possible.

So, to summarize, I’m looking for a glove that is:
\- thin
\- light weight
\- breathable and not too insulating
\- water proof or water resistant
\- flexible/fitting/has smaller sizes available

If anyone happens to know anything about glove brands or just has any suggestions I would love to hear about them please. Thank you and have a good day/night :>

I am a nurse and the last 2 days, I have cared for a patient in a double room. The other patient was having diarrhea and was tested for GI bugs so we moved my patient out yesterday. I found out overnight that the sick patient tested positive for norovirus. I haven’t been able to calm down since. I have OCD and am medicated on Zoloft and just increased my dose this week. A number one side effect of the increase is high anxiety, spiraling thoughts, and restlessness. Was this an exposure if I was in the room as somebody that is sick? He never vm’d, only symptom is diarrhea

I just need to vent to people who might understand. I’m 18 now, and I’m looking back realizing that OCD completely robbed me of my teenage years. From the age of 12 all the way until now, my mind was a constant battleground.

While other girls my age were out making friends, dating, and building a social life, I was completely isolated and trapped in my own head. I didn't get to experience any of those normal teenage milestones because my days were consumed by exhausting compulsions and terrifying intrusive thoughts.

I feel like a ghost who skipped an entire chapter of life. I don’t have a friend group or any high school memories. I feel so left behind and lonely because my peers have six years of social growth and relationships that I simply missed out on. I have no one and everything feels pointless.

It feels so painful to grieve a youth you never actually got to live. Has anyone else lost their social life to mental illness? How do you cope with the feeling of being so far behind?

Asked if she could please for the love of God let me know when they are there we live 2 houses down id be there in no time. I would never want anyone that isn't my family to come in my home without supervision. We'll he came to my house and they didn't tell me. He was unsupervised in my home walking with shoes going from room to room touching everything. To me my house is ruined. Now I'm staying at my mom's as I get new furniture sent in and while I deep clean my home to my liking because being there makes me feel the germs in my skin.. it's so pathetic how much power this disease holds over me. Im throwing away everything bed frame rocking chair washing all my clothes in my closet threw my toothbrush away everything. Im exhausted and I know my family is too.. im so scared of exposure therapy.

I,17M, severely scared of my bodily fluids spreading and getting on people because it is gross. Unfortunately this makes me extremely scared to do anything after a private moment so I just stay in my room for days on end (maybe like 1 or 2 days) until the conditions are right and I can go and clean up and make sure nothing spreads and this time around I have been in my room since around Monday but I had other private moments since then and this morning I did not want to leave my room but I had to use the restroom and everything spiraled because of me touching stuff (like the toilet, the faucet, the soap bottle and anywhere the water splashed when I was washing my hands) so I wiped down stuff I could but I am sure I cross contaminated with the Lysol wipes I was using but I tried to power through but it hit me that my feet were contaminating the floor since my feet were resting on my bed and touching other stuff I know was contaminated like a chair I was sitting in and I ran out of wipes to use so I just went back into my room and now I am scared that anything my feet or my clothes touched outside my room is contaminated so like walls doors and the floor and this is made worse since my little cousins are here who are just toddlers so now they are going to walk on the floor and most likely get infected and now I am a criminal and Idk why I do not feel worse about this I feel calm but also scared Idk I just feel like falling asleep what do I do.

Has anyone else been through the NHS’s talking therapy’s for OCD i just had my first over the phone appointment and i had said i have been struggling with intrusive thoughts since i was 6, I’m now 18 and they all revolve around contamination and health.

i said how i wash my hands constantly and am always thinking about germs and getting overwhelmed by them and how i can avoid being ill and that the thoughts are impossible to escape. i also experience intrusive thoughts around me dying, for example i was on the bus and i was convinced that the woman behind me would stab me.

Anyway i told her all my intrusive thoughts and stuff which was hard as ive never said them out loud before. when she asked me if i recite numbers in my head or check doors are locked i said ‘no i dont think so’ and then she said that she thinks i have health anxiety and not OCD which confused me because my gp (who has known me my entire life) had told me that she thinks i have it but cant diagnosed it so i should go down this route to get a diagnosis, but they have told me i just have health anxiety? Is health anxiety OCD or have i just been like drastically overreacting to my intrusive thoughts my entire life and i dont even have OCD. Also i would like to mention when she asked me if something triggered my intrusive thoughts i said no and that they had been there since can remember and that nothing triggered them they just started. Am i being insane

I have piss jugs, gloves, hand sanitizer, sanatizing spray, etc. in my car because I refuse to use a public restroom, especially with my nasty coworkers.

The only thing that drives me nuts is when you try to poop before you leave the house, or don't have to go at all, only for the urge to go to hit you at some point during your shift when you're at work, like wtf??? ugh....it's not healthy I'm sure, but I literally will take anti-diarrheal and gas pills just so I can hold it till I get home some days.

This is yet another reason why I hate working.

With my OCD it's way harder than it would be for a normal person. Like I understand legally they've supplied a bathroom, but it feels like to me I'm not allowed to use it at work and have to jump through hoops where if anyone catches me I'd lose my job....

I wouldn't have to do this either if people weren't so fucking disgusting and didn't do gross shit in the bathrooms....like the the couple of people they occasionally catch beating off, not to mention the people who piss all over the floor, toilet seats, etc. I feel like I can't touch anything in the bathroom without contaminating myself

How do you help someone with Contamination OCD get blood drawn? My 15 yo refuses to get his bloodwork. He said the only way he will do it is to be sedated. He has to get it done to rule out any underlying infections that may be at the cause of his OCD which just started 4 months ago.

I have an anxiety disorder and OCD, and I'm very afraid of rabies. I'm in Moscow, by the way. My OCD makes me think I could have gotten a scratch from an animal without noticing, since I found scratches on myself the same day, but my OCD makes me think I just forgot how the animal scratched me. Can you help? Is this even possible? I have wounds that hurt whenever I think about it, and I'm also afraid of the symptoms. That's probably the main thing, because as soon as a symptom appears, you're dead.

Hi everyone. Earlier today i was petting a stray cat and giving it some water, and while i was petting him i scratched him in a spot he didnt like and he reached over to give me a warning bite. Not hard at all, i didnt bleed, he didnt break skin, and he certainly did not seem rabid considering he was extremely friendly and drank some sips of water. Unfortunately i am convinced that i contracted rabies and need to go get a shot asap or i'll die. I understand its just a good idea in general to get rabies shots after being bit by wild animals and strays you dont know but i feel like im being ridiculous and that if i actually ask a doctor about this i will be laughed out of the office, and additionally im having 'what if? What if? What if?'s about somehow bringing fleas into my house or somehow the cats saliva got into my water bottle even though he never got close to it. Please help.

Hello everyone,

For a long stretch of my life, my washing routine wasn't quick. It took a long time, I honestly don't even remember exactly how long anymore, just that it was way more than it should've been. I'd finish, and almost immediately some part of my brain would whisper "but was it really done right?" and that "but" was enough to send me right back to start over.

I wasn't checking for anything visible. I was checking for a feeling of certainty that never came, no matter how many times I repeated it. Soaked sleeves, soaked floor, time my family clearly noticed even when they didn't say much. Eventually my arms developed eczema from how much I was washing - it cracked, it bled, it itched constantly, and I just added that to the list of things to deal with while still not feeling "done."

The thing nobody told me back then: that uneasy feeling was never proof I'd messed up. It was the OCD's favorite tool. The more I obeyed it, the louder it got.

What actually moved the needle was forcing myself to do it once, the normal way, and just... stopping. Walking away mid-doubt, on purpose, even though every part of me wanted to go back. It felt reckless the first dozen times. I just kept doing that, over and over, until eventually the urge to go back didn't carry the same weight anymore.

Years later, the routine takes me the time it's supposed to take. My skin healed. My family doesn't worry about the marathon version anymore. And that "is this right" doubt doesn't show up at all these days, it just isn't part of my life anymore.

If you're in the version of this where you can't seem to stop, I see you. It does get quieter.

For those who relate to this through wudu specifically, I want to add: the doubt was never a sign of weak faith, it was OCD borrowing the language of faith to keep me stuck. May Allah grant all of us ease, heal what hurts in our bodies and minds, and remove the whispers that don't serve us. Ameen.

Once I have a certain amount of coating on my tongue from eating food (or even drinking coffee or alcohol), I sometimes can't eat until I brush my tongue all the way back twice. Like I can't have any residue on my tongue or it affects my focus - the taste in my mouth throws me off too much. And I also can't have any toothpaste residue left on my tongue, like it has to be super clean and pristine before I'm completely comfortable. Anyone else? I figure it's a good thing that I'm this clean but the sensation drives me crazy until I clean off my tongue.

i tried to post this on r/ocd but i couldnt. So i have really bad contamination and germ ocd and its really bad when it comes to my cats bc i think theres poop all over there fur when they go into there automatic litter-box bc it looks like theres poop on the sides that they rub onto and stuff. its been preventing me from petting them without having to wash my hands right after and not letting me have them in my room. they also jump on my desk which is one of the main reasons why i dont want them in there but i spend most of my time in there and they always want in. idk what to do anymore i cant get professional help bc i dont have insurance nor the money.

Are yall also scared to unconsciously conatminate urself even though u know that even unconciously ur ocd became a habit?? Just know i touched something and im pretty sure i didnt contaminate the rest of my things with it, but suddenly there is this voice asking me, are u sure? maybe u pushed ur glasses up, maybe u scratched urself etc….. its so annyonig now im sitting here and i feel this urge to clean everything again;( but this would take so much time and is so unnecessary….

We've been together for 2 years, and the first 6 months were long distance. He always told me he had OCD, but my ex also had OCD, so I didn't think too much of it. I assumed it would be similar.

It isn't.

His OCD is all about contamination, and he genuinely believes almost everything is dirty.

For example, if a dirty sock touches the floor, then in his mind the whole floor is dirty and needs to be cleaned. Every grocery item has to be disinfected before it goes into the fridge, like we were all doing during COVID. If my shoulder brushes against a wall, he'll immediately spray both my shoulder and the wall with alcohol because now they're contaminated. He showers 6+ times a day, and his skin is honestly suffering because of it.

Living with this is exhausting.

I feel like I have to think through every little movement before I do anything because I'm constantly trying to avoid setting off another contamination issue. I can't just exist normally in my own home.

I clean the apartment all the time. It's a pretty big apartment, so I can't deep clean every single room in one day, but even after spending hours cleaning, he'll still focus on the small areas that aren't clean enough.

One thing that's really wearing me down is my hair. I have naturally curly hair, so if we're going out, I'll wash it and straighten it that day because it's a whole process. The moment we get home, he wants me to wash it again because I was outside and my hair could have touched something dirty. So all the effort I put into doing my hair is basically for nothing.

I've suggested seeing a therapist who specializes in OCD. He told me he already did, and that the therapist said they couldn't help him anymore because this is something he chooses to do. I honestly don't know if that's what actually happened because it doesn't sound right to me.

I love him. We're supposed to get married soon.

But if I'm being honest, I'm miserable.

I feel like his OCD has become my life too. Everything revolves around avoiding contamination, and I don't feel comfortable or relaxed anymore.

At the same time, I'm scared of ending the relationship and starting over in my 30s. Part of me wonders if I'm giving up too easily, and another part of me wonders if this is what the rest of my life will look like if I marry him. Also this never happens when we go on vacation or to visit his parents or anywhere else outside this apartment.

Has anyone been through something like this? Can OCD this severe get better if the person actually wants help, or am I setting myself up for a lifetime of living this way?

My mother cleaned the bathroom sink with bare hands and didn't wash her hand after

She touched everything

I am disgusted. I am crying

As the title says, I moved into a new apartment with my boyfriend for the first time and we have a shared laundry room with around 20 other units. He didn’t have laundry at his last apartment, and I was just visiting, so I would do my laundry at home. Now that we have shared laundry I just can’t bring myself to do a load, so I’ve been bringing it to either my mom or my dad’s houses half an hour away. I would really like to just get over this so I don’t have to drive 30 minutes just to do a load of laundry. I feel like OCD runs my life and inconveniences me in so many ways and this one feels like something other people do all of the time without any worries, so I just don’t know why I can’t get bring myself to do it. Maybe because I’m so used to the “sterile” environment of my parents’ and knowing no one else was using my machine but my family, or because I’m afraid that washers and dryers don’t get rid of everything from other people’s laundry. How do I start to get over something like this?

So, a bit of context. I worked, a few years ago, at a car parts factory that was poorly managed. There was a lot of fiberglass floating freely in the air, and no safety measures were properly followed, and I was laughed at for asking about respirators and/or bodysuits due to the air pollutants. I developed a sensitivity to the fiberglass due to harsh and frequent exposure, and quit the job, as did my partner. However, my partner was very messy at the beginning due to her inexperience with fiberglass, and I have been dealing with both reality and obsessive thoughts and cleaning rituals that never seem to work. Is there any advice about overcoming fiberglass contamination OCD aside from exposure therapy/just not thinking about it? I cannot expose myself to something I am sensitive to without actually hurting myself, and I also cannot handle just not thinking about it due to the fact I still live in the same county as the factory, and take the same transportation as the workers do.

I figured that my OCD gets worse when I clean while I am tired and stressed. For example, during my PMS I was putting away the laundry. Accidentally, the laundry basket touched a kitchen cabinet (my flat is very small, and the kitchen is in the corridor). Instead of calming myself down, my fear skyrocketed. I cleaned that spot. The next day, I was still afraid to touch the objects in this kitchen. Sometimes I am able to understand that this type of situation is nothing to worry about, this is just laundry etc. Sometimes, I feel like I just can't calm myself down and the fear is spreading to other objects.

What is helping you in such situations? What is making it worse?