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possible ocd while pregnant please help!!


Guest mummyto3

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Guest mummyto3

Hi everyone. I'm 18 weeks pregnant and I can't stop obsessing about germs! I am terrified that if I don't disinfect everything everyday that everyone in the house will get ill. Its starting to take over my life now. I can be at work and yet I am thinking about the things I need to disinfect when I get in. I carry anti bac gel in my handbag and I use it 4/5 times an hour. Can anyone help??

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So you have obsessions about contamination and in response you clean things a lot (and use antibacterial gel on your hands). The latter part are compulsions.

You think you need to perform the compulsions in order to satisfy the problem raised by the contamination but the first problem is that the risk raised by the obsession is bogus. It doesn't exist. No one needs to clean that much to live a healthy life.

The second problem is that compulsions are devious. You think you're doing the right thing but you're actually doing is keeping the obsessions coming back strong and sure in the future. Compulsions reinforce obsessions.

What you need to do to get a grip on things is the one thing you likely don't want to do -- resist and stop the compulsions. That means cutting back on the amount you clean and tossing the antibacterial gel in the garbage. Overall what you need to do is stop giving importance to the obsessions. Don't react to them through compulsions.

Your anxiety level will go up when you don't perform compulsions but it doesn't stay high forever. You have to able to sit with the anxiety and refuse to perform those compulsions.

Edited by PolarBear
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