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Contamination concern


Guest Annabel

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Guest Annabel

My younger brother has just been for a night out in a nearby city.I'm really worried he'll have picked up norovirus (the most common cause of stomach bugs) when out especially because he's so drunk that he probably hasn't paid any attention to anything.

I'm going to be alone with him for two days and if he gets sick I won't be able to cope. I'm also a little bit bothered that he might throw up from the drink tonight (I can deal with that better).

What should I do? I want to go and wipe all the handles and taps down downstairs but there's not much bleach spray left in the packet and I'm very tired and want to sleep- then I'm worried about how I'll handle the taps afterwards or if I'll end up contaminating myself in the process (I've just showered).

xx

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Guest FlyingEagle

Sometimes (not always) the more you try to not get something the more likely you are to get it. I think they call that the law of the sod. I hope you don't get it though and i'm sure all will be fine. Best of luck Annabel. :-)

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Guest legend

when you change the way you look at things,.... the things you look at change.

And the key is annabel is that you need to work at reducing the compulsions matey x

Edited by legend
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Guest Annabel

Thanks guys, unfortunately I went about cleaning before I saw the messages.

And the worst thing was that I put too much bleach spray on a wipe, wiped a light switch and it sparked as I turned it off (was very lucky not to get electrocuted). Luckily my dad dried it with a hairdryer so it's okay now but it shows that some things are more important than my OCD.

xx

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Guest FobicFairy

Hi Bella,

It's hard having contamination OCD because a lot of the fears seem based around fact and seem logical to a person with this type of OCD. However, the risk factor is way out of proportion. I wonder how many people live in the UK and how many of those will get Norovirus, I think you would find that getting it is actually pretty small, if it was as big a risk as you perceive then we would all be using antibacterial hand gel 24/7. But billions of people are getting on with every day life not worrying about norovirus and have no friends that have had it, and lots have never ever heard of it.

Next time you feel this way try to resist using cleaning products, the more you clean the more your OCD will have a hold on you. Obviously, your parents and brother are not spraying bleach all over the place, and they are perfectly well. You know deep down that the norovirus thoughts are OCD, so try to label them as such and not react to them.

My worst fear was dog poo as it can cause all sorts of health problems and also blindness, but my feelings were way out of proportion and it was only when putting dog poo on myself 3 times a day every day that I realised that my OCD was tricking me into extreme beliefs. I couldnt wash my hands unless I was about to eat something, but nothing bad happened.

OCD is a liar, it will take small statistics and blow them up out of all proportion, don't believe it, OCD will take over your life and ruin your chances of a happy future if you let it, get angry with the OCD if you can and stick two fingers up at it by refusing to give into the thoughts. If you can't stop the cleaning, then just start to label the OCD thoughts so that you can sort out your thoughts from the unwanted thoughts, I found that once I got a clearer distinction of which thoughts were which it was easier to fight back.

I wish I could do it for you, I have a real fire in my belly when it comes to my OCD, and just can't give into it, my life is too precious to let it have control again.

FF xxx

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Guest Annabel

Hi Mama hen,

Thank you so much for your lovely reply.

You're so right that I've got things out of proportion and it's true that most people rarely get sick- perhaps once a year I guess?

Most people in the UK will have had norovirus (as nearly all stomach bugs are caused by variants of norovirus) but I way way over-estimate how often I'm likely to catch it.

I need to keep reminding myself that most people are well most of the time despite being covered in germs!

I can't wait to be more like you & get on and live my life again!

xxx

Edited by Annabel
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