Don K

Hi Cookiedough, I have a very similar problem to you. At the moment I feel the need to shower after using the toilet for number 2s. Number 1 doesn’t bother me at all, I could probably walk around with urine on my hands and be fine with it, weird. I can’t imagine being comfortable with having a number 2 and then relaxing on my sofa or whatever without showering, but that is the goal. So in that regard you are doing very well, please don’t fall in the trap of washing more like I did. As for how much to wash your hands if you touched something unpleasant. As someone with a total fear/disgust of feces I would say wash till you can’t see anything on your skin (although your brain will likely play tricks on you about this) then maybe soap and rinse a couple more times 1 min max. Do you ever, in between toilet visits, feel the need to check that you are still clean? This is my number one problem right now and is driving me crazy!

God told you not to look at porn!? What a b’stard.

Well they certainly feel dry and cracked and sore.

That's the darnedest thing! Asda online do have quite bad customer service if memory serves me correctly.

I think it's doing something to avoid having anxiety provoking thoughts. You could shower ten times a day and it wouldn't be OCD if you're doing it just because you enjoy showers rather than to stop feeling anxious. I would rather wash my hands once or not at all after taking a jobby, than the five, six, seven times I need to at the moment to not feel anxious and even then it doesn't necessarily help. Ha! Maybe.

Actually yeah this reminds me. I used to get home delivery and when Asda stopped using bags it was a bit of problem for me sometimes. I remember sometimes having to ‘disinfect’ the entire shopping if I noticed anything brown on the crate because according to my OCD it was almost certainly poo. Nowadays I just jump on my bike and go down myself. It’s cheaper and the exercise will make you feel good, though it comes with it’s own problems.

Hi Bel Anna, I do have contamination ocd about feces but I don’t think your situation would bother me at all. You don’t know where the man had been prior to your house and the situations you imagine sound like a worse case scenario. It was a really nice thing for your mum to give him an extra £10 so look at it that way, and enjoy your new sofas!

I can relate to wanting to go and stay in a hotel because of situations. It's pretty extreme as someone from the outside looking in. Have you ever actually caught norovirus? Surely the germs or whatever, if there were any on the card, would be dead by the time they reached you. And you'd have to touch the card which i'm sure you wont do, even though you probably should, exposure and all that.

I just laughed out loud at your bin story, that is unfortunate but I can really relate to that. I have to throw my litter at the bin and hope it goes in, if it bounces and comes back out there is no way I'm touching it. I'm just back from Amsterdam where a lot of the bins have handles you have to touch to pull them open. Needless to say I spent a lot of time holding onto my litter until I found one deemed clean enough to touch. I don't even know what I'm worried about touching them for it's not likely that people have put s h i t in them (unless from their dogs but round here no one seems to pick that up).

Nice one Big Dave. I have been reading through some of your posts as I have many of the same fears as yourself. So you can count yourself as an inspiration as well! You say getting CBT on the NHS is hard to come by but are seeing a therapist so have you succeeded? I ask as I'm currently on the waiting list but have been given no indication of how long this may take. I hope you and us all have a successful 2019 in trying to conquer this terrible affliction.

Nice one Belanna! My hands are so sore from over washing at the moment. I'll try and use this as inspiration.

Hi Raffles, It has CMHT on the letter so I assume that's Community Mental Health Team. It's the first meeting I've had with them so I assume an initial assessment. Is this something you've gone through? I'm in Lothian by the way.

Hello friends, So after being referred by my GP and a few months of waiting, I have my first mental health appointment. I'm feeling pretty anxious about it and have convinced myself they are likely to say there's nothing really wrong with you, there's nothing we can do to help etc. Anyway has anyone any experience with this first appointment, I'm not really sure what to expect. There is not a lot of information in the letter except for a form with 10 questions about how I have been feeling over the last week. Anyway if anyone has any insight into this It'd be great to hear it, it's an NHS appointment by the way.

I feel you Big Dave. I don't have any advice but I too live with someone who doesn't have the best hygiene, so know that you are not alone.

Is 30 considered well into adulthood? Oh dear. Sorry, your situtation sounds horrible. I don't live with my parents and they don't know I have Ocd. But it is really driving a wedge between me and my wife, to the point where I think life would be much easier if we separated. Have you ever lived apart from them? What is stopping you moving away from them are you unable to work?

Hi Jamie, what you probably should do is take the volunteering job, high five the children and not wash your hands. A lot easier said than done though. Out of interest what are you worried about touching them for, would you be anxious touching anyone's hands or is it something to do with being children with extra needs? I also have problems with washing my hands too much and in my work I come into a lot of contact with people who are not the cleanest. I have to shower as soon as I get home and I'm a million miles from being able to not doing this.

Won't you be a little exposed in the lower half? Wear whatever you want, it's your special day!

Hmm interesting way to think about it. I'll keep this in mind. Have you found this way of thinking has helped you Paradoxer? No, no annoyance at all. It's very nice to be able to talk about these problems with someone who understands even if there are some nuances. Yeah this is the challenge really. It is such an unpleasant feeling that it is very hard to sit with and do nothing about. As if you have a massive itch but are told not to scratch, it is hard to get on with your day. But that's the problem we all have really I guess. Yeah you did type Campylobacter I just improved it's name. Isn't it more difficult to feel anxious about a campy lobster?

Hi Belanna & Cookiemonster, thanks for your repies. Belanna I think I differ from you in that I have absolutely no fear of getting ill. It seems to be a sort of disgust issue. For me I would rather lick the dirty egg than touch it as I know it's extremely unlikely to make me sick and even if it did I have no anxiety around being sick. Also this way the contamination would be contained in my mouth and coundn't spread anywhere. Sorry about the pidgeons sh****g in your hair, that is unfortunate. Round here it's seagulls that are the problem and when a huge flock of them are overhead it has me running in terror for the nearest cover. I'd never heard of Campylobster . Great name though!

Yeah don't I just know it. Yesterday it's eggs, today it's stains on the cusions. It's never ending.

Bobfish, of course it helps, cheers.

Easy for you to say with your lovely clean North American eggs. But seriously cheers for the replies I will try to keep in mind it's all in the mind and the anxiety will go in the end.

Hello friends, So I have quite a problem with eggs. Here in the UK eggs are not washed before being sold so the brown crustyness that looks like **** on the egg shell is chicken ****. Due to my fear of fer of feaces I try my best to avoid them and if someone in my buys them and they end up in my fridge I will feel very anxious and will have to clean them or throw them out. Right now I'm feeling the anxiety as I found some eggs my wife had bought in the fridge and when I went to clean them I found a decent size chunk of chicken poop on one of them. As she had taken them out the packet and put them in the egg try she must have touched the chicken poop then as she rarely washes hands has procedeed to touch all manner of other things including my clean washing which she put away straight after the shopping. So I'm just writing to vent. Everything in my house feels like it has feaces on it just now I can't possibly wipe down everything she may have touched. I'm sure in a few weeks I'll have forgotten about this and or many other feaces problems will have been and hopefully gone. I just could do without it. OCD is what happens when life get's in the way or such.

That's an interesting point. People pick up there dogs poop all the time then touch things in shops, door handles, everything. I'm sure they try not to get sh ite on their hands but you never know. As someone with a huge fear of touching poop this thought doesn't bother me, there has to be a cut off limit. You can't wipe down the whole world. It's infinately better than them not picking up after their dogs and living in a country of dog lovers and disgusting selfish pricks is a much bigger problem.

To be honest, this would really really upset me and cause me heaps of anxiety but I have contamination ocd particullary about faeces. In the past before I developed ocd, not at all, but now big time. There is likely some miniscule degree of faecal where he was sitting but there likely is on most money, handrails, anything so what are you going to do? Would it still bother you if he hadn't been to the toilet beforehand? It sucks but if you want to have 'sexy time' someones **** is probably going to be rubbing up against something. I'd like to hear how you manage to get over this, because I have very similar worries. Hopefully soon you'll be sitting in his car with no worries.