Hi
New member here and would be really, really grateful for some advice. For many years I've suffered from anxiety about contamination by hazardous substances, diseases and parasites, and I tend to focus heavily on a particular topic before moving on to another one. Now I have a children, the anxiety its getting worse and worse and I now spend most of my time worrying about them rather than me. Since the summer I've been particularly focused on asbestos after a few unlucky episodes where I was exposed to it - one where I spotted loads of the stuff and reported it (later confirmed) after I was already covered in dust. This led to months of behaviours I now realise may be compulsions - throwing away clothes, bagging clothes, wiping my car, vacuuming, running an air purifier, endless internet research, precisely calculating risks to me and my family, checking all buildings on google to see if they are pre-1980's before visiting them etc. I've started to worry constantly (pretty much every waking moment for months now) about my child's nursery, which is in a 1960's/70's building that is fairly likely to contain some of the more dangerous types of asbestos. I've had some sessions of CBT which haven't helped much yet, but I can see how ERP potentially could help for some of my issues like lead paint, dog poo and lyme disease. I have a couple of questions that I would be really interested to hear others' thoughts on:
As my anxiety if now largely focused on my children’s health rather than my own health, what is the best way to go about ERP for this? e.g. I think I could probably expose myself to lead paint relatively easily now, but the thought of one of my children touching old paint and then not washing their hands fills me with anxiety.
What would be the best way to go about ERP for asbestos? It really is hazardous in tiny amounts so not good to expose yourself too, and you can’t see the effect (or lack of) on health for decades so it’s not easy to dismiss fears after, for example, spending time in an old building.
How/where do you draw the line between thoughts caused by OCD and taking action on something that might actually be a risk? I have emailed the nursery a couple of times for reassurance about their asbestos. They have responded saying they don’t think there is any, but they don’t appear to be actually doing what they legally are required to do (have asbestos surveys and keep a register of locations etc.). I quite often see workmen drilling into things like old panels with the nursey windows open etc., which sends my anxiety through the roof. This absolutely could be a major health risk to the children but no-one else apart from me seems worried! I guess the ERP approach would be to try to ignore it rather than seek further reassurance, but what does everyone think would be the best approach?