Hi everyone,
Would love some advice please. My wife suffers from contamination OCD. It started 12 years ago when an immediate family member of hers died. It got worse over the years to fairly severe levels (Like I was being told when to put items, and what I should and shouldn't touch in the house) till 2017 when she finally got CBT therapy via our GP. Since then her symptoms dropped about 50%. However it's still ongoing and every single day we have some discussion or argument driven by her OCD. Every day there is a conversation about what is clean or dirty etc. There are things around the house, either single items or a small pile of things, that I can't touch because they are dirty and need to be cleaned. I can't do anything with those because then I'm giving in to the OCD.
We have a toddler and I'm concerned about the effect - particularly the creation of new rituals to do with the little one. To be honest she's been very good not to do anything excessive with our toddler, but I'm highly sensitive to check for excessive hand-washing of the little one for example.
The problem is also she doesn't want to get any more help, and doesn't think it's a big enough problem. Even today she was saying what's "normal" is different for everybody, so she defends it very strongly.
I'm exhausted by it all to be honest. In addition there are other behaviours stacked on top, like coming to bed very late at night every night between 2am-4am and not sleeping well as the little one gets her up at 7am. I won't mention them all.
If I mention what's happening, or try to help her manage any of her behaviours, I get told I'm being controlling. I guess I'm just trying to live in a more balanced fashion but she doesn't see it that way.
Are they any counselling I can get for myself to help me deal with this all? Thank you in advance.
