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Ocd - outside


Guest peaceful

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Guest peaceful

Hi, :thumbup:

Can I please ask if anyone has difficulties with their ocd whilst outside.

The reason I ask is that I went out for a walk today with my family and

found myself anxious to a high level, I was experiencing feelings of

fear and uncertainty mainly concerned with items on the ground and the fear of standing on something which would contaminate me and if I took it home everyone else may be affected and so on. Which I seem to think would be my fault. Also thoughts of; If I don't see and take note of everything and I am later asked about something and I am unable to comment, then it could be my fault or I would be an awful person for not noticing whatever it is. (Do you know what I am trying to say?). Also I ask everyone to remove their outdoor shoes before coming into my home.

I usually go straight from the house to the car when I go out and I never usually go out alone. I have also stopped driving and have done for about 2years or more and when my husband is driving I constantly have similar feelings of fear and uncertainty which I think is ultimately fear of responsibility in some way and so I constantly seek reassurance from my husband whilst he is driving, by asking questions like;

i.e. Did you see that, Is everything ok, Did I interupt your concentration

because I was speaking. etc

He constantly tells me that it is his responsibility for driving and not to worry, but I find it very difficult to stop asking for his reassurance. I frequently close my eyes just so that I won't see anything and have to ask my husband, did you see that, is everything ok etc etc. I also occasionally ask Him to go back to where I last had my ocd issue - just to check. ( I did this frequently when I was driving)

I used to be a bright, bubbly, vivacious and confident person, always out and about socialising and helping others, and I loved driving. Looking back I have had ocd for many yearsand did not know what it was and dealt with it at home, after leaving the house I would leave my ocd behind untill I returned home again that day. Nowadays the ocd infiltrates most, if not all of my day everyday and I get most of my rest when I sleep. I am currently taking medication which helps alot and I have been to therapy, but I feel discouraged that the most I can hope for is to manage the ocd rather than be cured of it. Although on the contrary as a christian I do believe that God is the Ultimate Physician and He can heal me completely and I pray frequently that he will, so that I may be free to help others who have suffered with this debilitating and frustrating disorder.

Can anyone relate to my experience of ocd, if so I would be reallly interested to hear from you.

Thankyou for listening,

God Bless

Peaceful! :thumbup:

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Guest ScottOCDid

Hi Peaceful,

fear and uncertainty mainly concerned with items on the ground and the fear of standing on something which would contaminate me and if I took it home everyone else may be affected and so on.

I went through a phase like this in my pre-teens. The perceived contaminants that I'd be looking out for varied depending upon my fears at the time. At that age, I was mainly concerned with self-contamination but the responsibility aspect that you've described is extremely common to OCDers. I'm a checker (although I've come a long way in managing OCD) and my heightened sense of responsibility often means that I'm anxious if locking up someone else's place.

Need to run just now...

Don't despair, you're not alone!

Take care,

Scott

:thumbup:

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Hiya peaceful :thumbup:

Can I please ask if anyone has difficulties with their ocd whilst outside.

The reason I ask is that I went out for a walk today with my family and

found myself anxious to a high level, I was experiencing  feelings of

fear and uncertainty mainly concerned with items on the ground and the fear of standing on something which would contaminate me and if I took it home everyone else may be affected and so on.

I have this type of OCD too. I worry about stepping on something contaminating and then that I would then transfer this contamination into my house, school etc and then people would get ill because of it. For this reason I go through phases of not wearing certain shoes because they're contaminated, which isn't good because for one thing it means I can't wear my lovely warm, comfy boots at the mo when it's cold outside! grrrrr...stupid OCD

He constantly tells me that it is his responsibility for driving and not to worry, but I find it very difficult to stop asking for his reassurance.

Reassurance-seeking is a classic symptom of OCD, and driving fears are a common OCD. Your hubby is right when he says that it is his responsibility for driving and to not worry :thumbup: . If you were distracting him then basically he would probably tell you to shut up! :lol2: I know that if I'm driving and people are talking to me then usually I'm OK but if I need to concentrate on driving more or whatever then I just block out what they're saying and ask them to repeat it afterwards. I might seem rude when I do that but no-one has ever commented on it so I assume not :thumbup: . At the end of the day, it is the person driving's responsibility and I am sure your husband would say if your talking distracted him, so please try not to worry :).

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Guest cerenbrackston

Hi Peaceful,

I have ocd about fear of harming people and it related with anxiesty as well.

I was same as you since i had this illness i have got fears but these days i am facing my fears.I know its so hard sometimes..you dont want to go out..want to be safety at home..but unfortunatelly thats not the answer.

we shouldnt loose connection with the outside.Life is going and try to join in.In time we will be allright.I belive that.

KEEP FACING YOUR FEARS DEAR..

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Hi Peaceful, :thumbup:

I also have this problem. I'm always on constant alert when I'm outside the house and am always on the look out for pieces of litter on the ground and making sure I don't brush past anyone and that I don't brush past any bins and avoid skip lorries and rubbish lorries. It really is very stressful and I know how you feel. I don't want to take the contamination into my house either. Going shopping is a particular nightmare due to the close proximity of people to me in the aisles. But you must not stop going out. That would be the worst thing you could do. It's so easy I know but I find if I avoid something like that then it's just worse the next time I have to go out, so I try to get out to the shops at least every couple of days.

I also used to ask people to take their shoes off when they came into my house and as I have continued to give into the ocd, now it has escalated and no one comes into the house except my boyfriend and me which causes particular problems when we need to have the gas boiler inspected or (as we had recently) the electricity metre changed and the workman needed to come into the house to do it. Please do not let yours get this bad. It's always best to nip the new ocd triggers in the bud.

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Hi Peaceful,

I have ocd about fear of harming people and it related with anxiesty as well.

I was same as you since i had this illness i have got fears but these days i am facing my fears.I know its so hard sometimes..you dont want to go out..want to be safety at home..but unfortunatelly thats not the answer.

we shouldnt loose connection with the outside.Life is going and try to join in.In time we will be allright.I belive that.

KEEP FACING YOUR FEARS DEAR..

29700[/snapback]

This really is good advice and the way to move forward.

By giving in, OCD takes a little bit more. It nibbles away eroding more areas of your life. Scary as it is (and it often isn't as scary as you imagine sometimes) facing the fears one at a time is the way to gain back your bright, bubbly confident self.

One place you could start is with the reassurance and steadfastly work at NOT asking that question. I didn't use to realise that I did this all the time, when I identified that I did, I decided to stop asking. Actually, a lot of it had become habit...anyway I steadfastly buttoned my lip and stopped asking. It was quite suprising how much better I felt by doing this.

The 'thought' of facing these fears is actually worse than actually 'facing' them. YOU ARE ALREADY SCARED, you are already anxious. I try to think I am anxious anyway, so I might as well be anxious working towards overcoming X,Y or Z as be anxious avoiding these things and getting deeper in the mire.

Be brave Peaceful, try to write out a little hierarchy of the less worrying problems and then practice exposure....everyone's here to support you. Lots of Luck :thumbup:

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Guest peaceful

Thankyou for all your encouraging words, it is good to hear that I am not alone with this and that there are people out there who completely understand how I am feeling and what I go through.

I think my main issue with this ocd is wanting to ensure everyone is safe and that no harm comes to anyone, especially as a result of anything I do or say.

This seems to be evident in the ocd symptoms I display, i.e. checking - for safety

washing - to stop contamination etc

I would be interested to hear more about how others with similar ocd issues as myself actually deal with the ocd symptoms.

thanks :mad:

much appreciated!

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Hi peaceful,

I love your name - so optimistic :( .

I used to be the same when out - would watch the pavements very carefully to make sure I did not tread on anything - even a dried mark. Many's the pair of shoes that ended in the bin because it was easier than trying to decontaminate them.

I used to buy another pair of identical boots so Tony wouldn't realise they were replacements - not that he'd mind but I didn't want him to know about all the money I was wasting!!! :( .

I used not be able to cross a grass verge even just to get in the car, but recently I went on a country walk with my friend and we got very muddy boots - and I even went into a coffee shop place with my boots still on (I had got the worst off; I do a good scuffing walk that gets rid of dirt from the bottom of my shoes!!!) but this is something that until recently would have been impossible.

I also used to do the driving thing - only when I was driving - I had faith in my husband's driving.....but those times are few and far between now (though i do have a good look in the rear-view mirror if I've passed a walker or cyclist).

Both the improvements have crept on me........I just realised that I was able to do things which would have made be hysterical before, yet I didn't specifically set out to face these particular fears.

I think it's a combination of the meds I'm on, all the exposure and 'talking' type therapy I've done over the past couple of years plus time which has made for these changes.

but I feel discouraged that the most I can hope for is to manage the ocd rather than be cured of it

Try not to worry that you may never be cured, I still have quite a few OCD fears - some I face, some I give into.....but generally my life is manageable and much happier and more relaxed.

I don't expect to ever completely be OCD free - but little by little I am finding I can do more without feeling that constant anxiety and/or resorting to rituals.

Hopefully this will happen to you - as your meds kick in (I had to have a few trials before I found one to suit me) and as the therapy gradually works on the thoughts, you will find yourself being less stressed and able to live a normal life without all that anxiety.

HTH and isn't just waffly :mad: .

Take care

whitebeam

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(though i do have a good look in the rear-view mirror if I've passed a walker or cyclist).

Same here :blushing: It's not as 'bad' for me as my other OCD stuff though (not to say that driving OCD is any better than any other type, just that for me it's less severe and anxiety-inducing).

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I like reading whitebeam's posts. :blushing: It always gives me hope. I too am not setting out to overcome particular fears and am just dealing with them as and when they arise. For me the scary part is once I make things dirty there's no going back and that is my real fear as I will have let the outside world into my home environment. So far my therapist has not been great at helping that. I'm not sure he knows where to start and he was off sick on friday so that was that.

When I'm overcoming something I just try and say to myself, " I know this feels awful but it's better to do it now than to have it get even worse, because you know it will if you continue the way you're going and you can't do all these things as you get older as you won't be able to physically and how would you ever cope if you broke your arm or had to have an operation and couldn't do your cleaning and washing, then you'd have to face up to not just the ocd anxiety but also you'd be feeling awful as you'd be physically ill. You know you'll have to do it sooner or later so best to do it sooner so that you can enjoy what life you've got left"

This is what I tell myself. I may have to do what Ashie did and just go around making everything dirty as my ocd only comes into play with my own environment. If I'm going to someone else's house tredding on litter etc. isn't a problem, getting on public transport isn't a problem. I can get shopping without thinking about the conveyer belts, the baskets and all the products I'm getting but if I have to bring anything back to the house it's a different story so maybe my ocd is slightly different to everyone else's so I don't know if what I say to myself that I wrote above will be of any help to you, but I hope so.

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