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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.

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Millions of people by, use and eat the same eggs. It's no big deal to them. Try looking at it that the egg isn't contaminated with feces, but rather your mind is telling you they're contaminated. Big difference because, as it turns out, our minds can and do lie to us.

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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.

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On 14/08/2018 at 08:02, paradoxer said:

Don K - with OCD 'it ain't one thing ...' 

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

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Hi Don,

I have the same problem! In the past I decided that eggs were OK because they're from salmonella vaccinated hens but then I read about campylobacter and now feel more concerned about them. If I had to cook eggs these days I would wear gloves, whereas five years ago I could have managed it without! Yet my family have always prepared food with eggs in and have never had campylobacter and in the past when I prepared eggs I was always fine!

With bacterial infections you have to consume a certain amount of contaminated stuff in order to contract food poisoning- for example I have been shat on by pigeons on two occasions and got it all over my hair but not contracted campylobacter! If your wife touched the eggs with a little dried up chicken **** on them and then touched clothes, it's very unlikely that you would then spread it from her hands to the clothes to your mouth in sufficient quantity to make you ill. Also much of the time our immune systems deal with/prevent these infections and still other times we can have infections like campylobacter without any symptoms. 

 

Edited by BelAnna
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Hi Belanna & Cookiemonster, thanks for your repies.

18 hours ago, BelAnna said:

it's very unlikely that you would then spread it from her hands to the clothes to your mouth in sufficient quantity to make you ill.

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 :wink:.  Great name though!

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On 15/08/2018 at 10:17, Don K said:

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

In a way, OCD's fickle nature can be your ally - it reveals the disorder for the fraudster it is. 

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19 hours ago, Don K said:

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 :wink:.  Great name though!

Oh yeah that makes sense- disgust definitely plays a part in my contamination ocd too but it does sound different. Sorry for assuming your OCD was exactly the same as mine. I don't like it when people say "You won't die" because I'm scared of vomiting, not dying lol so I can imagine that me assuming you were afraid of becoming unwell/contracting an infection was similarly annoying!

I guess it's a case of sitting with the feeling of discomfort, disgust and the assoc. distress and realising that we obsess about things becoming contaminated but really everything has bacteria on it and that's just how the world works- there's no way of knowing whether your wife's hands already had lots of bacteria strains on them even before she touched the eggs etc. 

Did I typo 'Campylobster' lol Campylobacter! 

 

Edited by BelAnna
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On 17/08/2018 at 00:08, paradoxer said:

In a way, OCD's fickle nature can be your ally - it reveals the disorder for the fraudster it is. 

Hmm interesting way to think about it.  I'll keep this in mind.  Have you found this way of thinking has helped you Paradoxer?

 

On 17/08/2018 at 13:08, BelAnna said:

I can imagine that me assuming you were afraid of becoming unwell/contracting an infection was similarly annoying!

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.

 

On 17/08/2018 at 13:08, BelAnna said:

I guess it's a case of sitting with the feeling of discomfort

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?

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5 hours ago, Don K said:

Hmm interesting way to think about it.  I'll keep this in mind.  Have you found this way of thinking has helped you Paradoxer?

Yes, Don, very much so. It's not a 'cure-all' by any means, but (I think) a big part of tackling OCD. Its ability, or tendency, to come up with something else, again and again, only to be replaced by something more 'important', reveals its true nature - a time-waster. Nothing one should really be cowed by.  

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