Christmas Tree Decorations Contamination.

[O Neg]

Yes it's me again with another contamination issue.

This afternoon, my wife and I were putting up the Christmas tree. This should be one of the most joyous things we do in the long calendar of the year. However, since about mid-October my OCD has been running wild with the contamination issue which I have. My intrusive thoughts are of me contaminating things using bodily fluids. On this occasion by wiping Christmas tree decorations between my bum cheeks. 

These decorations my wife and I have collected together over 34 years of marriage and are very dear to us. This is what makes the intrusive thoughts very upsetting. I went into the front room, where the tree is and I find it difficult to even look at it despite its beauty. My wife tells me that my thoughts are telling me lies and that I wouldn't do such a thing. I am very down about this and don't exactly know what I can do. Will I ever look at the decorations in the same way again. At the moment, I don't believe I will ever enjoy another Christmas; a season which I used to look forward to every single year. I  feel very low, but I know that my thoughts are just that, but due to lack of sleep, my over-tired OCD brain is not able to ignore these distressing thoughts.

[Handy]

You should rest & don’t react 

Also it’s better to add to your previous topics so we know what advice you already got. 

[O Neg]

Thanks Handy. Because OCD tends to target what is dear to us, it is difficult not to react. We are all emotional humans.

[Closed for repairs]

Hello O Neg,

sorry to hear you are still struggling.

Strikes me that whilst your obsessions are about contamination, at least some of your compulsions are to do with confession.

You tell your wife, then come on here and tell us....

( Lots of us do this, I know I have).

Your OCD is bullying you, making you admit humiliating things.

Your  Christmas  decorations obviously mean a lot to you and your family.

Don't forget that they love you more, I've joked before that your wife must be a saint.

But when you tell us that your family helps you to check crisps for contamination, and understands when you tell them where you think you have put the decorations, it shows how much they love you. I think that together you can have a happy Christmas. Even if some of it is little “unusual”

 

Edited December 8, 2019 by Closed for repairs
Im an idiot

[PolarBear]

The problem here is not that you have thoughts that you rubbed decorations on your bum crack. People get crazy thoughts on a regular basis. The problem is that you reacted, badly, to the thoughts. 

Saying you are human is a bit of a cop out. Sorry, but if 98% of the world's population got the same thought, they'd laugh at it or completely ignore it. They are human too but they handle the same thoughts in a healthy way. You don't. 

As for every sufferer, this is all on you. Over time you have trained yourself to take seriously these ridiculous thoughts and to react badly to them... freaking out and doing compulsions like not looking at the tree. Then you make it even worse by saying things like, I'll never have a good Christmas.

Change how you react and things will get better.

[O Neg]

Hello All,

Here is another variation on the same theme. This afternoon, my long suffering wife asked me if I would put the transparent snow flakes on our french doors making them look a little more seasonal. So I started to do this. It wasn't long before I came across a snowflake which had some kind of brownish contamination on a small portion of it. Oh dear, this where OCD makes its entrance. I know I have not contaminated it, well not on purpose anyway. My wife had her own theories which sound a lot more plausible than my own self-contamination ideas. 

She took the snowflake, washed it, stuck it back on the french doors and said 'there, washed, gone, finished over and done with.' I wish I was as practical as my good wife. 

Its not so bad accepting a similar intrusive thought, but when there is visual evidence as well. or is if FEAR? False Evidence Appearing Real?

[PolarBear]

What about it? First thing you need to do is stop calling things contamination. I'm quite sure it wasn't a smear of the Ebola virus or nuclear waste.

You saw something and your mind injected an intrusive thought. You could have chosen to ignore it.

[O Neg]

Quite Right PB.

On a brighter note, I have managed to cut down my compulsions recently. I have also managed to claim some of my independence back regarding preparation of food etc. I was inspired by your post - 

Overcoming OCD is a lot more straightforward than people realise.  It isn't easy, but it is relatively simple.
Reduce/eliminate compulsions.
Force yourself to ride out the anxiety.
Avoid engaging with the unwanted thoughts.
Go about your day.

CBT can give you some structure in how to handle this with activities, approaches, etc. but the core is all the same.  The key is persistence.  You just have to keep doing the good behaviours and avoiding the bad behaviours, retraining your brain how to respond properly to these unwanted but ultimately unimportant intrusive thoughts. 

Edited December 15, 2019 by O Neg
Spelling

[paradoxer]

Wow, the new O Neg. That reference to straightforwardness, or the step to beating the disorder being far more accessible than one often realizes, is true. 

OCD will do its utmost to camouflage it. 

  

[helen10937]

Lol