Jump to content

OCD about touching things that are not mine.


Recommended Posts

I am developing an ocd and I need help. If I can get advice id be really appreciative.  Ok so I think it all started when me and my family were eating BBQ Chicken and corn on the cobb. With bbq chicken you get bbq grease on your hand and with corn on the cobb you get butter on your hand. So my hands were feeling really greasy so I go to wash them. My family didn't have anything on their hands and did not wash their hands. I said to them to wash their hands and they all said they were clean. So I started thinking its not possible that they are clean. They then started to pet our cats and touch things around the house. I started to think that there is no way they are not getting grease on things. Sure enough, as soon as I thought that the door handles and things around the house started feeling greasy to me.

So now I begin washing my hands, all the time. If I touch something like a door knob I feel like I have grease on my hand and need to wash it. It got worse and worse and now I have to wash my hands like 10 times. Then it got to the point where I started using paper towel to touch the door knob every time I needed to leave the house. If I go to leave and accidently touch the knob I have to go back In to wash because I don't want to transfer the grease from my hand to my car. My family isn't dirty and its just 100% my issue but I don't know how to stop this. I feel bad acting like this because they are the normal ones and I feel like I am acting like they have coodies. I don't think they are dirty they are normal.

It started at my house but has since gone into all public things. I think of what people touch and get grossed out. If I touch a gas pump it feels like I was exposed to toxic waste in my mind, I have to wash my hands like 25 times. Say I order fast food and touch the greasy bag. I am afraid the grease from the bag will touch my seat and then my hand touches the wheel. I then have to wash everything in my car. If I have to go into a store or gas station I try to wear long sleeves so that I can pull it over my hand and not touch the door, otherwise I have to wash my hands. Its gotten to the point where I am worried about little tiny crumbs because I think that the food residue will get on my stuff.

I notice no one else worries about this. I used to be fine and got by just fine. Now I cant help notice these things. Its like if you look at 85% of peoples phones and see the greasy nasty screens, that's what im talking about. My screen is clean and everyone elses is greasy. That's how I know there is something to this. I just took my car in to the shop and the thought of a dirty mechanic touching my car w oil all over his hands is giving me ocd. So this is my story. I need help. It is over the top but does it make sense alittle to some people, or am I just going nuts with OCD? Any help that can get me to not care again would be greatly appreciated. 

Link to comment

No, there is nothing to this. Your mind is convincing you there is, but it is lying.

It is perfectly normal to have a slightly greasy, fingerprint covered phone screen. That's normal. It is perfectly normal to touch doorknobs and other things with not perfectly clean hands.

You are reacting to danger that does not exist. All of your extra washing and not touching things is pointless.

The good news is you can undo all of this. Have you heard of CBT?

Link to comment
52 minutes ago, PolarBear said:

No, there is nothing to this. Your mind is convincing you there is, but it is lying.

It is perfectly normal to have a slightly greasy, fingerprint covered phone screen. That's normal. It is perfectly normal to touch doorknobs and other things with not perfectly clean hands.

You are reacting to danger that does not exist. All of your extra washing and not touching things is pointless.

The good news is you can undo all of this. Have you heard of CBT?

it doesn't feel normal to me. I don't want to get grease all over my stuff. I have heard of Cbt but I wouldn't even know where to begin. 

Link to comment

I know it doesn't feel normal to you. Take a look around you. Does everyone else act like you? Of course not. No one cares.

The difference is you have OCD. Your mind has honed in on greasy things as being a huge problem. You believed that and started doing rituals to fix the problem. Those rituals are compulsions.

You think you need to do the compulsions to fix these problems. But, there never was a problem to begin with. It's literally all in your mind. And, every time you do a compulsion, you reinforce in your mind that the problem is real, even though it's not.

Have you talked to a doctor or mental health professional about this?

Link to comment
1 hour ago, Help for my ocd said:

I need help. It is over the top but does it make sense alittle to some people, or am I just going nuts with OCD? 

It does make sense,  obviously as I guess you realise, this is an OCD compulsion, I would never say anybody's obsessions and worries are going nuts because to them, and this to you, feels very real, it feels like the over-powering urge to do the compulsion will make the uneasy feeling of anxiety will ease.

 

2 hours ago, Help for my ocd said:

Any help that can get me to not care again would be greatly appreciated. 

The 'not caring' is the hard part, and as Polarbear mentions, this is where we promote CBT as the treatment of choice for OCD. It won't get rid of the intrusive thoughts, but it will help you feel differently... and when that happens the frequency of the thoughts dissipates. 

Good luck :)

Link to comment
19 minutes ago, Help for my ocd said:

it doesn't feel normal to me. I don't want to get grease all over my stuff. I have heard of Cbt but I wouldn't even know where to begin. 

 

This is where the CBT will help you explore the significance of the grease to your fears and ultimately what it would mean if you do get 'grease' on your belongings.  I had contamination OCD and as I made progress working towards recovery I found observing other people (without OCD0 helped guide me to a range of 'normal', pretty much as Polarbear mentions. 

To access CBT, in the UK you would need to speak to your GP and request a referral. 

 

 

Link to comment

I'm guessing from the reference to coodies, that you are in the US?, It was fleas, in my neck of the woods, later on it was the"lurgi"

I can't give any advice on accessing CBT over there, I can point you to the usual books, "mindlock"  and "break free from OCD".

And can say you are not alone and all of us on here understand how you are feeling, no matter what we obsess over contamination, relationships, checking, ruminating.

We all know that awful feeling that we can't be sure some thing is "right", the feeling that what ever we do is not enough.

That "I'll do it one more time to be on the safe side"

We have all been there, and some of us are still there!

 

Link to comment

Sorry to hear this HelpformyOCD- it must feel like things are deteriorating and getting out of control at the moment. However it's good that in the recent past you could do all these things in normal ways- so you do remember what it felt like to just get on and get by. 

I have contamination OCD and it sounds a bit silly but one thing that I find helps is to think 'So what!' when I feel a feeling of disgust and discomfort re. things being visibly dirty or sticky. If my answer to that is something like 'I might get ill from this' then I just think 'Well I'll wait and see, it's very unlikely I'll get ill'. It doesn't work in all situations but weirdly it does for a lot of more minor situations. I have a long history of contamination OCD and it's quite extreme but this simple self-talk does seem to help, particularly in situations where I am more disgusted and uncomfortable (e.g. if something looks sticky or has finger prints on) rather than terrified that something has bacteria/viruses on it.

Link to comment
16 hours ago, Closed for repairs said:

I'm guessing from the reference to coodies, that you are in the US?, It was fleas, in my neck of the woods, later on it was the"lurgi"

Yeah, cooties/coodies is definitely a term you'll hear growing up in the US (possibly elsewhere) and typically is used to refer to some kind of imaginary bug.

There's also a kids game related to it where you roll dice to build an ant-like "Cootie" creature. First to finish their creature wins.  Its purely based on luck, so its actually a pretty terrible game, but kids enjoy it.

Link to comment

@Help for my ocd - Welcome to the forums, sorry to hear you are struggling.  Some great advice in the posts above, so I definitely recommend reading them thoroughly.
Living with OCD can be overwhelming and scary.  Its a good sign that you recognize that your behavior is not normal, that will help you in recovery.  
I know it feels to you like these situations are serious, like you MUST wash your hands each time, etc.  Its hard to deal with at first, but you can change things.OCD is sending you false warnings, unfortunately they feel just like real warnings, which makes them hard to ignore.  But you can learn how to do just that, and over time your brain will adjust to it and become closer and closer to how "normal" people act.

You have made an important first step by reaching out for help.  There is a lot of advice and information we can give you on OCD, but the best option is to get a professional diagnosis from a qualified mental health professional in your country/area.  If you are young, asking your parents for help would be another good step to take as well.  Recovery takes time, but the sooner you start, the sooner things can begin to improve.  You are not alone, you are not "crazy", and there is hope.  Hang in there!

Link to comment
5 hours ago, dksea said:

There's also a kids game related to it where you roll dice to build an ant-like "Cootie" creature. First to finish their creature wins.  Its purely based on luck, so its actually a pretty terrible game, but kids enjoy it.

It's called a beetle drive over here, used to be very popular social activity, (for grown ups!)

Pre universal TV, we played it a bit like bingo, it's one of those things that's fun if there's lots of you and everyone is into it.

It was one of the big charity fund raisers, along with jumble sales, many a village hall has been maintained with beetle drives!

Link to comment
16 hours ago, Closed for repairs said:

It's called a beetle drive over here, used to be very popular social activity, (for grown ups!)

Pre universal TV, we played it a bit like bingo, it's one of those things that's fun if there's lots of you and everyone is into it.

It was one of the big charity fund raisers, along with jumble sales, many a village hall has been maintained with beetle drives!

Wow! I had no idea it was as old as that!  I just finished reading the Wikipedia entry on Beetle/Beetle Drives, so cool!

Link to comment

Thank you guys for replying. I am going to try some things. Just having you guys reply and realizing that this is not normal behavior  has helped already. I obviously already knew it wasn't, but just hearing it from other people has helped. Other people live their lives and don't go crazy washing, I don't have to either. I have tried to reduce my washing from a infinite amount of times down to just a few. From there I will try to get a few times down to just one time. I have all ready started to feel more normal just washing a few times. I got my car back from my mechanic and only cleaned up my car for about 10 minutes as opposed to probably 30 minutes. I didn't feel like it was really dirty like I normally would. So I am going to keep working on things. Thanks guys.

Link to comment
On 09/02/2020 at 15:17, PolarBear said:

Perfect. But keep pushing yourself. Do you know what the average cleaning time is after visiting a mechanic? None. There's your goal.

I know. I just picture their greasy hands touching my stuff and it irks me. I will work on getting it down. I can feel the grease on my hands. its going to take some time to get completely over it

Link to comment

And you know who else doesn't like getting greasy prints on stuff, decent mechanics, they don't want customers moaning and they haven't got time to be cleaning stuff all the time, so they are careful about making stuff dirty!

However obviously if you do a CSI style check you will find all sorts of grot, and the answer is ..?

Get in your car and drive off, as long as it's not on fire don't worry about it.

 

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...