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OCD and Coronavirus


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I'm doing much the same Orwell, maybe a bit less than you, but I do live with an extremely vulnerable person. It doesn't feel like ocd because I'm calm about it, I'm not ruminating, not repeating/checking or waking up at night worrying etc. 

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6 minutes ago, Wren said:

I'm doing much the same Orwell, maybe a bit less than you, but I do live with an extremely vulnerable person. It doesn't feel like ocd because I'm calm about it, I'm not ruminating, not repeating/checking or waking up at night worrying etc. 

Yeah, I only wash the outside things whenever someone has touched them, like  the binmen or postmen. So this would be once a week, or twice if I have had more than one delivery of post. They’re still delivering junk mail ?

Edited by Orwell1984
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19 minutes ago, Orwell1984 said:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-list-of-guidance

“4. Clean and disinfect regularly touched objects and surfaces using your regular cleaning products to reduce the risk of passing the infection on to other people.”

I’ve interpreted the above as having to disinfect door handles, front door knocker, doorbell, key hole, letterbox, all post, parcels, shopping items, switches, kitchen surfaces, remote controls, taps, wheelie bin handles (for the binmen) and again plus the lids when they’re done (for myself).

But the problem is I fear your OCD is interpreting. In my view cleaning most of those is OCD talking. 

 

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5 minutes ago, Ashley said:

But the problem is I fear your OCD is interpreting. In my view cleaning most of those is OCD talking. 

 

How do you interpret that particular government instruction? What do you disinfect/ not disinfect? 

7 minutes ago, Ashley said:

No.

Yeah, I don’t avoid my face either when at home. 

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16 minutes ago, Orwell1984 said:

How do you interpret that particular government instruction? What do you disinfect/ not disinfect? 

I'm afraid the list of items you're cleaning is not 'government instruction', I think some of those are your OCD interpretation.

Like I say, you need to do what you feel comfortable with, but please take a few days to think about this and ask yourself what others are doing. This may help differentiate recommended to OCD.

Night Orwell.

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4 hours ago, taurean said:

My yardstick is what the experts are telling us we do need to do - that's good enough for me, and it does give us a yardstick to follow. 

Which experts though?

I hear France has banned running during certain hours. Something to do with sweat, exhalation and transmission to others, I think?

Here though, it seems perfectly okay to blow plumes of smoke and vape in the supermarket queuing systems, without any regard for all those downwind, before it dissipates into the air!

I am not sure if this is OCD or not, because it has not really crossed my mind before, but I felt so strongly having witnessed this that I have raised this with Tesco and my local paper, but whether it will do any good, because I've not heard back.

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4 hours ago, Lost_in_a_Dark_Maze said:

I thought the government was telling people to regularly wipe down surfaces like door handles though?

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you probably read it in the letter that was sent out in the post over the past week

Edited by Orwell1984
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1 hour ago, felix4 said:

Here though, it seems perfectly okay to blow plumes of smoke and vape in the supermarket queuing systems, without any regard for all those downwind, before it dissipates into the air!

This makes me wonder too, because when you smell vapour, you are smelling/breathing the contents of the smoker’s recently exhaled lungs. I suppose if you are 6ft away from the smoker, the concentration of potential virus will have dissipated in the outside air to an extent where it’s not as infectious? I hope so anyway.

Edited by Orwell1984
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I am pleased to report that I walked across the office this morning with my phone in my jeans pocket, so thank you for your help guys.  I kind of knew really, but sometimes a little help clearing the fog of OCD from our eyes is needed.

:thankyousign:

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Lets bring this thread back onto the OCD discussion, and what I think I am seeing from some of the people I work with is perhaps using government advice as an excuse to engage in clear OCD rituals.

I realise I shouldn't try and persuade anybody to not engage in those rituals at the moment, but I do think as a recovery focused charity we should a) highlight when this is perhaps happening and b) help others who are trying to stay recovery focused remain there.

There is advice to 'clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces and objects such as taps and handles', but, we must not allow OCD to take advantage of this.

Somewhat unhelpfully for us that doesn't say what objects (other than taps and handles) or how frequently and that's where OCD will grab hold.  Some people will be doing this once a day, others maybe only after somebody as been out. In my case, not at all.  Remember, the longer people have remained isolated, the less the chances of them being infected becomes, and the less this is needed, especially if the household are washing their hands as guided. If you live alone like me, you are unlikely to need to do this (unless been out). 

It's a grey area so be mindful of OCD grabbing hold. Asking someone without contamination OCD what they do is helpful, that's not reassurance. If you know OCD is grabbing hold and you can't prevent it at the moment, be kind to yourself, be compassionate and don't feel guilty, but just reflect honestly on the problem and we can deal with that later. 

 

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I agree Ashley :) I also think it's important to recognise that even if the cleaning you're doing appears to be having no detrimental affect on your mental health right now, it is possible that behaviours you are doing now are buying into beliefs that will fuel separate OCD issues. For example, if you take on too much responsibility, become risk sensitive, over research and begin to view the world and others as dangerous or uncaring (which is possible when you see people ignoring government guidance). All of these issues can leave you vulnerable to OCD in the future, so always factor in your mental health when looking after your physical. 

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22 hours ago, Ashley said:

I had seen something a week or so back that suggested wiping commonly touched areas like door handles once a day, but I can't find it now and not sure if that was for everyone or just high risk households.

I live alone so haven't bothered doing that. 

I'm hearing a lot of mixed messages and feeling confused about what is OCD and what isn't at the moment.

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16 minutes ago, Lost_in_a_Dark_Maze said:

I'm hearing a lot of mixed messages and feeling confused about what is OCD and what isn't at the moment.

It's hard Lost, as you saw yesterday I wasn't completely sure myself.

Anything you want us to help you clarify?

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8 hours ago, Gemma7 said:

 I also think it's important to recognise that even if the cleaning you're doing appears to be having no detrimental affect on your mental health right now, it is possible that behaviours you are doing now are buying into beliefs that will fuel separate OCD issues. For example, if you take on too much responsibility, become risk sensitive, over research and begin to view the world and others as dangerous or uncaring (which is possible when you see people ignoring government guidance). All of these issues can leave you vulnerable to OCD in the future, so always factor in your mental health when looking after your physical. 

Well said, Gemma. :clapping: 

I've noticed a few people here describing excessive cleaning because of hyper-responsibilty fears. It's not just those with contamination OCD who are at risk of things getting out of hand. 

Overcoming OCD can be like running a treadmill at times - going flat out just to stand still and avoid slipping backwards. Being aware (and honest with yourself) about what is likely to be OCD thinking at work will make it easier to pick up the recovery pace again after things get back to normal.

It's tempting to offload the responsibility for excessive cleaning on government guidelines, but where OCD comes in is through interpretation of the idea of 'needs to be done'. Before any of us try to justify our behaviour simply as 'what everbody has been advised to do' it's worth remembering you're interpreting the advice according to your current OCD beliefs. 

A lot of people who supposedly don't have OCD are currently engaging in antiviral cleaning behaviour fuelled by  thoughts of excessive risk perception and feelings of anxiety in exactly the same way as OCD sufferers. I'm interested to see if they will find it easy to switch off and go back to normal after this or if some of their OCD thinking and behaviour will remain. 

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57 minutes ago, Ashley said:

It's hard Lost, as you saw yesterday I wasn't completely sure myself.

Anything you want us to help you clarify?

Thanks Ashley, and thank you to Snowbear who has been giving me a lot of support lately when I've been panicking.

I feel like when it's people's lives at risk, if I'm in doubt I should assume it's not OCD. Some of it I know is irrational, like when I thought maybe I should kill myself to prevent getting the virus and spreading it, but when it comes to whether I should go out for a walk, I'm not sure. My support workers keep trying to persuade me to get some fresh air, but then I read someone saying it's selfish to go anywhere if it's not 100% necessary and my mum thinks I should stay in.

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I’m not sure what excessive risk perception is. Data reveals that risk is related to ethnicity, class, preexisting conditions, sex and age.  Cities are more risky than the countryside.  Figures in the UK and US reveal that risk is related to ethnicity and probably social class. It is easier to work at home if you are middle class but factory and warehouse workers cannot do this. The  emerging statistics in London, Detroit, New York reveal this fact and whether you live such as overcrowded conditions affect risk. Poor housing conditions affect risk. Whether you have medical insurance. The greatest risk according to the Alzheimer’s Charity is living in a care home. This is an emerging international finding. The international figures reveal that men are at a much greater risk of death than women. The XX/XY distinction has employed to explain this. Risk is to do with probability and the probability of bad things happening not only depend on one’s individual choices but the collective experiences of communities.

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  • 1 month later...

I thought I was mostly doing ok. I just had a blip, the Royal Mail collect the charity's mail at 5pm each day, and postie asked me for a pen which I passed to him... hands didn't touch but in my OCD head I was like 'urggh' and I went and washed my hands tice in the last 5 minutes.  Only 20 seconds both times, but I don't think either were needed (and I threw the cheap biro away).  Blip, dust myself down and don't let the blip beat me up.

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