daja Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 I have a fear of where my old phone batteries have been as if trace elements remain and I fear washing with soap and water doesn’t make me feel any better about it. I guess some batteries have lithium (?) in and some people take it as a medicine (?) but don’t know about other stuff in the batteries. Just had to vent as I have been suffering in silence on this particular fear for a while now. *brain lock* Link to comment
Guest OCDhavenobrain Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 (edited) I don't know if your batteries are having nasty things inside them like cadmium or anything and it is not that important to know. That's the problem, you can't know and you want to know. Edited March 12, 2020 by OCDhavenobrain Link to comment
dksea Posted March 13, 2020 Share Posted March 13, 2020 14 hours ago, daja said: I have a fear of where my old phone batteries have been as if trace elements remain and I fear washing with soap and water doesn’t make me feel any better about it. I guess some batteries have lithium (?) in and some people take it as a medicine (?) but don’t know about other stuff in the batteries. Just had to vent as I have been suffering in silence on this particular fear for a while now. The most direct way to deal with this would be to intentionally touch the places where the batteries have been and do nothing about it. Set it up as an ERP exercise. Set time limits and such if you need to, but directly confronting this anxiety is the quickest way to move past it. Like all OCD fears, treat it as irrational and unimportant (because it is) and do your best to go about your life in spite of the anxiety. The less you try and fight the anxiety and resolve it with compulsions, the better. Link to comment
daja Posted March 13, 2020 Author Share Posted March 13, 2020 Thanks both of you. I will try and fight it. Link to comment
Andrea Posted March 14, 2020 Share Posted March 14, 2020 I agree with dksea. Treat your fear of batteries as irrational. People don't worry about the components of batteries and nothing bad has happened to them Link to comment
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