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Can’t break patterns


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Hi guys. 
 

so I’m a bit confused as to how I’m going to break these patterns. There are behaviours that I genuinely am struggling to break and it’s just annoying at this point. To give you an example of some of the learned behaviours:

- the toilet is next to the sink. When I’m washing my hands, more often than not I feel as if water is splashing off the toilet and onto me. Or that my shorts cord is touching the toilet. Or my arm is too low and is near the toilet. 
To be honest, there are more and it just frustrates me to even list them. I seem to have a problem not getting urine on me when I’m going for a wee. Whether it’s splashes onto my legs or wet laps, I’m then constantly in fear of getting urine on anything. And most of the time, it’s not even fear or danger but disgust. It’s doing my head in because I’m hating this and the best thing would probably be just to not care but I can’t break it. I really struggle to break the cycle. Any advice would be wonderful. 

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Hi BigDave,

Sorry you are cursed with these thoughts, I have fears of feeling dirty too. The only way I can ease my anxieties is wearing gloves a lot of the time. As a female it’s hard to relate to you on the going to the toilet standing up, but does sitting instead help matters? Can you keep the toilet seat down when you flush? And not make eye contact with the toilet Once you’ve peeed so you can almost move on from it.


when I was well enough to work, and used public toilets I used to squat over the toilet but always felt dirty so showered once I got home and put on fresh clothes, in my head I just accepted that I was dirty during the day and clean once I got home. 
nowadays it’s more the hand washing and surfaces which I have to clean lots for me to feel clean.

I really hope that your mind can ease from all these thoughts, it can’t be easy.

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Maybe it would help to do some cognitive work on the revulsion you feel.

Look at how the world works with regard to urine. Why doesn't anyone in general have these fears and yet they are able to live fine without constantly cleaning washing  and worrying? Most of us likely take reasonable care, and after that forget it. Same with other themes of OCD.

What is urine? It is the waste product from our body. It is easily cleaned away and will wash out in the washing machine. 

The way to break the pattern is to draw up a hierarchy of triggers around your concerns with urine. Then, working from the least anxiety-inducing, start exposure and response prevention sessions by sitting in the situation and refusing to respond with a compulsion.

Concurrently, gradually widen the time between intrusion and carrying out the compulsion.

Working through this will take time, and you will have setbacks. But that's  OK, gradually you should start to break the cycle.

 

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