Parcels full of clothes dumped on pavement...

[BelAnna]

Our washing machine has been broken now for two weeks.

I've really struggled during this time because I would usually change a lot (e.g. wear 3-4 tops each day) and I find it really difficult washing my clothes by hand several times each day (on the plus side I am now a bit less worried about my clothes being too unhygienic to touch without gloves on). 

Anyway, I ordered some new clothes, partly for a holiday, partly so that I could try to wear the clothes without washing them (which I've never done before) as I have hardly anything to wear and cannot stay on top of my washing. 

They were delivered earlier and I just checked the delivery photo and they were delivered to the middle of our road- they were placed halfway in the road, halfway on to the pavement. Apparently my Dad was on his way out so just let the delivery driver put my parcels on the road/pavement. People tread dog's poo/vomit/other yucky things all along the pavement and at a guess, my Dad must have lifted them up to put them on the door step before leaving. We have been handling parcels with gloves on since the start the pandemic so the thought of him handling them bare handed and then not washing his hands is even worse. 

Would this bother people without contamination OCD? I am so annoyed with the delivery driver and my Dad and upset that I've wasted lots of money on clothes that I can't use.

[Lollipop]

No I don't think this would both people without contamination OCD. 

Why can't you use them if they are in a package? 

[Caramoole]

No it wouldn't bother them at all.  Try to resist taking any action as best you can.  You have to keep upping the work on these exposures/compulsions

[PolarBear]

Of course you can use the clothes. Your mind is telling you that you can't but it's lying. As always.

When are you going to start cutting back on your compulsions?

[iamwesker]

it wouldn't affect my day or it would not stop me using the clothes at all  in fact i would wear them immediately because i love ordering new clothes! i wouldn't even think about it

just your OCD 

Edited September 7, 2021 by iamwesker

[olb]

If they are in a bag can you tear it open and drop the contents on a clean surface (I expect the items inside also have their own bags) then throw away the outer package and wash your hands before opening the clean inside bags? 

[Keyboard Worrier]

I agree with the others, it's only the outer packaging that's potentially contaminated.  The clothes inside are no different to any other delivery.  I think some non-OCD people would be a bit bothered by placing a package in the road, especially if it was wet at the time.  Though your reaction is excessive due to the OCD.

I had something similar a few weeks ago.  My parcel was delivered to the wrong house.  It was left under a bush near a dustbin on the delivery photo, and either left there, or brought into someone else's house for 4 days before it eventually reached me.  I'm always 'wary' of parcels with regards to contamination (only put them in certain places and always wash hands between opening and touching contents) but within what I'd consider manageable levels, but this one really set me off unfortunately.  I did eventually manage to accept that I have no idea where any parcels have been on their journey between the seller and myself though!!

[thistooshallpass1996]

@BelAnna it wouldn’t really bother me unless I knew for a fact it landed in any of those things. If I didn’t know it definitely had, I’d just ignore it. End of the day, the actual clothes weren’t on the floor. 

and obviously if it had been dropped in any of those things then it’s damaged goods. I deal with these claims all the time at work and you’d be entitled to ring the company you bought from and get a replacement/refund. It’s the courier’s fault and it’ll be put down as an unsafe delivery. 
 

I did wear a black top the other day though before washing it and when I took it off my arms looked dirty cos of the black dye. I just wiped it and that was it. It didn’t kill me

[BelAnna]

Thanks so much everyone! (Hopefully) Our washing machine is now going to be fixed tomorrow so that I can machine wash the new clothes. 

Now I'm just worrying about the Washing machine engineer and a separate British Gas engineer coming tomorrow and all of the contamination fears that that brings up! I spend so much of my life worrying about silly things  .

[thistooshallpass1996]

1 hour ago, BelAnna said:

Thanks so much everyone! (Hopefully) Our washing machine is now going to be fixed tomorrow so that I can machine wash the new clothes. 

Now I'm just worrying about the Washing machine engineer and a separate British Gas engineer coming tomorrow and all of the contamination fears that that brings up! I spend so much of my life worrying about silly things  .

I know it’s easy to worry rather than ignore it, but the fact they’re coming to sort your washer out is a good thing! Clean clothes again! 

Just let the men do their job and try not to overthink things they probably install hundreds a month and this is good exposure if you struggle with contamination. @BelAnna

[Caramoole]

Come on Belana....you have to try and face these challenges & resist these compulsions.  I know it's OCD that makes you doubt but you know enough about it without me telling you.  The clothes do not need washing at all.....even if a dog had pee-ed over the outside package.  

I know things are challenging at the moment with the move but ultimately, one day you have to make a real decision to properly challenge these false fears & work through the anxiety.  You're still a very young woman, don't let OCD take another decade from you

[Angst]

Hi Belanna

I agree with the others. I speak as a man still concerned with COVID contamination. The clothes were encased so no need to wash them. 

[BelAnna]

On 09/09/2021 at 16:02, thistooshallpass1996 said:

I know it’s easy to worry rather than ignore it, but the fact they’re coming to sort your washer out is a good thing! Clean clothes again! 

Just let the men do their job and try not to overthink things they probably install hundreds a month and this is good exposure if you struggle with contamination. @BelAnna

Thank you Thistooshallpass! I was really anxious yesterday but it's such a relief that the washing machine is now working after two weeks without it and longer with it barely functioning! I couldn't be in the house yesterday so did a CBT task of visiting a local national trust place (I am quite restricted to the house) whilst the workmen were here. I did engage in some compulsions afterwards but managed to avoid completing one of them. 

I hope you are coping okay this weekend?

On 09/09/2021 at 16:48, Caramoole said:

Come on Belana....you have to try and face these challenges & resist these compulsions.  I know it's OCD that makes you doubt but you know enough about it without me telling you.  The clothes do not need washing at all.....even if a dog had pee-ed over the outside package.  

I know things are challenging at the moment with the move but ultimately, one day you have to make a real decision to properly challenge these false fears & work through the anxiety.  You're still a very young woman, don't let OCD take another decade from you

Thank you Caramoole! I did try to cope better with things yesterday. I think at the core of this, I need to accept that I might get a sickness bug and that once I've accepted that I will be able to stop all of my contamination compulsions. 

I did manage to avoid one compulsion yesterday but I'm still not doing very well with facing challenges. 

I think the general stress of a (very difficult for various reasons) long distance house move and my Mum being unwell (she is waiting for a chest X-ray for hoarseness and blue lips and I'm worried that it may be lung cancer [which might be my OCD, I'm not sure]) is making things harder at the moment but I don't want to use these things as an excuse not to get better because as you say OCD has already taken up a couple of decades of my life! 

Just to say that even though it might seem as though I'm not making the changes needed to recover from OCD, I am listening to your advice and it is helping me to make some smaller steps towards recovery. 

On 09/09/2021 at 19:41, Angst said:

Hi Belanna

I agree with the others. I speak as a man still concerned with COVID contamination. The clothes were encased so no need to wash them. 

Thank you Angst! I think I over-reacted but I still don't think I could wear the clothes without washing them. I cannot even lift things from the carpet in the house without gloves on so I think it's too much for me at the moment.

Edited September 11, 2021 by BelAnna

[Dakagraphics-David]

Hi there... What could be on the clothes? We don't know... It is all part of our natural environment, much as the stuff we purchase in a supermarket... It all gets handled by the till operator... Who has always handled absolutely everything... Including cash... Everything is cross-contaminated, and always has been... Always... When we were children we would retie our shoe laces when wet... pick up pens and pencils from the ground on the way home... The thing is... If we ever did get sick, it would just be our natural immunity defences strengthening... We never noticed... And kids from the poorest backgrounds became adults with more resilience to illness. We didn't have all these antibacterials then... We just survived... So, with that evidence in mind, and it is evidence... We will be okay... All of us... Including our friends and the people we care most about... The tricky bit with all this, is actually succeeding in caring just a bit less. In HG Wells story, the war of the worlds, it is the bacteria in our own environment, that wiped out the martians...

David

 

[BelAnna]

On 13/09/2021 at 10:22, Dakagraphics-David said:

Hi there... What could be on the clothes? We don't know... It is all part of our natural environment, much as the stuff we purchase in a supermarket... It all gets handled by the till operator... Who has always handled absolutely everything... Including cash... Everything is cross-contaminated, and always has been... Always... When we were children we would retie our shoe laces when wet... pick up pens and pencils from the ground on the way home... The thing is... If we ever did get sick, it would just be our natural immunity defences strengthening... We never noticed... And kids from the poorest backgrounds became adults with more resilience to illness. We didn't have all these antibacterials then... We just survived... So, with that evidence in mind, and it is evidence... We will be okay... All of us... Including our friends and the people we care most about... The tricky bit with all this, is actually succeeding in caring just a bit less. In HG Wells story, the war of the worlds, it is the bacteria in our own environment, that wiped out the martians...

David

 

Thank you David. 

I know that everything is covered in bacteria all of the time but it's Norovirus that my contamination OCD centres on and thankfully that's not in every environment all of the time. So I was particularly worried about the packages being on the road because someone may have walked trace (or even visible) amounts of vomit along the pavement, which could make me sick (annoying years ago I found it [without researching it] that it only takes 10-20 Norovirus viral particles to be ingested to fall ill and that there are millions in a single quantity of vomit from an infected person). 

I guess rather upsettingly I didn't have a normal childhood from about 7 onwards when my contamination OCD kicked in so I don't have a memory of doing normal things then but I do understand what you mean. 

[Dakagraphics-David]

Hi there. In David Burns book 'Feeling good the new mood therapy', he talks about cognitive distortions. One of which is 'Catastrophisation' This is where we take things to the worst possible extreme, and try to plan for what that might entail. As you rightly say, this eventuality is gonna be so rare, as to be almost say 99% unlikely. If we are always try to prepare for the worst... We'll be way to preoccupied to notice the times things are actually going okay... Which is indeed, most of the time... It's a good book that I have found really useful, cos this is exactly what I used to do in care work... It broke me! 

David