I’m in a panic spiral

[sunflowersea]

Hi.

Am currently in a spiral of panicking. The postman came and I answered the door. He had to scan the package 3 times because it wouldn’t register on his machine. So I had to stand there with it in my hand whilst he tried scanning etc. The door was open and I stood on the other side of the open door. Obviously he was outside I was inside.

But he seemed out of breath, maybe he was in a rush. So now I’m panicking thinking he had covid and now he’s just given it to me because in the rush of going to answer the door I forgot to put a mask on.

Im really really scared now what if I’ve got covid now?! I can’t go through the contamination fears with all of this again. It was bad enough when two people in my house had it. I’m really scared and can’t stop panicking it’s so awful. I just wish I could turn off my head and my body the panic is so scary

I feel like I’m going to have a panic attack

[Ocdjuno]

You are going to be okay. I would go through a list of reasons why but I don’t want to collude with you! 

Your OCD is heightened because I’m guessing your biggest fear is getting ill? If you can get through two people having covid in your house, you can get through this I promise! 

 

[NotRock]

OCD is about enduring the doubt (easy to say). At the end you rumminate trying to kill this doubt, as many people here do (like me  )

Easy question: Would you prefer a confirmation now that you indeed have covid 100%... or a 50% chance of having covid without knowing it until 5 months later?

The logic says that is better the doubt --> 50% you have nothing!!, but  your mind can always find a reason for everything: You can think than being sure about covid is better because you can protect your family from you and your virus, for example.

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Parenthesis:

Only to see the absurd power of our minds: try to think in two random object, for me this object will be a television and a table (for instance).

Now try to justify why the first object is the "father" of the second.

If I have to do this task I can say: "Well, in a living room, usually we put a table in front of the TV for having dinner, so the TV is the prerequisite of that kind of tables, since we organize living rooms often around the TV position".

I did!! Easy task!!  , too easy indeed...  that can be a problem for us OCD people, because we can think and ruminate about everything, and it seems that there is some sense...

I can do also the opposite: "In the TV most of time I see conversations that originally people had around a table, so the TV is the next step in the human comunication that started with tables!"

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Once we have clear that the rummination process is infinite and dont requiere any minimum initial logic or connection, dont play games you cant win. "Play stupid games, win stupid prices" (losing our hapiness, time and life).

I like the signal (picture) in your profile. I will say you another sentence: "I can withstand this doubt and  continue doing the important things I value in life)". And I bet those are not overthinking loosing time and stressing yourself.

Be compasionate about you, all of us ruminate sometimes, just try to recognize it and how useless it is. Best of luck, take care!