#CONTAMINATION OCD

[moralocdfromhell]

People acting like you’re completely evil for simply not liking bugs sets my OCD off a little bit

You can’t say anything about being terrified of spiders online without someone going “but the spider didn’t do anything to you!! Why do you hate them?! It’s unethical to kill them!!” And they’ll start referencing that one poem even if you never said you killed a spider in the first place

Some people literally treat it as a moral fault if you’re afraid of bugs. I saw a comment on Facebook where the conclusion was basically “if you’re scared of bugs, that’s Bad and you need to work on that and learn to be Completely Okay with them or else you’re Bad” like some people don’t have an uncontrollable fear of bugs

A fear of bugs is also an OCD thing. My contamination OCD really doesn’t like them. And some people with trauma who lived in infested/dirty homes also do not like bugs- So acting like being scared of bugs is an inherently bad thing leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

But I always have a nagging thought at the back of my mind now when I see a scary bug. “Why are you scared of it? You’re a bad person if you’re scared of it.”

[sylveriasarcana]

you're not alone. i promise.

but if you're in the OCD tag looking for reassurance or chasing a compulsion, I'm gonna need you to put your phone down. go on, put it down. and i want you to say out loud,

"Maybe the thoughts are right. Maybe they're not. Either way, I will be okay."

that's all you have to do. no more googling or tag searching, you've given OCD all the attention it deserves. you can go do something else now.

the monster in your head isn't in control. you are. good luck ❤️

[tap3tum-lucidum]

too much for me

[therapeutic007]

Heal Your OCD Intrusive Thoughts Just Click Me !

[phicantdraw]

stop cutting me down

[thermodynamic-comedian]

the thing they never really warn you about is that "good" things can be a symptom of mental illness too.

like, it took my therapist so long to explain to me that yes, washing your hands is good, but the way i do it is bad and a symptom of ocd. yes, showering is good, but absolutely having to do it every single day because if you don't, you start losing your mind is bad and a symptom of ocd. same thing with cutting your nails. brushing your hair and your teeth.

all of these things are good things that everybody should be doing, but the way i do them makes them compulsions that affect my life negatively.

[chegmj]

I both really hope and am worried about if people are right about Klaus developing contamination ocd after losing his powers.

It has the potential to be either amazing representation or completely butchered. Like I have no doubt Robert Sheehan would do it justice considering his character and working on ‘The Road Within’, but I feel like fanfics and fandom will either be heart achingly well written/interpreted or grossly oversimplified into ‘eek ok he had a chat and he’s over it now!’ and completely miss out the intrusive thoughts that would be keeping Klaus wearing his mask and gloves etc.

[antlerkitty]

OCD feels like such an invisible disorder. If you don’t have specifically cleaning OCD, you get very little representation, you’re barely talked about, you may not even realize you have it. I’ve had OCD since I was around 6, maybe younger. OCD has taken so much from me, but since I never saw myself represented anywhere, I didn’t realize I even had OCD until earlier this year. Even when I was unable to eat a large amount of foods due to my OCD, even when I repeatedly gagged and vomited due to my OCD, even when I spent hours inspecting my food and tearing it apart and begging not to eat it due to my OCD.

We need to do better with OCD representation.

[ink-asunder]

People don't talk about how contamination ocd literally makes you unable to clean in some cases. "Oh, you're scared of dirt, so you must have a super clean space!" Actually I'm so scared of dirt that the thought or act of cleaning my own space makes me so ill I can't eat for days after I do it. I would literally rather live around the filth than clean anything. The few times I've had to clean anything in the last three years, it was so traumatic I literally had to seek help during my therapy appointments about it.

Just because you have contamination ocd doesn't mean you're clean.

[disabled-sysboxes]

[TEXT ID: this system has contamination OCD, specifically about hair in food]

[IMG ID: a teal rectangular box with the ocd flag - a flag with 4 stripes, teal, white, light yellow, orange - with an icon of a plate of food to the left, with the text 'this system has contamination OCD, specifically about hair in food' on the right.]

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[dersandmannkommt]

when I mention that I have OCD and people think I mean I'm an organized perfectionist, but then they find out I'm actually constantly bordering on psychosis

[cupboard-of-npd]

Having ocd and autism is just eating something and it tasting wrong™ and immediately 'I JUST ATE POISON AND IM GOING TO DIE IN 7 DAYS'

[mysticdragon3md3]

[into-the-grotto]

TW: talk of OCD, intrusive thoughts, saliva, harming children

Disclaimer: If you feel you experience intrusive thoughts, consult a medical professional. This is not a replacement for therapy and I am not an expert, just someone with OCD talking about his experiences. I support self diagnosis but please do not diagnose yourself off of this post.

What is OCD?

I think everyone knows it stands for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder but what does that mean?

Well the main premise is an obsessive thought followed by a compulsion to “fix” the thought. Okay well what does that mean?

Here’s an example from my own experience.

The thought: I just shook hands with someone. They definitely had germs on their hand and now they’re on my hand. I’m going to catch a deadly disease from this person and die.

The compulsion: Washing my hands until the skin is red and raw.

If you don’t have OCD, you probably would just assume what we do makes no sense. You would be mostly correct. However, it makes sense to us. For someone who has OCD, these thoughts terrorize our every waking moment. We cannot go through a day without having an obsessive thought and needing to do something about it. Whether that thing makes any sense logically or not, is not important to us. It’s real for us.

I typically struggle with symmetry obsessions and contamination obsessions.

The way symmetry obsessions present is that I have to determine the exact middle of pretty much everything and blink when I find it. When I’m on the road, it’s typically telephone poles or whatever my brain determines is important. I don’t really have intrusive thoughts about this, it’s more immense discomfort and a horrible feeling of dread if I don’t do it. I also have to eat exactly the same amount on each side of my mouth. Say I have two green gummy bears and one orange. The green both go on opposites sides and I eat them simultaneously. The orange either gets my middle front teeth or I give it to someone else.

With contamination, it presented differently when I was a child and teen with obsessive hand washing and carrying around hand sanitizer with me. Unfortunately, I also experienced trauma related to this obsession and it changed to reflect the trauma. I cannot handle the idea of saliva. I just can’t. Sometimes it even applies to my own inside my own body. I can’t finish drinks in any container because I know that some of the liquid at the bottom is most likely saliva. Yes, it’s my own. I also cannot drink or eat after anyone. The idea that even tiny particles of saliva are on whatever they touched feels catastrophic to me. Sometimes I am able to kiss people, but if I’m having a particularly bad OCD day, I can’t. As listed above, this is partially due to the fear of disease and germs but it also has to do with the trauma I experienced.

Intrusive thoughts

This is where OCD tends to be the most misunderstood and stigmatized.

Intrusive thoughts are unwanted thoughts or mental images that make the person experiencing them distressed. Being upsetting is a requirement for an intrusive thought. If it is not upsetting, it’s not intrusive. They can also come with disorders that aren’t OCD but I am not knowledgeable on which ones.

Examples include: horrific images of loved ones dying, thoughts of harming others, or sexual imagery (must be unwanted).

Before I explain some of my intrusive thoughts, I must reinforce that intrusive thoughts are ALWAYS unwanted. They are things you would never want to happen and never do.

TW: intrusive thoughts of harming children for next paragraph

Some of my intrusive thoughts involve the fear of me hurting children or being a p*do. As a person who has experience sexual trauma, some of which while I was a child/young, these thoughts are the worst. Once I have this thought, my day is basically over. I can’t do anything that day and I absolutely cannot interact with a child. I tend to avoid children because I am scared I will hurt them. If I come across a child, these thoughts typically cross my mind and I need to walk away. “Was I creepy?” “Did I want to do something to that child?” I didn’t talk about these thoughts for years because I was terrified I was a bad person for having them. That I actually was a p*do and I needed to be far away from children. While I still feel this way sometimes as the nature of the disorder, I know in my heart that I am not bad. I love children and I want some in the future. I want to experience the ups and down of parenthood and I deserve to get that experience regardless of my disorder.

To people who don’t have OCD: The people you love with OCD deserve for you to be kind to them. Their disorder does not make them scary or unlovable. They are deserving of compassion, especially when they’re struggling.

To people with OCD: I love you. You are not weird or evil. I believe in you and I care for you. You are doing so great.

[therapeutic007]

Best Workbook to Overcome Intrusive Thoughts !

[cathasocd]

A personal struggle with contamination ocd