OCD Action

wannabefree
Member

I really struggle with this one but, I've just had this thought...
When I believe that I'm contaminating the world, am I simply doing what evryone else does naturally,all the time, without thinking about it? But I can't stop thinking about it...all the time? Is it accurate and rational to say that the people around us come into contact with the stuff we fear all the time, but they don't fear, all the time? Yet they don't come to harm do they?, otherwise no one would survive? Does every thing, in it's own way, sort of 'contaminate' the world, but not in a bad way, which is how we develop our immunities and physical resistances? 'Contamination' sounds such a negative word, but in a way, is it part of our survival? Or am I way off here?
In catering, they use food hygiene rules, and yet, in my understanding, At home, and in cafes, CBT encourages us to defy all that, or am I simply taking this wrong? I just can't get my head around this... I'm so scared all the time...
Are the people we fear 'contaminating', already resistant and immune anyway, simply due to their own life experience of touching things in their own environment? Does this make sense to anyone?

Sat 23 Apr 2011 10:07 #
Tess
Member

Hi wannabe
To the best of my knowledge the answer to your first question is yes. The vast majority of people come into contact with the things we fear without even giving it a thought let alone having feelings of fear or anxiety about it. And in almost every case they come to no harm whatsoever, even if they have contact with things like dog poo. This has reminded me of an incident when I was a child and my friend and I thought we had found a piece of chalk on the pavement but when we started writing with it we discovered it was white dog poo - and we didn't wash our hands for hours afterwards and neither of us had any ill effects.
In answer to your question does everything contaminate the world to enable us to develop immunities I think this is a complex subject but as I understand it our bodies are designed to protect us from harm and the simple answer to your question is also yes. Your reasoning is on the right track, you are not way off the mark.
As for your question about food hygeine and CBT this is omething I have also wondered about and I think some CBT threapists go over the top in what they expect people to do to counter their contamination fears. For example, at our support group one day the psychologist licked her fingers, rubbed the sole of her shoe and then licked them again - and then said with a horrified expression "I don't believe I've just done that!". I've heard of practices such as CBT therapists making people wipe their hands round toilet bowls and then eat their sandwiches to prove they won't come to any harm and I personally think this is a step too far, in fact I will be very controversial here and say I regard it as abuse and dehumanisation.
When I was a child our water was heated by a coal boiler and my nan used to cook the dinner at lunchtime and mine would be left on top of the boiler to keep warm until I got home from school. This goes against all the food hygeine advice and I am amazed that I never got ill, but the fact is that I didn't. But it is sensible to follow precautions when handling different kinds of food, especially raw meat because until it is cooked it will contain bacteria which can then be spread to other foods which you may eat without cooking.
As for your final question everyone will have a degree of immunity and resistance to disease unless they have had to have medical treatment such as transplant surgery in which case they will be on drugs to suppress the immune system which would otherwise reject the transplant.
I am nervous of posting this because sometimes understanding the facts can fuel the OCD thoughts - there was a thread a while back in which two or three of us tried to explain the facts about clothes eating moths and we just made the situation worse. So I hope you find this helpful.

Sat 23 Apr 2011 11:35 #
Truddles
Member

I agree with what Tess has said.
Nothing on this planet stands in isolation, everything interacts with everything else. We are all ‘contaminating’ the world around us, every time that we touch something we live a bit of us behind, hence the development of forensic science. We leave hair, sweat and skin cells where ever we go.
Even inanimate objects leave their mark on the world often on a microscopic level - concrete, stone, metal all gradually erode or oxidise leaving traces around them on other objects. But most of this 'contamination' isn't harmful in any way whatsoever or none of us would survive, but with OCD we're unable to see this, we just see danger in everything. Seeing the potential danger in everything is a mechanism that we've put in place initially to protect ourselves but this supposed safety mechanism takes over and eventually becomes our main problem.
Everyone has the same thoughts that we with OCD have such as ‘Is it contaminated?’ That’s how we as humans assess whether it’s safe or not to proceed with any given action. Where it differs is that people without OCD have the thought, often subconsciously or fleetingly and then are able to quickly decide as to whether to proceed or not and then they forget the thought. But people with OCD aren’t able to do that, we seem to have lost that ability and so tend to perceive danger everywhere that we go.

Everyone continually has thoughts going through their head and those without OCD are able to filter out the unwanted ones and only pay heed to those that are relevant to the particular situation that they find themselves in. We with OCD tend to pay attention to all the thoughts relevant or not. We get a thought in our head and we just can’t let it to and tend to catastrophise and see the potential danger in everything. We seem to have lost the ability to filter out unwanted thoughts and the ability to assess potential risks without over analysing.

But we can relearn those skills
They are not lost for ever, it just takes time to relearn them.

Sat 23 Apr 2011 14:09 #
Ratwomble
Member

I think that the problem is the OCD, not contamination. The OCD is distorting normal thoughts about health and making us do odd things. With me it also hits plugs and debris on the road. With you it is contamination. With every one of us it is slightly different but the OCD is the common issue.

All of the worries and thoughts are normal. It is the obsessive rumination and compulsions that are not.

Does that make any sense? I've rewritten it twi e and am still not 100% sure I'm making my point clearly!

David

Sat 23 Apr 2011 16:07 #
wannabefree
Member

Hi Tess, Trudy and David, thank you ever so much for your info, it gives me more sense in what I'm trying to do...
I'll write more tomorrow cos I'm absolutely exhausted now and cant think straight... chat tomorrow, wannabe

Sat 23 Apr 2011 23:06 #