OCD patterns - personal hygiene

[Guest_99]

I have been diagnosed with OCD which largely centres around compulsions to do with personal hygiene. For example, I can't shower in less than an hour and a half because of my need to clean myself so thoroughly and in a certain pattern, I can't brush my teeth in less than 45 minutes, it takes about 20 minutes to wash my hands (which I feel the need to do very frequently) and even routine tasks like going to the toilet takes forever!

I am on medication to assist and have seen a psychologist but didn't find it helpful at all.

I am a professional that works long hours and having this condition means I have to get up ridiculously early and makes my days unbearably long. It also means that on weekends I have no interest in, and no energy to do, anything fun. I could somewhat cope with this when I was younger, but the older I get, the bigger the toll it is taking on my body and mind and I'm struggling to cope now.

I know my need to carry out these tasks is ridiculous and illogical, and as much as I tell myself to stop, I just can't seem to.

I guess I just really want to know whether I'm alone in having these particular traits or whether there are other people out there like me. If there are, I'd love to know about anything you have tried that has helped you either cope with or break these compulsions?

[geoff]

Hello Guest, welcome to the forums.

Excessive OCD habits or traits such as continually having to clean yourself must a terrible, awful condition, I'm so very sorry for you but I know myself as I have had OCD for over 50 years and know that obsessions are uncontrollable and the compulsions impossible to resist, fortunately, I don't have these extreme feelings but know exactly what it would be like as I have them but in another way.

The daily hours you have to keep must be tiring but more so exhausting, especially as you're a professional and would really like to know if the psychologist specialises with OCD.

My humble apologises for having OCD, it is a horrendous illness.

Please get back to us.

Geoff.

[anewhope]

Guest 99 said:

I have been diagnosed with OCD which largely centres around compulsions to do with personal hygiene. For example, I can't shower in less than an hour and a half because of my need to clean myself so thoroughly and in a certain pattern, I can't brush my teeth in less than 45 minutes, it takes about 20 minutes to wash my hands (which I feel the need to do very frequently) and even routine tasks like going to the toilet takes forever!

I am on medication to assist and have seen a psychologist but didn't find it helpful at all.

I am a professional that works long hours and having this condition means I have to get up ridiculously early and makes my days unbearably long. It also means that on weekends I have no interest in, and no energy to do, anything fun. I could somewhat cope with this when I was younger, but the older I get, the bigger the toll it is taking on my body and mind and I'm struggling to cope now.

I know my need to carry out these tasks is ridiculous and illogical, and as much as I tell myself to stop, I just can't seem to.

I guess I just really want to know whether I'm alone in having these particular traits or whether there are other people out there like me. If there are, I'd love to know about anything you have tried that has helped you either cope with or break these compulsions?

I am very sorry to hear that you are having to endure such demands. I can definitely say you are not alone.

I have contamination OCD which forces me to wash my hands after pretty much touching anything that I haven't either cleaned thoroughly/was not bought brand new/has been touched by someone that smoked.

I have to shower after coming back from work because the person that sat in my desk in the past smoked and never felt like it is clean.

I can often shower 3 times a day (one in morning, one after work and one if I have gone out and come in contact with most public things such as handles, buttons or shaking hands).

I find I am often showering, then feeling like I haven't gone top to bottom and feel like I have to start the shower process again.

I feel satisfied after a shower but exhausted physically and mentally. My showers last about 6 minutes at the moment and I am grateful that I am able to still feel comfortable that this has "washed" away the days germs.

[anewhope]

From my readings so far I have found that OCD is latching on to any opportunity it can to feed. Since its part of the same brain that we are judging reason and comprehension it has direct access to even our most minor or major anxiety / fears.

The part that I am trying to understand in my life is whether my hands were clean in the first place before I decided to wash them. Often as a result of washing my hands I will often touch the tap head which makes me then want to start the process again (the tap head feels dirty compared to my clean hands).

I know it doesn't help much from the point of what makes us feel clean, but maybe having a mental list in your head of each part that you have cleaned (and mentally ticking it off) may help to satisfy the need to be cleaned.

OCD is irrational and takes little care to fact, it is masking the fact that you would have been spotless clean after only 6-7 minutes of showering (or 30 seconds of washing your hands).
In my life i think of it like a virus, feeding off my ability for satisfaction and comfort knowing I had completed what i needed to move on in that moment in life.

One part i was concerned with speaking with a Physiologist was the thoughts of Exposure Therapy which involved having the feelings of washing your hands still in your mind, but seeing that moment like it was played out in a movie theatre that you were watching. The trick they say is to see it passively, not that we are not in control, but that we are not engaging in it.

In a way like someone trying to cause a scene in the street approaching you but walking away. There are still many emotions that come about that moment you need to be clean just like it is for me, so its important to still acknowledge that they are going on.

I personally am not quite there confidently yet to be able to take that approach.

For me its about feeling like i have missed a step, or didn't wash a spot. I also feel like I have no energy or drive to do anything I like (in fear will contaminate objects I have). I've often sold things because they have felt contaminated (cigerette smoke)

As you say as much as you try stop, it actually makes no difference. I have found that with OCD, sometimes the more we try stop the worse it gets (it did for me). The great quality from here is understanding that you are not making these decisions, we are just passengers on a boat with no oars (inputs don't seem to sway). We find ourselves just moving back and forth on the boat.

[geoff]

Hello Anewhope, I appreciate your comment and thank you, but can I welcome you to the forums.

Anybody who is suffering from OCD would know exactly what you both mean because our compulsions whether they are big or just slight, the obsession to pull us into doing it still remains the same.

There are many ways to try and treat OCD and one way is by Exposure Response Prevention Therapy (ERP) and other forms of therapy forms of CBT, and ACT (Acceptance and commitment therapy) maybe other ways to help you.

Unfortunately, the more and more we do these, the stronger our coping mechanisms will become so it's something we have to do constantly, but I know that it's very exhausting.

I don't think I've been much help I'm sorry but I really want to.

Take care.

Best wishes.

Geoff.

[Ben]

I wish I could edit my post but I wanted to add that I hope you're managing.