Shopping Contamination

[Meyer_Gdmnx]

Hi everybody I’ve been dealing with health anxiety and ocd for a long time now and I’m sure many of you with the current COVID-19 situation are struggling as well. I’m incredibly fearful of touching food packaging bought from the shops and it’s becoming exhausting waiting days for my mind to deem it safe! Can anyone help calm me about this

[Ubud2021]

You can look online and see where you can buy some hospital spray disinfectant and spray the packaging? Idk. Just a suggestion.

[MothFir]

I have some contamination-themed OCD but fortunately the coronavirus doesn't seem to bother me in an "OCD way."

I have seen the viral video of the doctor showing how to wipe down groceries with disinfectant, but I've also read infectious disease experts saying that that's not necessarily the best approach, and to just wash your hands after handling packaging that's potentially contaminated. I have followed this second approach because otherwise I can see myself getting sucked into a spiral of decontamination where my OCD is triggered and I end up washing groceries all day.

This has caused my family to do some things differently than pre-COVID -- we pour chips into a bowl and then wash our hands, instead of eating straight from a potentially contaminated bag, for example. When preparing food, I try to handle as much 'contaminated' packaging as I can at one time in order to limit the amount of handwashing I do. But I try to stick to expert-recommended guidelines, and not get unproductively obsessed with it.

[Lyndarosela]

I wipe EVERYTHING down with disinfectant wipes and soap/water. Adds to my internal sense of safety.

[MothFir]

Just saw this article – it might make you feel better:

cnn.com/2020/04/23/health/g...