Is this common with the toilet?

[MissBowLady]

Trigger Warning

I have to share a bathroom with my family. I had to use the toilet and there was hair on the seat, I don’t know what kind. But when I got up it wasn’t there anymore. So I’m worried it’s in my underwear. I’m scared of it being a family member’s hair or body hair and it meaning something bad. I tried to email my therapist but I don’t think he’ll reply because he’ll say it’s me seeking reassurance. I don’t think of it as that. It’s just I never talked about having to deal with toilet seats with hair on them until this year when my OCD started to make me notice. I just don’t know the answer to stuff like this. Like Is it really ok not to care? Is it okay to say it’s ocd? Did anyone have to deal with this too?

[MothFir]

Sometimes it's hard to know where to draw the line at reassurance. With my contamination fears, there are times I genuinely can't sort out what is normal behavior, and I need someone with an unbiased and healthy brain to offer guidance. I try not to ask if something is contaminated or not (because the point is that no one can really know for sure), but I do sometimes ask if a "normal" person would wash after touching something, or whatever. If the answer is no, I know I need to resist the urge to wash and just accept that I have to take the same "risk" that a normal person would take.

So I guess in your case I'll just say that I don't know if it means anything bad, or if it's truly ok not to care, but as someone who doesn't have your OCD theme, I wouldn't think twice about it, and likely I wouldn't have even noticed.

[MissBowLady in reply to MothFir]

Thank you. Merry christmas

[beth196 in reply to MothFir]

I try to ask anymore since it just makes it worse. I wash the toilet seat when I take my granddaughter to swim and then I sit on it too. I've learned to sit on toilets at other peoples houses. However sometimes I still won't do it if my OCD is acting up. I take 20 mg of lexapro.