My experiences

[Moonlover]

Hello there,

So I feel like I developed OCD when I was a teenager. It was in relation to public places, like restaurants, cafes and communal spaces, as well as public transport. All I could think about and visualise was germs everywhere, what people had touched and ‘do I now have that germ on my hands?’

I want to connect with others of similar experiences. I had CBT before I went to university so I was able to deal with the idea of sharing a space with strangers in halls. Praise the lord I had a en-suite 🙌🏻 so it was basically having to share a kitchen and having to get a bus into uni. I feel I’m a lot better with my thoughts now and can control the urges to an extent, but I still find it hard sharing spaces, washing dirty dishes and other people’s approach to cleanliness.

So I’m trying this way of talking to others without judgement to see if it helps. People think you can have therapy a little while and then you can deal with it, but it’s not like that, it just takes one day to wake up and almost like relapse back into the old habits. I find I barely leave my room cause I can’t face looking at my family’s dirty dishes or questioning if my fork is really clean.