I did okay yesterday.
The only "bad" thing that happened was the point at which my dad sneezed right into my face during dinner, from a distance of about 12 inches. He was standing with something in his hands, and his balance is not good, so he made no attempt to cover his sneeze at all. I will admit I was stunned. It was an odd moment, because my dad's sneezes are LOUD. So the entire restaurant turned around to stare at us. Awkward.
But the GOOD thing that came out of it was that once I got over the mild freak out (a silent one), I figured what the heck, I've already been exposed to whatever was in that sneeze, and I was able to do a lot of other exposures, touching things at the basketball arena that I haven't touched all season without washing my hands, like door handles and programs. I even got a cool refrigerator magnet that normally I would have turned down since I wouldn't have wanted to touch it.
So maybe I'll get sick and maybe I won't, but that's supposed to be the point every day anyway.
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You are stronger than you think!
8 months ago
I can't entirely relate to your kind of germ phobia but I do suffer from compulsions and they not always but quite frequently inhibit my daily performance in life and school. I think its great you confronted your fears and faced your ocd using exposure therapy. I used ERT and CBT together to help me get better.
ReplyDeleteI feel that my case is unusual than others categorizing me as an anomaly. All my compulsions and rituals take place in my brain. No physical touching or hand washing, everything torments me mentally. I'm trying to get a job and continue my education but these worries have been afflicting my life for the past seven years. I can certainly sympathize with you 100 %. We may have different compulsion but the bottom line is the content always changes but the form remains the same. Always keep that in mind. Try not to let it get you insane.
There is hope for everyone even the severely worse off cases.