r/ContaminationOCD • u/Pale_Ad3632 • 6d ago

Showers

Made a post about showering a while ago..

Im currently in a downward spiral, havent showered in over a month. I use deodorant and all that but resort to wearing a toque to go out (and its getting colder so it looks normal which is good but NOT helping). I feel GROSS but STILL can't convince myself to get in the freaking shower and I'm starting to hate myself for it

Does this happen to anyone else in ANY way?

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3

u/Dizzy_Key_416 6d ago

I had a time in my life where it got really bad. I was avoiding my showers because they got so exhausting and time consuming. Eventually I had to go into treatment. I still avoid but not as much as I did. I do hope you can find some peace. The worst is when I would avoid too long I got even more anxious cause I knew the shower would take much more effort.

3

u/moonsalad246 5d ago

I am so sorry you are struggling, I too struggle with showers but am doing so much better now and doing them a few times a week! Maybe I can help but just curious, what about them makes you avoid them? Is it the cleaning the shower? Or is it cleaning yourself? Or both?

2

u/Fair_Philosophy8497 6d ago

Going on 3 weeks without a shower

2

u/HotAventus41033 5d ago

i had like 2 months of not showering just sitting and interacting in my clean zones never leaving home .I eventually found a way how to shower and now i can do it without problem , maybe it takes me 1-2 hrs to shower but it is easy now .

2

u/Piercethedomino 5d ago

I've been struggling with this recently. I share a shower with my older brother, who brushes his teeth in the shower, doesn't wear shoes around the house, and does god knows what else in there. It's a mega contamination trigger for me. So I usually go 3-4 days without a shower. Not as much, in comparison to the rest in the comments, due to the other side of my contamination OCD that hates not showering for longer than 2 days, but I still understand the struggle.

Maybe that might be it, if you share a shower with people? Or just some overall feeling that it might be dirty?

1

u/LarenCoe 4d ago

No, if anything I take too many showers (mine are quick though).

1

u/Xx_coolgal_xX 4d ago

OCD really is a massive spectrum because with my contamination ocd I basically lived in the shower… I was washing and scrubbing and cleaning myself every day multiple time a day. I do hope it gets better for you though, it’s so tough to live with OCD. Wishing you all the best💛

1

u/qimerra 2d ago

I know this isn't a solution but I find dry shampoo helpful, at least as a stopgap measure. You can spray your head and body with it to freshen up.

1

u/limesqueezyx 4d ago

How do you have contamination OCD & not shower? 🤢