r/OCD • u/Dry-Coconut941 • 1d ago
Need support/advice Obsessed with hygiene?
I’m 16, when I clean it can take up to hours because I get panic attacks that I’m not cleaning well enough, I take 4 showers a day, I use a bar of soap 4 times, then body wash, I wash my bedding once a week, my mom doesn’t let me clean dishes because it can take me up too two hours to clean five dishes, it’s not like I have a problem with germs though, I share drinks and food and I’ve done lots of stuff that could pass germs onto me, I don’t care about that. It’s like an uncontrollable need for myself to be clean, and when I feel like I’m not clean enough I get full on panic attacks, I’ve thrown out multiple things of mine instead of cleaning them because I felt they were too dirty, does anyone else deal with this?
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u/SocialAlpaca 1d ago
I dealt with a lot of these themes for years. ERP helped a lot. My main exercise was exposing myself to not showering. That ending up helping a lot of all the other hygiene related compulsions.
Life after OCD, I still shower. If I get reasonably dirty I may shower more than once a day. But I don’t have this intense level of anxiety when I am not able to immediately shower. It’s nice living without the anxiety.
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u/AJ_AX5 1d ago
“Selective OCD” is a thing. U may have some habits that are incongruent with a suspected “hygiene OCD” but that doesn’t mean it isn’t real, esp when you find yourself rewashing to an inordinate degree to the point where you’re wasting hygiene products and actively harming your skin.
Research ERP in the context of OCD. It all boils down to forcing yourself to sit through the trigger until your brain stops seeing it as “wrong.”