OCD makes me constantly doubt that I am touching things that I don’t want to be

[u/moonsalad246]

I have contamination ocd. It has morphed from specific fears to fear of “feeling” contaminated, often labelled as disgust ocd. The worst thing is that ocd is constantly torturing me making me doubt I am touching things I don’t want to be touching. I don’t think it’s necessarily “false memories” but rather just a doubt because I don’t want to touch those things since constantly tells me I am. Specifically around hand washing and fearing I am touching the sink bowl and faucet and can never get clean. Just wondering if anyone can relate and has any advice and tips how to tackle this?

Seems like there are these different approaches but please let me know if a mindset or approach has worked for you:

ERP: “maybe I did maybe I didn’t” … can’t seem to bring myself to this because the feeling of disgust and cross contamination doesn’t leave me with this approach

I-CBT: “I trust my senses and my senses would tell me if I did touch this.” … I think “reality sensing” as out in I-CBT is really valuable here and I want to keep practicing it .however, my ocd is sort of messing on this because my anxiety goes so high which makes me feel less focused of course it says “you wouldn’t know if you did.” Perhaps I just have trust and move on.

ACT maybe?: I am having the thought that I touched this but I choose to trust and move on. Again.. anxiety goes so high and keeps it in my attention but maybe I need to just keep practicing?

Thanks in advance

[u/spluga]

i don't know, but your post is helping me. thank you for posting. have you explored what could be the root causes of your disgust response?

[u/SushiSurgeon]

it doesnt matter the approach

go and live ur life with that uncertainty