Reply To: The last ten years of contamination and checking ocd. And where I seem to be now

[wannabefreeParticipantParticipant]

Hi everyone…

I’m up early this morning… But I’m also eating chocolate…

Something I just cannot do, is handle socks… I just recoil at the thought of handling my socks by anything apart from by the elasticated top. And yet, my grandson will pull his off by the toes… Ugh! Without checking for a moment… Wouldn’t that make your fingertips smell horrible? Now, I’m not suggesting we should sniff our fingertips… DON’T! There’s nothing positive to be gained by doing so. We just don’t, that’s all…  But consider children doing P.E. at school. If we didn’t have plimsolls, or slippers, we would go barefoot. (At this moment, Barefoot on a sandy beach or newly mown grass comes to mind, and how wonderful that feels).  We did it as kids… Did we always wash our hands before eating that biscuit? We didn’t did we? And we’ve lived to tell the tale. So…  With that evidence… Today, when we retie our shoelaces in the street…  Are they perfectly clean? Were they ever?

And checking… If we check just once only…  Defy the intrusive thoughts… Challenge them… I’ve locked that door, I know I have, cos I always do… The intrusive thoughts go wild… But strangely, after a while, we become distracted by something else, and the original thoughts actually fade away… But the more we check… The stronger the intrusive thoughts become… Let’s not give them that chance to become stronger…

Of course, that sounds easy, but as we well know, to start with, it is extremely difficult to do…  I still struggle with it… But every so often… It actually works…  I’m on prescribed medicines to help me do it… I maybe on them forever… But… There are times when life really does become worth living… It can be, and often is, Fantastic! Okay, more later…

God bless you for reading…

Wannabe