Does anyone know how to deal with or get over germaphobia?

I don't have it as bad as some people, but it's definitely there. I have a couple examples of mine. One is that I don't like my pajamas to touch my other clothes, other people's non-pajamas, or the ground. Whenever it happens I have to go and wash them. Another example is that sometimes I don't like touching objects that other people touched. Like if someone at a grocery store opened a freezer door, touch a part higher or lower than they did. Or at home, something I don't like handling certain items that a family has if I'm angry at them. Yes, I know that last part sounds crazy, but it's true. Can anyone help me?

I have these issues. Luckily, I think this is one area where exposure therapy works well because there are so many opportunities to employ it, and without as much consequence.

For example, some of my germaphobia has to do with food and eating. It got so bad that I progressed to the point that everything I brought home from the supermarket had to be cleaned or wiped down. One day I realized I had opened, cooked and eaten a can of beans without washing it. (Boxes and bags I would wipe down...cans had to be literally washed with soap and water). This happened with a couple of other items as well. When I didn't get sick from it, It began to lose some of it's power.

For example, your pajamas. Try letting them touch the ground just a little, even it it's just a tiny bit. Or maybe try being just a little less conscious if your efforts to prevent them from touching the ground or other clothes. Here's a good analogy involving my food OCD: Despite the fact that I need to have total control of how my food is prepared, I still eat out occasionally. I know damn well that my food is being prepared without my supervision. I can't inspect the cookware, or the cleanliness of the plate it's being served on, or the habits of the restaurant staff. But I'm so used to eating out throughout my life that it's like I can put these feelings on hold. I know of no better way to explain it. I don't know if I have some unknown mechanism for turning off these fears when I eat out, but I don't overanalyze it. I don't analyze it at all.

You can apply this to your clothes. Know that there is virtually no way for youth completely control what they come in contact with. This may result in discomfort, but it's the only way you will be able to beat the fear. Little by little, let them touch other clothes. Don't go overboard. If anything, use restraint, but not as much restraint as your OCD forces on you. Progress may be slow, but it's progress nonetheless.

For example, when I first realized I had eaten food from unwashed containers, there was nothing I could do. It was already eaten. Had I known, eating it would have been impossible. But I didn't know, I ate it, and I was none the worse for it. Because I didn't know, my OCD didn't know, and I was able to defeat it.

Do you live with someone you can trust to help you with this? Maybe you can ask them to "contaminate" your pajamas just a little, without you knowing. I'm not talking about bringing them to the laundromat and rubbing them all over some stranger's clothes , but in tiny little ways that wouldn't drive you insane if you knew. But you won't know. Then have them tell you the next day, or even in a couple days. It might help youth realize how insignificant these fears are compared with what OCD is telling you.

The above is excellent advice. I would only add that, during the period that my own symptoms were primarily germophobic, one thing that helped me get the emotional *push* I needed just before these doing sorts of mini-exposures would be to focus, briefly, on some strikingly irrational part of my fear. For example, that I wouldn't sit in a chair someone else had touched that day, but I had no problem picking up a moldy piece of food. But it's fighting the compulsions that counts most, the above can just give you short term motivation.

Sorry for the late reply. Thank you naps, I will definitely try giving small amounts of exposure a try.

Do you live with someone you can trust to help you with this?

I still live with family, but I don't think they get it. I tried telling them that it's OCD, but they don't really know what OCD is.