I feel like I found the answer..

I am super OCD, just to sum it up without going into too much detail, I haven't touched a door knob with my bare hands in a very long time, I lysol wiped 2 iPhones to their death, I have 3 separate wardrobes that I wash all by themselves and they can't touch each other at anytime, if anything from the dryer hits the floor it needs to be rewashed. I have bought duplicates of things that I already have because I can't clean them properly and be o.k. with it, i.e, phone chargers, head phones, sun glasses, chap stick etc. So here's my thing. I moved back to the east-coast after a breakup with my girlfriend in California last year, I've been progressively downhill ever since. Nothing that she has touched or given me can be used anymore, and most of the things any of that stuff has come in contact with is no good to me either. Which is pretty much my entire house narrowed down to a few things. I've eliminated a lot of clothing, furniture, and I only have a bed in my room now, one that we once shared (which pisses me off). When I leave the house, put on brand new outfits and go places that are unfamiliar to me, a lot of my OCD stuff and these problems subside, or are at least less noticeable. So my plan was to get rid of all my things and move to a place where everything is strange so that nothing triggers, or fewer things trigger these problems. I'd be leaving behind basically a bunch of material crap, but also family, who were very involved in my long-term relationship socially, and have also been hard for me to come in contact with without spawning some kind of aggravating thoughts. Is this crazy and over the top, should I see a Psych or has this method worked for anyone else? Part of my fuel for this fire is the fact that I like to play music, and where I live is not a very musically vibrant area. Music is my #1 medication at the moment, with the occasional Xanax and some light drinking. Any thoughts appreciated. - Wearytraveler

It is always interesting to see how OCD manifests itself with different people. My OCD has a lot to do with contamination. Certain contaminants to me would be like your Ex touching your stuff.

I can't say your idea about moving is good or bad as I always tried ways to reduce the anxiety caused by OCD. However, what has seemed to work for me is when I was forced to live in situations where I could not control.

For example, the most recent one was moving back home and being forced to live in the living room with all my belongings out. Normally I would always keep everything locked up and fear if anyone touched any of my things. However, being that everything is out in the open and having to live like this for months It has really helped. Now when moving back to my room I could probably leave the door unlocked and not worry about people coming into my room to contaminate my stuff because it was already out in the open for months where people would have done it.

My point about this was that the only real way to solve your issue is in a way to go cold turkey with it and exposure yourself to it. Being forced into it was really helpful as it eliminated me having to make the choice, I had no choice in the matter.

To better make my point, if you try and solve the problem by moving to a completly new place it will just be a matter of time before your brain finds another contaminate that will start the whole process again. This is if your brain works anything like mine.

There is no wining with OCD by giving into it. OCD seems to just want to annoy and it will always find a way to do it once you think you solved what is currently bothering you.

I would say if you are a traveler go backpacking through Asia for a couple of months with only a backpack. Sleep only in youth hostels with sharing the room with other people. You will be forced to deal with contamination but when there is nothing you can do your body and brain will adapt. Soon stuff that bothered you will bother you less and less.

Hey thanks for your response. I had been seeing someone at a cognitive behavioral clinic a while back and we had been working with certain levels of exposure but it was based on "germ" contamination, which I still have a slight problem with but I completely understand that some things aren't clean and thats just how it is. We were just starting to touch on the subject that most of my contamination-like thoughts are emotionally based and don't really have anything to do with actually being clean, when I stopped going (mainly due to cost and the office itself started to become a problem area for me). I understand what you're saying about dealing with the exposures but I do worry sometimes that when being exposed to certain things that my thoughts will get out of hand and I won't be able to keep track of whats "clean". Thats my biggest fear is getting so far ahead of myself by not doing routines and trying to expose myself to things that would normally trigger a cleaning routine, that I have some sort of meltdown, or worse. I had talked with the person about the clinic about "flooding" like this, instead of doing slow, gradually steps. He had said that sometimes it's an effective method, sometimes it's not. I've never been much of a gambling man...

Hi wearytraveler, I would say moving across the country b/c of OCD is an overreaction. With the contamination issues with material things, I think it's a matter how negatively is it affecting your ability to function every day? Like do you spend ridiculous amounts of money to get new stuff for no good reason?

thinking, I agree. I must say that I have my OCD mostly under control lately. I guess the reason is partly do to the fact that I do not have many things stressing me out at the moment. However, there are still some things I just give in to instead of dealing with it. LIke spending a few dollars here and there.

It sounds like wearytraveler has ridiculous OCD to the point of getting rid of all his belongings that his ex girlfriend touched.

I don't think he is ready to deal with his OCD head on yet. He is too scared of it as he thinks by trying to get exposure it may cause him to have a meltdown. That is OCD winning right there.

thinking13 wrote:I think it's a matter how negatively is it affecting your ability to function every day? Like do you spend ridiculous amounts of money to get new stuff for no good reason?

It affects my ability to function daily, yes. I'm currently living with a relative , It's not my personal space therefore I'm constantly not in control. My OCD being slightly over the top makes regular day to day processes very complicated. For instance, I can't use the bathroom at my house without the urge to take a shower after.. When I'm at a friends house I don't really get that urge. I consider myself to have wasted several hundreds if not thousands of dollars replacing things that probably didn't need to be replacing. For example; even though I wanted to get rid of it anyway, there was a lot of emotional ties to my Street bike that made me dislike it. My OCD sort of prompted me to move forward with selling that, and I had stopped riding it because of it too. I also have a $300 helmet now that I will never wear again. Moving on earlier this year, I got a new motorcycle, new Helmet, both of which I have my own OCD problems with, to the point I stopped wearing the new helmet because I can't wash it. I have the new bike listed for sale again. I bought a new car, it felt good to drive around in a new vehicle that had zero emotion ties to anything. I made a big mistake of picking my ex up in December to go out for a drink. ya know, show off the new wheels, see what she was up to. Can't get it out of my head that she was in it, it pissed me off. I knew within 30 minutes of talking to her that I was 100% not interested in ever being with her again, and I felt like I had let her into my life when I didn't want to, letting her see my car, ride around in it. I've considered selling this car because of that, but I realize that it would be a huge loss and waste of time/money. So if this is by any means considered "wasting money", any of this.. Then yes, I waste a lot of money. I have thrown out $50 sets of car seat covers like they were a one time use. I don't mean to drag on here but I don't want to underplay my problem either.

OCD owns me wrote:It sounds like wearytraveler has ridiculous OCD to the point of getting rid of all his belongings that his ex girlfriend touched.

I don't think he is ready to deal with his OCD head on yet. He is too scared of it as he thinks by trying to get exposure it may cause him to have a meltdown. That is OCD winning right there.

It's not solely based on things she touched, I have an expensive acoustic guitar that I have managed to hold onto for a while, and tend to spend some time with it. I can't say that it hasn't crossed my mind about getting rid of it, but it holds some sentimental value regardless if where it's been and who's touched it. Would I like a new one? maybe.

I've been ready to deal with it, I tried to deal with it. I'm kind of one of those people that is really impatient and aware of how short life is. I feel like I see a shortcut, I think it might work. I don't really see another option besides hanging around here and trying to get treatment (again) and waiting it out. I haven't really been that happy in a while and could definitely use some, the quick remedy. I don't think OCD is "winning" It's definitely kicking the $#%^ out of me. I think I found a way around it, but you're right, I'm not directly confronting the problem.