Fear of lead exposure and sexual fluids, any help, please?

I'm very OCD about lead exposure and sexual fluids. If my own semen gets on anything, even just a drop, I'm paranoid it will get spread and get people sick. I live in a house with lead paint so if I ever touch a part of the wall even with a small dent I'm afraid the lead paint will get in me and give me lead exposure. Anyone have any tips or insight on a different way of thinking so I am not obsessing over these things? Thanks, and have a good day everybody

hey there,
i can't speak to the lead, but i've been ocd about sexual fluids/blood for about 2 years now. I can tell you that every reassurance just magnifies the doubt. whatever you do, dont reassure yourself. this will SUCK; you'll fell anxious as hell, want to crawl out of your skin, but it has to be done if you want to gradually lessen the obsession. if you keep reassuring yourself every time then you're only making the ocd stronger.

also, with your type of ocd you can definitely try erp (exposure response prevention). try touching the wall and then not washing your hands. this will also SUCK. but ride out the anxiety, let it pass and the more you do this, the more it will dissolve.

there's no easy way to get rid of ocd. no insight or realization will make it go away. you just have to condition your brain not to fall into ocd traps of constantly reassuring yourself and avoiding behaviours (like touching walls).

hope this helps,
godspeed
-Ben

If you do the exposure and response prevention , make sure that you do it with a therapist that is trained in exposure and response prevention. It is hard to do, and doing it with someone that knows what they are doing is important.