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Fear of syringes for my kids and I
I have come to this online community forum desperate for help. My marriage is falling apart, my family and relatives treat differently because of my ocd. I'm scared of stepping on syringes, being stabbed by someone. Especially my 22 month old and daughter being stabbed by a person in the public. I can't go near anyone with a bag or let my kids I go the opposite way. I'm look so hard around for bags, I keep thinking they have a used needle in it for example a diabetic insulin syringe that has just been used and put in their bag. I go crazy when I see a bag especially if they look like a druggy or homeless person. One random stranger came to my pram to give my son something to play with and she had a little bag on her half open as she bent over leaning towards my son it touched him. All day I have no moved and stressed thinking he got stabbed by. Used syringe she may have left in there. This is not normal.
I want to be normal but I fear of my kids and I contracting hiv and hep c. I check my baby seats if my car has been accidentally left open or if my brothers have borrowed the car I assume he left the car open and check whole car for syringe. I'm so scared of used syringes it's ruining my life. Can people on here have the same experiences with syringe phobias. Would someone stab my kids or I with a syringe or will random people carry used insulin needles. This fear came on when my brother told me a friend of his leaves his insulin needle in his cat without exposing it. I need help guys, I'm losing it. I'm not being a good mother if I'm only worried all the time.
I want to be normal but I fear of my kids and I contracting hiv and hep c. I check my baby seats if my car has been accidentally left open or if my brothers have borrowed the car I assume he left the car open and check whole car for syringe. I'm so scared of used syringes it's ruining my life. Can people on here have the same experiences with syringe phobias. Would someone stab my kids or I with a syringe or will random people carry used insulin needles. This fear came on when my brother told me a friend of his leaves his insulin needle in his cat without exposing it. I need help guys, I'm losing it. I'm not being a good mother if I'm only worried all the time.
Could you Tell me about your ocd and your fears and you coped. Would love to hear other peoples experiences.
I can't thank you enough for your help just reading that made me feel so much better. Your right all these things are part if ocd but if really take a toll on your life. I also have the chemicals one. Especially pesticides around my children, sprays and so on. Also the cancer one. I also have the pedophile one, one where I don't trust people around my children. Ocd is so hard I have been living with for so long. After the birth of my second child it became so bad I was afraid to take him out the public. I also think everyone is going to infect me while taking blood test especially when my children have to get them. Even though I know the transmission is so unluckily I can not fights ocd thoughts.
I understand your phobia. I have lots of ocd phobias... Mostly cancer and chemical related but I have had HIV phobias as well. I think the HIV one is very common from looking at posts on this site. It seems like every other one is an HIV fear.
I used to work in a lab that analyzed blood samples and I pricked myself once with a syringe that had been used on unscreened blood. I was tested and I'm fine. One thing that the doctor told me is that even if the needle had just been used on a person with HIV the chances are still less than one percent to contract the disease from a needle prick. It's higher if you are a drug user and ingecting drugs into a vein.
I know you know this fear is irrational from your description. One thing I read in a book once called brain lock is that if you think the fear is ocd then it is ocd... Real issues don't feel like ocd... But irrational ocd fears often mimic real fears.. So if you think it's ocd it is ocd.
This link describes a summary of the 4 steps they talk about in the book brain lock.
http://hope4ocd.com/foursteps.php
It's good that you recognize this fear as being irrational. Your kids are not going to get HIV or hep c from getting stuck by a random needle. It just doesn't happen. Have you ever heard of this actually happening? No I know that you haven't because this is not a real fear.. It's an ocd fear.
My niece has diabetes and she keeps her needles in her diabetes kit which is all sealed up or in a sharps container. They don't have needles floating around in purses.
When you have a thought about syringes.. You need to ask yourself "is this thought related to syringes or HIV?" If it is then you need to tell yourself it is ocd and your brain is tricking you into thinking that something is dangerous when it isn't. Then you need to try to distract yourself..don't try to stop thinking about altogether. That won't work, you just need to try to do something else and generally in about 15 minutes the thoughts will fade.
And honestly SSRI meds really help. I went on them for a year and then weaned off.
One thing that I do too is I ask myself if other people worry about this kind of thing. If they don't then I can usually attribute the thought to ocd and try to ignore it. For example do people worry about kids getting hit by cars...yes so not ocd. Do people worry about kids getting pricked by syringes that an HIV infected person has used and broken into my car and left in my kids baby seat? Or syringes falling out of purses? No..so this is ocd.
I used to work in a lab that analyzed blood samples and I pricked myself once with a syringe that had been used on unscreened blood. I was tested and I'm fine. One thing that the doctor told me is that even if the needle had just been used on a person with HIV the chances are still less than one percent to contract the disease from a needle prick. It's higher if you are a drug user and ingecting drugs into a vein.
I know you know this fear is irrational from your description. One thing I read in a book once called brain lock is that if you think the fear is ocd then it is ocd... Real issues don't feel like ocd... But irrational ocd fears often mimic real fears.. So if you think it's ocd it is ocd.
This link describes a summary of the 4 steps they talk about in the book brain lock.
http://hope4ocd.com/foursteps.php
It's good that you recognize this fear as being irrational. Your kids are not going to get HIV or hep c from getting stuck by a random needle. It just doesn't happen. Have you ever heard of this actually happening? No I know that you haven't because this is not a real fear.. It's an ocd fear.
My niece has diabetes and she keeps her needles in her diabetes kit which is all sealed up or in a sharps container. They don't have needles floating around in purses.
When you have a thought about syringes.. You need to ask yourself "is this thought related to syringes or HIV?" If it is then you need to tell yourself it is ocd and your brain is tricking you into thinking that something is dangerous when it isn't. Then you need to try to distract yourself..don't try to stop thinking about altogether. That won't work, you just need to try to do something else and generally in about 15 minutes the thoughts will fade.
And honestly SSRI meds really help. I went on them for a year and then weaned off.
One thing that I do too is I ask myself if other people worry about this kind of thing. If they don't then I can usually attribute the thought to ocd and try to ignore it. For example do people worry about kids getting hit by cars...yes so not ocd. Do people worry about kids getting pricked by syringes that an HIV infected person has used and broken into my car and left in my kids baby seat? Or syringes falling out of purses? No..so this is ocd.
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