HIV FEAR.

[SamBourne]

First of all, many thanks for being available for so many people who need help.
So, here is what I have to say:

I am kinda introvert person and am really thinking too much. OCD has prevailed most of my life since I knew about the condition. However, previously it used to be re-checking, re-evaluating, thinking very deep i.e. not using certain words.

However, it has shifted to HIV fear. Whenever I go out of home, I feel I will not come home without catching it. I worry if there are needles whenever I am shopping and the person who recently put the bag on the surface might have pricked himself and well ... no need to mention, is there?

I've consulted my best choice option--my mother--and she says that she has taken every possible measurement to help us( me and my brother) lead a very old age.(VERY FUNNY; I KNOW THAT).
However, THIS IS INDIA!

I hate going out in the streets -- there's so much pollution and people are not hygenic. Anybody spits anywhere! EEeee!
So, back to the topic.
I feel I'll get contaminated by blood, saliva etc. etc.
There'll be times when I will aredently take a different path. And then, there are obsessions there too.

I worry about my incidents in past where ... well, it is perhaps better to write my statement. 'Oh ... if that time, when I was doing that ... what could have happened? Would there have been blood?'

It gets very depressing.
I hope you will help me.
Thank you very much,
Soham.

[Ted A Grossbart, Ph.D.]

Soham,

While you are prone to OCD and India has its public health issues, it sound like the key is lingering feelings about something you did, I'm guessing of a sexual nature and not ideally safe.   But if you were going to have medical problems from it you would have had symptoms by now.

So I a guessing lingering guilt is the problem.

Let me know if I am on the right track.  I can appreciate that full discussion in a public forum won't be possible.

tg

[Ted A Grossbart, Ph.D.]

Glad to hear it.  You sound like a thoughtful person who will do well with it over time.  Best of luck.

tg

[SamBourne]

Yes. Consulted two fellows.
One psyhiatrist and one psychologist. Feel that psychologist was better helpful.
Currently in CBT days. Slowly, slowly coming over it.
Also, having a lot of spiritual guidance.
Hope that is ok.

[Ted A Grossbart, Ph.D.]

Have you tried psychotherapy?

tg

[SamBourne]

Sir,

In a melodramatic reply, I would say, 'Bingo!'
Actually, it was one of the days when I was sitting and just reading a book when a thought entered my mind.
I hope to be a writer and hence, am glad when these thoughts come to me. (NOT OCD ones).
It was surrounding a conspiracy theory of HIV. And plotting down would have been the great idea for some reasons.
I let that thought go by.
A few days later, I was coming home from the tutions and while on the road, something hit my eyes.
FROM THEN ONWARDS, the fear has grown so much that I am really afraid to go out.

Even going out for buying simple things like pen, book or say picking someone up is like a big task.
Hope you get a broader idea about it.

Guilt factor is very much prevalant now-a-days. Earlier, it was not.

Hypochondria and Cyberchondria are indeed getting me--well to exactly say--'PISSED OFF!'