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Hitting a wall with OCD treatment -Rabies Again! Help!
Hello all,
I am struggling with ERP as a form of treatment for my rabies OCD. I wonder will something else work? Hypnosis, any other kind of alternative therapy?
In one of our temporary sheds out back there is rabbit (or something) foot with a bone sticking out of it that some animal must have dragged in and snacked on. It has been there at least a week and probably much longer. Well, my hubby hasn't finished cleaing that part of the shed yet and I had to walk past it while carrying my child's scooter and of course I worried in my struggle to get out without tripping over stuff that the scooter may have hit the animal foot, which may have hit my pants (can't remember) and then both my daughter and I touched the scooter so of course I panicked about RABIES. Before we went in we both touched another bike handles. We went in and washed our hands. Went back out. She touched bike handle again. Later I saw her eating in the house with her hands. Unclear if she washed again. Arrrgh!! I really hate OCD. I am imagining the rabies jumping from thing to thing to thing. Help!
I am trying hard to let it go, but not doing very well.
I am struggling with ERP as a form of treatment for my rabies OCD. I wonder will something else work? Hypnosis, any other kind of alternative therapy?
In one of our temporary sheds out back there is rabbit (or something) foot with a bone sticking out of it that some animal must have dragged in and snacked on. It has been there at least a week and probably much longer. Well, my hubby hasn't finished cleaing that part of the shed yet and I had to walk past it while carrying my child's scooter and of course I worried in my struggle to get out without tripping over stuff that the scooter may have hit the animal foot, which may have hit my pants (can't remember) and then both my daughter and I touched the scooter so of course I panicked about RABIES. Before we went in we both touched another bike handles. We went in and washed our hands. Went back out. She touched bike handle again. Later I saw her eating in the house with her hands. Unclear if she washed again. Arrrgh!! I really hate OCD. I am imagining the rabies jumping from thing to thing to thing. Help!
I am trying hard to let it go, but not doing very well.
I am going through the same thing rabies ocd /HIV ocd that's a lot for me to handle :(
1 Comments
I still have problems with both!! So difficult to shake.
You remind me of myself! I too had an encounter with an unknown cat who hissed and attacked my leg, biting my jeans. I was convinced I got rabies, even though my skin was not broken (at least it did not look broken but that did not matter to the OCD mind) In my fear I ended up starting rabies shots. The animal control officer found the cat who happened to be up to date on vacs so I discontinued the shots. I was going through a hard time and my OCD was OOC! This was four years ago. To this day I still have trouble with animals I don't know, although I will pet dogs if they are with someone. I even have 2 cats and i love them, but a cat just wandering unattended still makes me very nervous which is a shame. So I have the same struggles. The bat thing has been a big one, roadkill on the car, etc. etc. Have no idea why my mind has latched onto this. Before OCD I never gave any of this a second thought, ever.
I worry every time I see a mark anywhere on either of my kids. I always picture the worst case scenario -that a bat entered the bedroom, bit my child, and escaped before I woke up to see it. This drives me crazy. I am also nervous going out once it gets dark for fear that I will be attacked by a bat. This has been going on for 8 years, ever since I was bitten by a stray dog and forever traumatized. A few days ago I felt something hit my ankle when walking outside in the dark and I keep worrying it was a bat. I am even bothered by toy bats, or anything with the picture of a bat, or a such a theme, because those things serve as constant reminders.
We OCDers come up with the most amazing stories!! And can make the most remotest remotest event an actuality (in our minds). We had cats that went outdoors when I was a kid and they would come home with all sorts of wounds. My mom would clean them up, they licked us , we petted them and so on. Guess what, none of us got rabies!! I wish I could live like that again, now it is a mental fight against every little thing that could possibly be a rabies source. It causes a lot of anxiety and lost time. We can never have 100% certainty and it is scary to learn to live with that. I understand what you are going through.
I just Googled OCD Rabies and found this. Am struggling with this myself. Have moved on from AIDS/HIV to Rabies recently - think it's because AIDS isn't actually that scary any more. My current rabies one involves a very complex sorry about a hypothetical dog going on a hypothetical holiday (since we don't actually have rabies where I live), contracting it (but the "dumb" form so that it's owner didn't notice what's happened when it drops dead!). Then it needs to infect a cat (preferably a stray so it's owner's also don't notice anything) - the same cat that got into a fight with mine on the weekend (didn't see the cat mine was fighting with you see - so of course I can imagine that it wasn't one of the usual neighbourhood ones). And then, my cat must have got saliva or something from this cat under it's claws - which got caught in his claws in such a way that through all the jumping, scratching, washing, etc he did in the day, the rabid material stayed wet and unexposed to UV so that 15 hours later when he scratched me, I got infected! Now why does the cat my cat was fighting with have to be rabid in the first place? It doesn't - so my brain made a story so that it could be rabid! :-) Sigh - OCD is super-fun...
You have to be exposed to saliva or brain tissue to catch rabies. It also is not a very hardy virus and doesn't survive long outside of the body. And if you were bitten you would know you were bitten. But I know what OCD does to your brain. You can be totally logical and know all the facts but it doesn't matter. I went through a rabies thing too. It *****.
I think I read that normally you have to get bitten to get rabies.I guess you could verify that with a Vet or Dr. And think about how people without OCD would respond to the risk
Not enough serotonin leads to cells being unable to adequate speak to one another and our mood is all over the place as well.
I have calmed down a bit mostly because another trigger came my way. You can't catch a break with OCD it seems. I was outside 15 seconds shaking out a rug, walked back in, started to use the stretchy hose on my dyson vacuum, it pulled over the vacuum which fell and gouged my bare ankle. The proximity of the two events triggered me to fear that I got attacked by a rabid animal outside when I know LOGICALLY that I did not, it was the vacuum. But nonetheless sends me into full panic mode. I spoke to my husband and took a klonopin and feel better. OCD minds seem to be miswired or something!
What you have to realize is that more than likely the animal is rabies free. Use your ERP and self-coaching here. It is probably more directed toward your daughter than yourself from what you wrote. The worrying about our children just leads to spikes in our OCD. Can you call your therapist?
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