Aa
HIV fear
hii!! This sounds weird. I have this extreme fear of catching HIV. Sometimes my mind build up stories as to how I would have contracted it. I am not engaged at all in any risky activities. The fear arises from unusual situations. Latest is I fear that I would have drank or washed my eyes with toilet bowl water. The toilet is used only by me and my husband only very few times some friends may have used it. My concern is whether the toilet bowl water has HIV in it? where does the water comes from toilet bowl. Is it mixed with other houses water supply Is there any risk of getting HIV by drinking or splashing toilet bowl water on eyes considering the toilet is used only by me and my husband. I know I would never do this but my mind wants to believe that I have done it. So please help. I am stuck with this thought.
Thank you sparky43. The way you explain things is amazing. I do meditate but I cannot fully concentrate. I will start reading books suggested by you guys. Thanks.
Yep, the water in the toilet bowl does not have any HIV in it and cannot infect you.
It sounds like you do have OCD and with OCD, reassurance can only go so far. You can get reliable information that you are fine but then what I like to call the "yeah but what if..." part of your brain will start casting doubts and reaching for extremely far-fetched scenarios to try to convince you that there is still a problem. Sometimes you will actually drop whatever fear you currently have only to become anxious about something else.
Your best plan of action is to get your OCD under control. I think phobias are a by-product of OCD. Your mind is looking for something to obsess about, and its centering on HIV. I would recommend seeing a psychiatrist or psychologist if you can. A psychiatrist can prescribe medication that will help to calm your OCD down. Talk therapy like CBT would also help to reduce your OCD, which is the primary cause of all this. If your psychiatrist doesn't specialize in talk therapy and only wants to prescribe drugs to treat your OCD, you may want to consult a psychologist.
Other things you can do are to meditate (or pray if you are religious), get daily vigorous exercise, get 8 hours of sleep a night, eat regular healthy meals (I know when you feel like this you can lose your appetite but starving yourself can increase your OCD - your brain doesn't run right without nutrients), keep occupied (its hard to worry if your brain is occupied) and be social - get out and be around people you like.
If you want to try some self-therapy. There are several good self-help books out there. In addition to the book JGF recommended, two I like are "Worry" by Dr. Edward Halloran and "You Are Not Your Brain" by Dr. Jeffery Schwartz.
It sounds like you do have OCD and with OCD, reassurance can only go so far. You can get reliable information that you are fine but then what I like to call the "yeah but what if..." part of your brain will start casting doubts and reaching for extremely far-fetched scenarios to try to convince you that there is still a problem. Sometimes you will actually drop whatever fear you currently have only to become anxious about something else.
Your best plan of action is to get your OCD under control. I think phobias are a by-product of OCD. Your mind is looking for something to obsess about, and its centering on HIV. I would recommend seeing a psychiatrist or psychologist if you can. A psychiatrist can prescribe medication that will help to calm your OCD down. Talk therapy like CBT would also help to reduce your OCD, which is the primary cause of all this. If your psychiatrist doesn't specialize in talk therapy and only wants to prescribe drugs to treat your OCD, you may want to consult a psychologist.
Other things you can do are to meditate (or pray if you are religious), get daily vigorous exercise, get 8 hours of sleep a night, eat regular healthy meals (I know when you feel like this you can lose your appetite but starving yourself can increase your OCD - your brain doesn't run right without nutrients), keep occupied (its hard to worry if your brain is occupied) and be social - get out and be around people you like.
If you want to try some self-therapy. There are several good self-help books out there. In addition to the book JGF recommended, two I like are "Worry" by Dr. Edward Halloran and "You Are Not Your Brain" by Dr. Jeffery Schwartz.
Since it is an obsessional thought perhaps the book Overcoming Obsessive Thoughts: How to Gain Control of Your OCD by Christine Purdon may be of help.
Thabk you for your reply sparky43. So you mean that water in toilet bowl is free from HIV. I am not scared of any other illness like cholera and all which actually spreads through water but HIV. I just want to be sure and stop obsessing about it. Can you suggest something about how to get rid if such thoughts. I feel like I have lost control over my mind. Please help.
And to give you some additional indication about how difficult it is to become infected by HIV, medical professionals who accidentally stick themselves with a bloody needle that has just been used on a known HIV-positive patient only become infected 0.3% of the time. 99.7% of the time, nothing happens. Hospitals keep accurate records of these events and personnel must report them for liability reasons, so the data is solid.
Unless you start having unprotected sex with a large number of strangers or start using IV drugs and sharing used needles to do so, you are never going to become infected with HIV. It just doesn't happen through everyday activities.
Unless you start having unprotected sex with a large number of strangers or start using IV drugs and sharing used needles to do so, you are never going to become infected with HIV. It just doesn't happen through everyday activities.
JGF is absolutely correct about HIV and its very limited lifespan outside of the human body. There is no way you could become infected with HIV from the toilet (even a public toilet).
And to answer your question about toilet water, it comes from the same source as your faucets and shower - the water department. Clean water enters your house from the main line on your street. From there, it enters the toilet tank where it is stored until the toilet is flushed. When the toilet is flushed, a valve opens and the water in the tank flows downwards into the bowl with the aid of gravity. Once it gets into the bowl, it continues down into the sewer carrying away any waste that was in the bowl with it. Once the tank has released all its water, the valve closes and the tank re-fills with clean water. It's a one-way system. There is no way for anything from the bowl to get back up into the tank. In fact, in cases of natural disaster when water has been cut off, you could actually drink the water that is inside the toilet's holding tank with no ill effects.
And to answer your question about toilet water, it comes from the same source as your faucets and shower - the water department. Clean water enters your house from the main line on your street. From there, it enters the toilet tank where it is stored until the toilet is flushed. When the toilet is flushed, a valve opens and the water in the tank flows downwards into the bowl with the aid of gravity. Once it gets into the bowl, it continues down into the sewer carrying away any waste that was in the bowl with it. Once the tank has released all its water, the valve closes and the tank re-fills with clean water. It's a one-way system. There is no way for anything from the bowl to get back up into the tank. In fact, in cases of natural disaster when water has been cut off, you could actually drink the water that is inside the toilet's holding tank with no ill effects.
Hi there. First you have to understand how HIV is transmitted. It is transmitted through unprotected sex with an HIV positive person, through blood transfusion (no really anymore because the blood is checked), and through inadvertent needle stick. HIV does not survive outside of the host it is living and replicating in. Once HIV comes into contact with air, it dies. It cannot live in water, spit or anything like that. Think about it, if it were so easy to catch, everybody in the world would be infected. It is nothing like the flu virus which you can get from an infected person sneezing on a door knob. For this we should all be thankful!
Once you understand that you may be able to let the thought go. But what concerns me is that you are stuck on this thought that you know to be irrational, i.e., splashing yourself with toilet water. So my questions is, what other thoughts do you have? Are they always about HIV or do you have other irrational fears? HIV anxiety and OCD can have similar thought processes and I cannot diagnose you on the forum so not sure what you are suffering from.
I'll await your response to reply further with some suggestions.
Once you understand that you may be able to let the thought go. But what concerns me is that you are stuck on this thought that you know to be irrational, i.e., splashing yourself with toilet water. So my questions is, what other thoughts do you have? Are they always about HIV or do you have other irrational fears? HIV anxiety and OCD can have similar thought processes and I cannot diagnose you on the forum so not sure what you are suffering from.
I'll await your response to reply further with some suggestions.
1 Comments
Thank you for your reply JGF25. I basically have thoughts about catching HIV only. Even if I see discarded sewing needle I get anxious. But this latest thought that there is HIV in toilet bowl water makes me doubt myself whether I somehow drank that water or washed my eyes with it.This is driving me crazy. I have to convince myself each time I use toilet that I have not done something stupid like this and in the process I spend lot of time in checking and convincing untill I am fully assured. Also I read online that there may be HIV if there is visible blood in toilet bowl but that was in public toilet. Is the water in toilet bowl safe at home or does it has sewer from anyone elses home?
I am trying various meditation techniques to get rid of these thoughts but its not helping much. Please help.
I am trying various meditation techniques to get rid of these thoughts but its not helping much. Please help.
Have an Answer?
You are reading content posted in the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Community
A list of national and international resources and hotlines to help connect you to needed health and medical services.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
Condoms are the most effective way to prevent HIV and STDs.
PrEP is used by people with high risk to prevent HIV infection.
