Thursday, January 01, 2015

You Know It's OCD When:

I was washing my hands in the sink and little bubbles came out of the overflow hole.  Now for me that means those bubbles could have mold attached to them from the plumbing under the sink.  I don't know this for sure, as i don't have any plumbing knowledge.  What i do know is that the house is over 20 yrs old, the plumbing hasn't been redone in the bathroom and mold likes wet places.  Ergo 1+1+1=OCD.  I don't know how rational my thinking is in this corner.  I don't know whether plumbing from 5 yrs ago tends to have less mold than plumbing from 20 yrs ago, or whether sinks get mold in them at all.  This is just the premise.  See my last post for other ocd-inspired theories i've come up with in my life.

So remember that i have 1 broken foot, so can't walk very well on it. ( I can do a bit of a hobble if i need to).

Now i'm at the sink, not quite finished my hand washing 'routine' when the bubbles start coming out.  So i quickly stop (don't want to get any on my arms) and start to hobble toward the kitchen where i can finish washing my hands.  Bruce is just figuratively shaking his head, but what can i do?  If i decide that I don't need to go to the kitchen, that this is all stupid, then what have i been thinking and responding to the last 7 yrs ?

So i get my hands  properly' washed while wondering what would have happened had this been last week, when i couldn't hobble and would have had to use my walker to get to the kitchen, thus contaminating the walker.
Five minutes later OCD decides i need another hand wash but this time i wait, pick up my daughter's book and read to her, and then it goes  away.  Katrina and i have a discussion about how sometimes it can be a while before OCD dread feelings go away.  She is experiencing the same problem with her ERP activity.

I also just remembered that i haven't taken my pills for the day, and my walker is 5 or 6' away and i have no water close by.

 Here we go a-hobbling among the leaves so green,
 here we go a hobbling,....once again.

2 comments:

  1. "Five minutes later OCD decides i need another hand wash but this time i wait, pick up my daughter's book and read to her, and then it goes away."

    YES! This is amazing, Karin! It does indeed go away if we just sit with the anxiety and ignore and distract ourselves. Good for you!

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  2. Yay for you, Karin! You've got the control in there :) I hope your foot gets better soon!

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