OCD Forum - Different Kinds of OCD Part One - Excessive Hand Washing

As with most forms of OCD, the action is based in logic.

Washing your hands keeps them clean.

Germs do exist in this world and some germs can kill you.

Washing your hands is a good practice for good hygiene.

Here's where the problem is...When it gets out of control.

When you are washing your hands more than normal people with good hygiene would.

Sometimes we have to say, "who cares." To our impulse to wash our hands, period.

You may have thoughts that go like this...If I don't wash my hands, I could contaminate whatever I touch, if I touch the counter, it's contaminated, now, the dishes and everything the counter is touching is contaminated.

Another line of thinking could go, as long as I wear gloves I won't get germs on me so that I won't get contaminated by this dirty world.

We have to look at this situation logically knowing that OCD impulses are based on trying to control something, trying to avoid a pain or to receive pleasure.

Everything we do is for two purposes, to avoid pain or to receive pleasure.

Even though our actions and thoughts are based on emotion, not logic, our emotions are based on some kind of logic. Becoming OCD free is correctly faulty logic, which in turn will correct our emotions, which in turn will change how we are driven and what we feel driven to do.

So let's look at the example of hand washing:

After you wash your hands thoroughly once, you do not need to do it again, and just refuse to do it. It's going to be really annoying and you might even think that you did not do it good enough the first time, then you would do it again because you washed twice and two is an unlucky number and three is, etc. etc.

Recognize that this is all just magic thinking.

You must realize that your brain is not going to stop and your OCD will always continue to morph. Even though I cover different types of OCD, getting to the root cause is the only answer.

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Derek Soto is an ex-sufferer of OCD who teaches people how to overcome their OCD for good in a very short time using little known techniques which are usually ignored by the medical field altogether.

Derek Soto also mentors people on a wide range of subjects including how to control your thinking naturally, how to defeat anxiety, phobias and how to change your thought processes so that you will be happier and live a more fulfilling life, period.