Thrifting OCD

[stella55]

Hi everyone! I hope you are doing well!!

I haven't been on this forum for a long time, the reason being: I am actually doing much better.
So if some of you remember, I had created this thread. Afterwards, I just kept spiraling downwards, finally reaching a point where I couldn't even touch anything in my house because of the "contamination" fears. I washed my hands after touching any item, so as not to spread the "contamination" to other items. My hands looked terrible. I was also moving through my house very slowly and very carefully, so I don't accidentally touch anything with other body parts.
Anyway, I finally found a therapist and she prescribed me Zoloft. It turned my life upside down. I am now so happy and living my best life. I still get OCD fears and anxiety from time to time, but it's definitely not as bad as it used to be, and those fears also disappear rather quickly.

Anyway, I just wanted to inform you people about my current state. But I created this thread to discuss something with you: Thrift stores.

So I love thrifting. I am actually a big fan of vintage fashion and am especially keen on the 60s and 70s. I love going to vintage thrift stores and browse beautiful, colorful fabrics. I don't dress in vintage every day, but I like to wear a fun 70s dress from time to time.
However, as I have OCD and especially contamination fears, my happiness about finding a unique item is often overshadowed by anxiety. After buying a dress, I hesitate to put it into my washing machine, because I fear that the 50-year-old dirt will contaminate my machine. Moreover, I start thinking what kind of person it belonged to. What if that person was evil? What if they were engaging in some bad activities while wearing that piece? Could their activities and bad energy transfer onto me?
I keep having these thoughts and they rob me of the fun I experience while thrifting. As a result, I often hesitate to wear my vintage pieces and they end up just hanging in my closet for most of the time, which then also makes me feel bad for wasting money.
The funny thing is, I don't feel such strong emotions if I buy something that is from the current years. With vintage pieces, it is as if all those years have added some sort of mystery to those clothes. I don't know how to explain it, it is really weird.

What are your opinions on this? If you have OCD, do you have similar thrifting experiences?

 

[Mari17]

Hi everyone! I hope you are doing well!!

I haven't been on this forum for a long time, the reason being: I am actually doing much better.
So if some of you remember, I had created this thread. Afterwards, I just kept spiraling downwards, finally reaching a point where I couldn't even touch anything in my house because of the "contamination" fears. I washed my hands after touching any item, so as not to spread the "contamination" to other items. My hands looked terrible. I was also moving through my house very slowly and very carefully, so I don't accidentally touch anything with other body parts.
Anyway, I finally found a therapist and she prescribed me Zoloft. It turned my life upside down. I am now so happy and living my best life. I still get OCD fears and anxiety from time to time, but it's definitely not as bad as it used to be, and those fears also disappear rather quickly.

Anyway, I just wanted to inform you people about my current state. But I created this thread to discuss something with you: Thrift stores.

So I love thrifting. I am actually a big fan of vintage fashion and am especially keen on the 60s and 70s. I love going to vintage thrift stores and browse beautiful, colorful fabrics. I don't dress in vintage every day, but I like to wear a fun 70s dress from time to time.
However, as I have OCD and especially contamination fears, my happiness about finding a unique item is often overshadowed by anxiety. After buying a dress, I hesitate to put it into my washing machine, because I fear that the 50-year-old dirt will contaminate my machine. Moreover, I start thinking what kind of person it belonged to. What if that person was evil? What if they were engaging in some bad activities while wearing that piece? Could their activities and bad energy transfer onto me?
I keep having these thoughts and they rob me of the fun I experience while thrifting. As a result, I often hesitate to wear my vintage pieces and they end up just hanging in my closet for most of the time, which then also makes me feel bad for wasting money.
The funny thing is, I don't feel such strong emotions if I buy something that is from the current years. With vintage pieces, it is as if all those years have added some sort of mystery to those clothes. I don't know how to explain it, it is really weird.

What are your opinions on this? If you have OCD, do you have similar thrifting experiences?

So glad to hear you are doing better!! Thank you for letting us know!

I haven't had this specific fear per se, but it definitely sounds like the type of thing OCD would dream up.

It sounds like the medication is working wonderfully for you; however, it's also important to still work on managing your OCD. If you know the tools and mental strategies to use, you can apply them no matter what obsession pops up, and whether or not your medications are working effectively.

What are some strategies that you can use to manage this current obsession?

 

[stella55]

So glad to hear you are doing better!! Thank you for letting us know!

I haven't had this specific fear per se, but it definitely sounds like the type of thing OCD would dream up.

It sounds like the medication is working wonderfully for you; however, it's also important to still work on managing your OCD. If you know the tools and mental strategies to use, you can apply them no matter what obsession pops up, and whether or not your medications are working effectively.

What are some strategies that you can use to manage this current obsession?

Hi and thank you for the reply!

Well, my therapist and I are doing ERP, I try to get rid of my rituals one by one and then I have a kind of diary where I write down how much anxiety I am feeling every day. So I guess if I applied the same strategy here, I should just try not to avoid my thrifted clothes and wear them anyway despite my anxiety?

Right now it would be a very difficult thing for me to do, because my washing machine actually started acting weird while I was washing some of my newly thrifted clothes. It started foaming up and I had to stop the cycle and just rinse everything out. Afterwards I tried turning the machine on with just water and detergent, no clothes, and it started foaming up again. I rinsed it with hot water many times. I switched from powder to liquid detergent, and it's still doing the same thing. I keep telling myself that it is just a coincidence that it started behaving this way while I was washing my thrifted clothes, but of course my brain is now trying to tell me that it's the clothes' fault, that there is something off about them and they ruined my washing machine, and will harm me of I wear them, etc, etc. So yeah... Not the best situation right now

 

[Mari17]

LOL isn't it weird how strange things happen like that? It sounds like you're on the right track with doing ERP. Yes, you're right, the most effective thing you can do to overcome the OCD is to do exactly what it's begging you not to do! Always a terribly hard thing to do, but it does yield results (your mental freedom!) if you keep persisting. I know how hard it is, though, because I've had "contamination" obsessions before (still do, to a certain extent). It's like you can SEE the (nonexistent) contamination! I wonder if it's just because our brains are unusually good at visualizing?