Can I stop my covid regime?

[Serena1977]

When covid first came last March, me and dh decided to do a few things to try and keep us safer from covid. Dh is a bus driver and I work part time in a school and am vulnerable.

This entails dettol wiping the shopping, quarantining non food shopping, washing hands after dealing with the post and stripping off when we come in, in the hall, putting all clothes in the washer and having a full shower.

Dh, me and ds8 and dd9 are still doing this. Therefore depending on what we are doing, it could be 3 showers as well as 3 outfits per day.

For example, I showered after I returned from school drop off, showered again as well as DC at 3.30pm when we got back from school and then this evening after we had been for a walk and called at our allotment. Even though we didnt go near anymore at the allotment, we wore coats that we wear everyday and used the car.

I am getting so tired of the washing, ironing, showering and also the cost of clothes tab, shower gel, shampoo, electricity, water etc etc

I couldn't face another shower the other day knowing that I would need another later that day that i sat in our freezing garden for 2 hours until my next errand, did that then showered.

It wasn't so bad in winter because it was cold, nowhere to go, nothing open but now the weather is getting better, we are out and about more eg bike rides, walks, allotment etc.

Not confident enough for other activities yet.

Because we have done it so long and not caught covid, I cant stop. Dh says we should stop now because we had our second jab today.

Yes I have diagnosed OCD and been under various psychiatric services and take medication so the OCD muddies my thinking.

Should I stop now?

I think it’s ok for you to stop now

You don't need permission from us. The question is will your OCD let you stop? I mean that nicely.

I honestly think you can stop now.

Airborne virus is much more of a risk than contact. You are vaccinated. Numbers are currently low.

Fully understand that with OCD that might feel huge: could you start with small steps like not needing to change and shower for outdoor things like allotment/bike rides.

You must be knackered from the laundry.

I would carry on with washing hands after dealing with the post but stop everything else, if you're in a low-rate area. Time to start getting back to normal. I'm a bit OCD too. I do wash my hands a lot and see that as enough, now.

You can definitely stop now. Absolutely. It’s an airborne disease, all of that is virtually zero help and always has been.

Thank you @Barkbark

I dont know @BeakyWinder but I'm so fed up working out how to plan my day on the basis of the least amount of showers. My hair and skin are frazzled and there's never a dry towel in the house!

I understand why you did this.

I understand why it is hard to stop.

I agree you can stop... but it will be hard. Can you pick one thing this week and stop that one? Would that be manageable?

If I am honest, now the information on catching it through touch is so clear - I think those things are a waste of time. If you are going to catch it, it is very likely to be by breathing it in while you are out. All the washing will not change that.

Good luck and don;t listen to anyone who calls you names for this, I understand it is hard to give up these things.

The rational part of you knows that of course you can stop.
In fact you probably shouldn’t have even started most of it in the first place.
To me, this is VERY extreme.
This behaviour is not proportional to the risks involved and it never was.
Are any of you particularly vulnerable?
Please, for your children’s sake stop.
Your OCD is taking over their lives.

Goodness that sounds exhausting. Have you had any of your jabs yet?

DH is ECV and we did the whole shopping and post thing until more evidence came out about how it is transmitted. It was exhausting. Now we have been vaccinated DH both and I’ve had one and there are far few cases we are generally less cautious than a few months ago.

Can you stop slowly?

Eg keep wiping food for now. Maybe have indoor and outdoor clothes. But stop all the showering.

And slowly cut it down further?

Yes I have diagnosed OCD and been under various psychiatric services and take medication so the OCD muddies my thinking.

I was waiting for that.

You can stop. Because you didn't ever have to do that.

Op please get some help for our anxiety. Your children must be so afraid of this virus being made to do this regime for a year. You don’t haven’t to be controlled by your anxiety. If you can afford it, private therapy can be amazing.

Honestly, we just do as we always did, wash hands when we come in the house.

@Chipsahoy

Op please get some help for our anxiety. Your children must be so afraid of this virus being made to do this regime for a year. You don’t haven’t to be controlled by your anxiety. If you can afford it, private therapy can be amazing.

Honestly, we just do as we always did, wash hands when we come in the house.

I agree with this. I'm vulnerable and I don't every bother washing my hands when I come in quite often anymore. You know that this is not a proportionate reaction especially as you've had your vaccine and cases are so low.

Maybe have indoor and outdoor clothes.

Let's go through this...

The fomite route has been largely dismissed. It's a coughing/sneezing/breathing thing not a touching thing. Fabric is a terrible fomite even for diseases that like to travel that way. Exactly how are the particles ending up in OP from wearing clothes on the school run? How is showering helping? Hands and faces are the only places that need doing anyway. And face is a stretch.

I can pretty much guarantee no one in the entire world has been infected with COVID by their briefly worn clothes in a normal environment (non-medical). It's not a route of transmission.

I’m asthmatic and I was doing some of the things you were doing, OP, including washing & quarantining shopping and post plus hand washing or using hand sanitizer every time I touched something outside my house or car and before touching my mask.

Two weeks after my first vaccine, I decided it was time to get a grip. The fist thing I stopped doing was quarantining post. Then I stopped washing shopping. Then I went to a supermarket during the day, rather than late at night. Then I went to the hairdresser. I’m still hand washing & using sanitizer and probably will for a while yet.

It was a big relief to let go of these behaviours, and feel more relaxed and more normal, and nothing bad happened, of course. One step at a time, OP .

Honestly it’s fine for you to stop.

Without wanting to exacerbate your anxiety - surely both your jobs and your child being in school every day expose you to an infinitely higher risk than the shopping or the post or doing errands? As the transmission is airborne then you would catch it by breathing in contaminated air whilst in close proximity to someone who had it - not from wearing clothes after the event?

Plus you’ve both had two vaccinations and currently this means that even if you did get COVID you would not get it to the extent that you needed hospitalisation.

I get the concept - it’s the only part of the equation you can actively control, but the actions you are taking will make little or no difference to your risk of exposure so are ultimately pointless (apart from the hand washing).

I hope this or some of the replies help you rationalise this, it must be exhausting, but with any luck you’ll really enjoy it once your laundry is back to a manageable level & you don’t feel you have to spend half your day in the shower

As a previous poster had said the evidence to support the theory you might catch it from surfaces just hasn't emerged. We've relaxed right back to pre covid levels of hand washing.

The vaccinations are a game changer too.

Good luck OP. X

Sorry MrsTerryPratchett, it was just a thought to perhaps help with a transition away from constant showers.

I've always had "indoor" and "outdoor" clothes, not because of covid but because of the feeling of getting general grime from buses or the outdoors onto my nice sofa and bed, so it didn't feel like too weird a suggestion!

It’s absolutely fine and rational to stop doing the things you’re doing.

If you find it hard because of your OCD, have a very low threshold for seeking support. It’s hard.

I think it was so scary for a lot of people last March that I started these things and because of the OCD, even though rationally I can stop, the habit has formed. Because we haven't caught covid, my head thinks it's because we did all those things, therefore the inverse of that is, if we stop doing these things, we'll catch it.

Typing it, I can clearly see it makes no sense but there is a short circuit somewhere.

I wish I could afford private therapy. The NHS has previously tried but we all know all the stories of how it's struggling. Because the waiting lists are so long and CBT and talking therapies are lengthy, I am left languishing on antidepressants despite me saying, I am no depressed, I have OCD. Depression and OCD are two different illnesses that need different treatments. It would be like putting a plaster cast on someone who has chicken pox!

I have never done any of that. There is little evidence of transmission through surfaces as it is mainly passed on through direct aerosol transmission. I think it's time to ease off on your showering regime

It's difficult when this has been your routine for so long but of course you need to stop. Maybe stop with 1 thing at a time for a week or so, then you'll see that nothing bad happened when you stopped. Move on to the next thing and slowly enjoy returning to normal. But I totally understand that it's difficult, I was wiping shopping and changing clothes but I found it exhausting after a month or 2 and once I got over being nervous about what might happen I was fine 🙂

@zzizzer

Sorry MrsTerryPratchett, it was just a thought to perhaps help with a transition away from constant showers.

I've always had "indoor" and "outdoor" clothes, not because of covid but because of the feeling of getting general grime from buses or the outdoors onto my nice sofa and bed, so it didn't feel like too weird a suggestion!

I sort of realised after I posted my rant.

Because the waiting lists are so long and CBT and talking therapies are lengthy, I am left languishing on antidepressants despite me saying, I am not depressed, I have OCD.

Specific anti depressants help though-it’s a standard treatment. Don’t think they’re for depression, they have a role in helping ocd too. It’s a scandal that access to CBT is so poor though.

BeakyWinder

You don't need permission from us. The question is will your OCD let you stop? I mean that nicely.“

I don’t think you understand, BeakyWinder, however nice you are (which you no doubt are, I’m not being unkind either) But .......

Cast your mind back to Feb/March 2020 when the PM was telling us all to stay behind locked doors and not see our parents and grown up children. We all watched as Italy, with one of the world’s best healthcare systems, was turning people away from hospitals because they had no space on the floor.
These people, who for all you know are clinically vulnerable, had to go out every day and perform public facing jobs when many of us had the luxury of staying firmly behind our front doors, appearing only to bang saucepans and play saxophones on Thursday nights, (preferably with our phones set firmly to record, our kids scrubbed up nicely and rainbow drawings pasted in the windows). I didn’t, you’ll probably guess

I can completely understand why anyone working in a public facing role would feel as you do, Serena. Add your condition and I can only imagine how this past year must have been for you.

My husband is CEV, he has a genetic disorder that can be set off by any minor infection and each episode could kill him. Needless to say, we were extremely cautious. We stayed at home for 14 months, our son in his formative sixth form years has spent that period working from home online (not always with the best support) to protect his dad. We didn’t see our daughter, SIL and first grandchild. We did all of those things too, bar the showering because we are fortunate enough to be able to effectively work at home.
We are now vaccinated, as you are, thank providence. My husband has had both jabs, I (no conditions) have had my first. Our youngest son has asthma, he’s 18. Lots of qualified people tell me he is unlikely to become seriously ill and if I am true to my gut instinct, which is to trust the science and the incredibly dedicated scientists, I have to believe them.
So, he has returned to College, testing twice weekly (on face to face College days). We stopped washing our shopping deliveries and began to see our daughter and her family at the same time (with them LF testing before they visit, just to be sure). I can’t explain the joy! We are sticking to the guidelines until our son is vaccinated: he’s given up so much that he deserves that respect in return.

You have both had two vaccines, you are amongst the most protected people on earth now. So, you don’t need to shower other than daily to keep normally clean, you don’t need to strip off and launder, you don’t need to wash the shopping (just your hands when you’ve put it away, which we should all do anyway, all the time) and the post is fine: for confidence, just put it aside for 3 hours.

Please keep wearing your mask in public places and SD until everyone is vaccinated, because we owe our youngsters that. You and your husband and children can safely dispense with those precautions now, though 💐

(Sorry for banging on for so long, everyone: I just so get where Serena is coming from).