Scabies fears- what would you do?

[AnxiousWorld3]

I suffer with anxiety and OCD behaviours, mainly around infestations (however considered "mild", and advised to "self-manage" my condition when I've sought help before).

I've had a bit of an obsession with scabies for a while. In the last few days I've worked with a colleague that kept scratching at some red marks on his hand (first day I could have sworn it looked like a burrow, after that it was a scab he kept picking at).

We've shared a working space this week and shaken hands once. Occasionally handled the same item, e.g. laptop.

How worried should I be? Rationally I can't be sure it was scabies and everything I read says its unlikely to catch it without prolonged contact but I'm ready to douse myself in lotion as the thought of passing it on to my children and putting them through treatment in future is unbearable to me.

But I'm equally anxious to do this in case using it needlessly increases scabies resistance and puts me in a worst situation in future, and in case I develop an all body reaction to the lotion.

Please help, I dont know what to do.

I worked in an office with someone who openly talked about her/her families scabies infestation and not one of us picked it up from her!

Highly unlikely to be scabies and very very unlikely to catch it if it was !
try again to get some therapy for the ocd / anxiety -
try NHS Talking Therapies in your area

Oh that is good to know! Did anyone shake hands with her? That's the bit I am a bit petrified about. I know technically it needs prolonged contact so the mite can come up amd then move to the next person but since he kept picking at it, the mite might have been on his fingers/nails or maybe the eggs?

Arghh it's an OCD nightmare. I spent the week visualising mites on everything

I’ve also worked with people who have had active scabies, never caught it!
Scabies is treatable, so even if the worst comes to the worst you’d just need to apply a cream to get rid.

Thanks @Bumdrops I contacted NHS Talking Therapies and had an assessment a few months ago. They told me it would be a few months wait, and depressingly I got the notification on Monday that they advise me to self manage with some resources they pointed me to.

At the time I didn't mind as I was in a good place mentally then that situation with my colleague started and I'm overwhelmed again!

Thank you @2men3eyebrows so would you not treat yet? (I have the lotion as I'd bought it preemptively after another scare last year but didn't end up using it.)

I'm just worried that by the time I get clear symptoms I will have infected my kids who are very young and so it will be a lot more hard work to treat than if I just put myself through it now.

It might be worth mentioning that I see this colleague a few times a year and they have picked at and had marks on their hands every time i have seen them. But this time there was one that looked like a silver/white bendy mark under the skin which really looked like a burrow to me.

Either they have some other condition or they have had scabies for over a year (definitely not the kind of person who wouldn't treat it, but perhaps they're struggling with reinfection)

I had it when I was about 16 and none of my family got it.

Sorry to hear that @AnxiousWorld3 - you got fobbed off by them -
id suggest self refer again,
say things have got worse and it’s affecting your life -
they get paid per assessment so keep badgering them - you are entitled to it and it clearly does
affect your life -
BTW - please don’t worry about scabies - this really sounds like anxiety x

Thank you so much for the responses, it's nice to talk it through.

I'll try to resist using the lotion, otherwise it may start a slippery slope of me constantly using it in future "just in case" I guess.

I just can't think what else would make them scratch and pick at their hands constantly...

You honestly can’t catch scabies from shaking hands with someone once and handling the same laptop. You need prolonged contact.
If you are not itching and don’t have a rash, it’s pretty much certain you don’t have scabies. It itches like hell.

Thanks @FictionalCharacter . The issue is that it can take weeks to show symptoms, so I'm not itchy now but could still have caught it.

Would it have been really itchy in the daytime too in the early days? He was picking at it constantly and occasionally scratching, but not frantically scratching.

I just know I'll fret for about a month and feel reluctant to hold my children's hands until I feel like I'm in the clear. It's going to be exhausting.

It might be eczema on his hands that he is scratching

My friend has that on her hands and it’s eczema. Common place due to hand washing drying skin out.

For your sake, you need to not use the lotion. Get through the next few weeks and it’ll pass. Like you say, if you use the lotion it’ll make rhe OCD worse.

You scan buy scabies treatment over the counter

You should recontact the therapy service as it sounds like your phobias are overwhelming you. It's not really manageable for you to have to scrutinise other people's skin and diagnose contagious illnesses. Hopefully they'll give you some actual talking therapy this time.

I have it, I just don't know if I should use it as I'm not sure how much risk there is

Don’t worry, scabies has a really distinct pattern. It isn’t just an itchy red patch. It’s almost like a straight, silvery-topped burn. Very visibly a burrow.

Don't treat it for now for the sake of your mindset, and don’t worry about your children catching it. Even if they were to hypothetically catch it (vanishingly unlikely) you can just slap the cream on them and it’s sorted really quickly. Of all the pests to have scabies is by far the most convenient!

I caught scabies off of my then two year old whilst I was heavily pregnant with baby no. 2! Husband didn’t catch it off, nor did grandparents etc. It was actually easy to treat but I was in the midst of crippling OCD myself at the time so it sent me a bit bonkers and started me off down a mad route of mass decluttering and throwing things away.

I had one tiny patch of it on my hand and it was unbearably itchy!

Thank you @2men3eyebrows I do tend to imagine the worst scenarios so I'm imagining that we'd all be infested and struggle to get rid of it for months, be unable to sleep etc. I wish I had a more balanced mind!

Poor you, that sounds like an OCD nightmare, especially when pregnant. How had your 2 year old caught it, from childcare?

Tell your friend to go and have an allergy test done.

I was always diagnosed with eczema or psoriasis and given treatment but nothing would help
Ended up in a&e after a particularly bad episode and the doctor referred me for an allergy test.

Apparently I am allergic to shampoo, body wash, hand wash and detergent and a whole host of everyday things, including the moisturisers and lotions that were recommended to use on my eczema. I am allergic to all the hyper allergenic stuff as well. Had my allergy test during lockdown just before the Covid Vaccine came out. Which I would have been very wary of taking because of the reaction I usually got from vaccines.

I am officially allergic to the Covid Vaccine and all injectable vaccines. Good job I had the sugar cube method of the polio vaccine.

Should add that within a week of cutting everything out of my life that I was allergic to I had effortlessly smooth skin and the hours I spent each day just itching stopped