OCD overload

[From123]

I’ve posted on here previously but would really like some advice or a good talking to.

I had ocd prior to being pregnant but never with cleanliness mine was more mental. Since being pregnant my OCD has gone wild, I’m scared to eat a lot of foods, won’t go to restaurants incase I can’t eat anything, constantly washing my hands, I feel feel awful for wasting food because somethings freaked me out.

I’ve been referred but am still waiting on this, some days are better than others BUT….

We have two indoor cats who are litter trained, I love them to bits even though the one is very naughty.

My partner has been cleaning the litter boxes and is a very tidy person, however, after he cleans the litter box, he takes the bag out and then comes in washes his hands and will go in the fridge or move things on the side, it makes me not want to eat or drink anything he’s touched because his hands might not be completely clean. I’m terrified of catching something from the cats because of urine or poo, I’ve found a cat hair in my food and will not continue eating after this out of fear I’ll eat something and do harm. My
logic says that in supermarkets I don’t know who’s touching what and I still buy it and in factories etc….

Am I being completely irrational?

It’s not ‘irrational’ but it is OCD, which is extremely hard to live with. It’s great youve been referred; is it possible to follow up with gp or midwife and try find out timescales or speed things up?

my husband has ocd too and sometimes we say pick your battles. Being tired, stressed etc doesn’t help so take the rest you need first of all. Then decide if this is a battle to fight today - which is not to say you can’t fight it tomorrow either! Is there something partner could do eg use sanitiser or only take the litter out last thing at night for example that would make you feel right? Is it worth doing that for a little while to get through to referral? That also v much depends on whether your ocd will be ‘satisfied’ or shift to something else which I’m afraid only you can feel.
have you had any therapy before that you can go back to notes, processes etc to help rebalance? There’s some superb books as well that are excellent while you’re waiting for referral.

I don't know if it helps to say that the indoor cats are very very very unlikely to be shedding any toxoplasmosis in their litter trays. It's mostly juvenile cats that have just started hunting outside that there's a risk from. It's because they're eating mice and rats, and that's where the virus is coming from. And a small amount of toxoplasmosis originates from cats anyway. Most is from undercooked meat and improperly washed raw fruits and veg.

And re: the food from the supermarket, rationally if you're washing uncooked stuff, and preparing cooked stuff properly and within date, there's an extremely small risk. The heat kills off the germs. A hair is going to cause no issues, albeit unpleasant to get a hair in your food.

Can you get some CBT? I struggled a bit with some of this in my last pregnancy, and found researching things and the risk levels really helped. In any event I got served two week out of date mozzarella, noticed it tasted funny, went to check the packaging and massively panicked! However all was absolutely fine. It's a very very small percentage of people that have negative outcomes caused by these things.

Hi to all!
Fellow ocd sufferer here. It's absolute agony I have to say.
If it's any help to you From123 i spoke to my GP about toxiplasmosis I absolutely disabled by the fear of it, completely disabled. Anyway she told me it doesn't transfer like we ocd thinkers believe. I gave her so many scenarios and she said nope it's very very rare also. I actually ate undercooked meat by completel accident, not long after talking to her, so welcome a brand new set of fears and worries and immediately the cat dirt seems so unimportant. It just goes to show how ocd will shift from one fear to the next.

I have always had ocd and had done some hard work on exposures and had made real progress but it's near impossible to do when pregnant.