Living with OCD and Food Safety Issues

my OCD presents mostly regarding food safety. I cannot eat anything that isn't "safe" and when I'm cooking I can't stop until I'm sure it's "safe". I haven't eaten chicken that isn't cooked till it's dry in years. I just microwaved my part of a steak my BF made until it was roughly 200 degrees because it was in the fridge for 6 days before we cooked it which is one day more than the FDA recommends...and I intended to microwave it for a just little bit to feel better, and then I microwaved it for a few more minutes because I could not stop myself. I cannot enjoy food anymore, and I don't know how to make it stop without panic attacks and nausea all night after I eat something that isn't cooked beyond recognition, and even sometimes when it IS. I don't know what I need, but I can't keep living like this.

Your answer

Mrmrs

1y ago

Hey, I understand you, you can't live like this. It must be hard for you to go to restaurants, or go out to places you don't know and aren't sure about the food. It's a fairly familiar part of the disease, the fear of germs. Have you been to a psychiatrist? Are you receiving treatment? He can help you a lot. For me, I constantly had to make sure I did certain things and it could cause me to waste many hours a day. It was terrible until I got treatment.

SmileySnail

1y ago

yeah, I'm seeing a therapist. I'm not sure exactly how this is going to go, she and I only just started talking about the food fear thing so we haven't really gotten deep into it. I was afraid to talk about it in case talking about it made me nauseous lol I have begun meal prepping dinners, at least when I freeze things fresh I trust them more than refrigerated leftovers. The other day I ate a friggin' sandwich at a meeting and panicked the whole rest of the day because it wasn't "safe" I'm about this close to just giving up on eating if I didn't make it myself and know exactly how fresh all the ingredients are, which is going to make date nights / birthday dinners / Thanksgiving /Christmas a lot less fun. I'm hoping therapy really helps, cause I've just been getting worse otherwise

The content in this post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

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