An OCD Person's Nightmare: No City Water

I woke up this morning to an OCD person's nightmare. How do I know? Because I have OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

As all people do, as soon as I woke up I went to use the bathroom. As soon as I entered the bathroom I heard bubbling in the wall. I panicked thinking I had a water leak in the wall. Thinking to myself, "That's all I need now, another house problem. Does it ever end?"

I turned on the tub faucet to see if I could release the water pressure in the wall and to my avail, no water. I then tried the bathroom sink faucet. Absolutely no water coming out; only air.

I immediately called a nearby family member to see if I was the only one in the area with the problem. No answer.

I put latex gloves on (remember I have OCD) and searched through some old mail for a water bill to find the company's telephone number. I found it and called them.

Telephone number one -- they are closed because today is a furlough day. Thank you bad economy to add to my already present stress. Their automated system gives me a telephone number to call if it'˜s an emergency. Yes, I consider not having ANY water an emergency. I call telephone number two.

Telephone number two -- they are also closed because today is a furlough day. The stress builds up. That automated system gives me another telephone number to call if it's an emergency.

Telephone number three -- after a few rings a human answers and puts me on hold. I'm on hold for about 5 minutes. No music playing so I often worry if I got disconnected. I'm extra stressed at this moment because I badly have to empty my bladder, something I still haven't done since I woke up.

Finally I get to speak to a human. After telling him where I live, I ask if my area has a known water problem right now. He says yes, that the workers close by broke a water main pipe. I ask him how long it will take to fix it and says, "4-6 hours. We were just notified of it and we don't have a man out there yet." I tell him to hurry up. Ugh!

Why having no city water exacerbates OCD.

Now for some residents this would be a problem, but not as big of a problem as it is for a person like me, who has OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

I have a fear of contamination.

The biggest problem this is creating for me is not being able to wash my hands, especially after I use the bathroom.

When I spoke to that family member earlier she said, "You need to have those wipes." I said, "I do have a lot of them." I do, all different kinds of them.

The problem with an OCD brain is that when we are taken away from our routine, especially the routine we worked out to compensate our OCD fears, we have to plan another routine. Another routine that will have us avoid our OCD fear(s).

Like a '˜normal' person, we can't just quickly think of another alternative and do it. For a person like me, with OCD, we have to thoroughly think through every idea that comes to mind, as we find a solution that will work for us.

My thought was -- I have lots of bottled water in the house. How can I use that?

Let me first explain how simple a solution that would be for a '˜normal' person. For a '˜normal' person they would just go get a bottle of water, bring it to the bathroom sink, pour some on their hands before the soap and then pour some on their hands to rinse them after soaping up.

For me on the other hand, who has OCD, it's not that simple because another characteristic of the OCD brain is that when it immediately starts to think, it immediately thinks of a fear. For example, let's go back to that bottle of water. My OCD brain tells me, "But I'll be touching that bottle of water when my hands are dirty and then again shortly afterwards, when my hands are clean. Then my hands STILL won't be clean."

My next thought -- Can I lay the open bottle of water down by the side of the sink to let the water trickle out like as if it was a faucet? That won't work because if the water doesn't trickle out, I still have to touch the bottle. Not touch it as much as if I just stood the bottle up and held it before and after washing my hands, though.

Hmmm? My OCD brain still doesn't '˜buy' the solution.

Even though only about 30 minutes have passed now, I try the bathroom faucet again, with humungous hope the water company solved the problem already. Still no water.

Now what?

By this time my body is increasingly telling me, "You HAVE TO use the bathroom." I go use the bathroom. I can't wash my hands yet because I still haven't come up with a solution that will satisfy my OCD brain.

Thank goodness for latex gloves. Right now this is what my OCD brain wants me to do. As I'm getting a pair out of the box, I make sure I don't touch the fingers parts of the gloves I'll be using since those parts will be touching other things. I also have to make sure I don't touch the other gloves in the box, that I will be touching after I'm finally able to wash my hands again.

To explain those thoughts, my OCD brain strongly believes in transference I.e. transferring contamination from one object (or person when applicable) to another.

Thank goodness I didn't go with my thought of brevity a few days ago, which was wanting to stop using latex gloves completely. Right now they are my only solution.

I now have the latex gloves on. I decide to go on the computer as pretty much the only thing I can do to keep busy, as I wait for the lengthy time to pass until the water company solves the problem. Here I am on the computer typing this article, with the latex gloves on, as I '˜buy' time and still think of a solution of how to wash my hands.

Going back to thinking about using that water bottle again, the '˜normal' part of my brain just sneaked in and said, "But you touch the faucet handle before and after you wash your hands." My OCD brain still isn't '˜buying' it, as a compliant solution.

No wonder I'm always tired. All this thinking alone that my brain has to do, for even the simplest things in life, makes me exhausted.

Uh oh, I have to use the bathroom again. Same situation repeated because I still don't have water - use the bathroom, can't wash my hands, put on latex gloves.

Well, it's now been almost 4 hours since I first noticed I didn't have any water. Since the water company employee told me on the telephone earlier that it would take 4-6 hours to fix and my OCD brain has battled all this time to find a workable solution and still hasn't come up with a compliant one yet, I decide to wait out the hopefully little time left as is. I have decided to wait until they fix the problem.

Is that solution best for OCD?

It's a good solution to satisfy my OCD brain, but if I really was able to try and overcome this OCD symptom, I would use self-talk to find and accept an alternative solution to washing my hands.

Some might argue that being able to stay for so long without washing my hands was a positive approach because I wasn't giving in to my fear of contamination and I was doing things with unwashed hands. I feel yes and no -- I still put latex gloves on to cover the contamination.

It was a very difficult situation for me to be put in. Having OCD is very hard. It does cause a lot of unnecessary stress in a person life. It is also very time consuming. Sometime's we're able to fight the fears and sometimes we're not.

What can you do if you have OCD?

I say, "Don't sweat the small stuff." If you have OCD, be happy with your accomplishments and don't fret over the setbacks, or the difficulties. Both are normal when you have OCD.

At the end of each challenging situation take a deep breath. Do something you are able to do that brings you joy, calmness and relaxation. When you look back you'll see you made it through and afterwards it doesn't feel as bad as when you were going through it. Everything challenging has a solution.

Never give up. With the help of therapy and medication (for some), life will get better. One step at a time.