u/CasketByNBAYoungBoy

For context, Im 28. I live with my family due to the economy. But I'm close to moving out.

long story short, I had a really bad episode on Saturday because someone decided to touch an armadillo and it sent me into the worst Contamination OCD panic attack of my life.

to my defense, I was also dealing with ADHD burn out. My job has me communicating with people 8 hours, 5 days a week. And we had had some other family over the day before and that day. My weekends are for me to recharge, having that vital time interrupted made me super overwhelmed. The past 2 weeks at work had been a lot. I was looking forward to a nice, "not dealing with anyone" weekend. The pressure had built up, and it made me snap.

Them coming over for a second time was super last minute and leading up to the meltdown, i was super anxious and dreading it. I was also angry because why do they need to come over twice?

it wasn't exactly the fear of disease itself, it was that I was having my very needed recharge time ruined. It was already bad enough that the same family members with toddlers and an infant who were coming over again even though they were already here yesterday. But then, the idea that one of them had touched an animal known for bringing leprosy then came to where Im living just made me meltdown. Ive never had a meltdown like that, but also this was a culmination of genuine frustration over having virtually no real decompression time and being pushed past my limits when I had a long 2 weeks.

now, I have my parents trying to strong arm me into seeing a therapist friend of theirs and I don't want to. Ive seen this person a few times and theyre too connected to people close to me for me to comfortably talk to them. I like my therapist being a total stranger, personally. I know why I had that reaction. Theyre telling me this "isnt an option" and it's just making my life more inconvenient. I dont exactly know what to do.

like heres the thing, Im feeling better after I had that freak out. It gave me a real sense of clarity. It relieved a lot of negativity and stress i was feeling. I dont think it was about the leprosy itself, it was me being pushed past my limits. That Friday was one of them where it's like "I cant wait for some 'me' time", only to get home and see that other family is over. Which irritated me. And then to have that same family over again for no reason was my breaking point.

I'm an introvert who works a very social job. I have adhd and I work a very detail oriented job. Those 2 days of just having some peace and quiet keep me sane. Even if I love my job and what I do. So I spent the whole hour before their arrival in a state of dread and irritation because why do they need be over here again lol, and then my contamination / disease ocd got triggered and I couldn't reel it in.

Should I just be honest and them that my OCD meltdown was because I got pushed past my limit? Theyre worried about me, i get it, but I feel fine now. Theyre concerned I'll have a meltdown at my job, which I understand, but work is one of the only places ive found where my ocd is relatively benign. I really don't know what to even do.

I had a bad day, it happens. Ive never had a a panic attack this severe before ever. But also, imagine youre me and you're already burnt out. Then, people who were already at your house the day before randomly (with no real warning) decide they have to have dinner at your house again. and then, one of them decided to hold a baby armadillo. So now, your house has leprosy germs in it, and all of this was totally avoidable if these people didnt just decide they had to come over again. People who you didnt want over to begin with. That just sent me over the edge, honestly. If you wanna kiss an armadillo then go to your house, more power to you, but don't come to the house that Im staying at

For context, I have adhd and ocd. My adhd medicine hasnt been working well so I've been holding on until my appointment later this week. I say that to say that my work is great but I need my weekends to recharge and prevent burnout. Im communicating all week long, sometimes all day. Im masking and juggling tons of different tasks.

this was one of this weekends where I was ready for i was ready to chill out after 2 weeks of constant stress and dealing with problems I'd never faced before. Friday, we had guests (family) over. Like Im pulling up after 8 hours of communicating with my supervisor, customers, and making reports to see this. I was super burnt out but I tried to entertain them a little bit but went somewhere else in the house after 10 minutes.

today, Saturday, rolls around and I had a few intrusive thoughts but nothing huge. Typical stuff i can easily handle. everything is going great. Im happy to have time to myself and just kick back. But, Im told in the afternoon that these same family members are coming over again out of no where, and an hour before it happens.

so i spend that hour leading up to their arrival just dreading it and mad that they're disturbing my valuable. "recharge at home" time. Because I have to go back into "customer service" mode and the idea of burn out makes me anxious. Also, they have young children and infants so the idea of being trapped in sensory overload had me really on edge and antsy. Angry too because weekends are when I stabilize myself for the next work week.

long story short, my contamination ocd gets triggered and I have the worst public panic attack I've had in years. Now, my family is worried about me. And I feel stupid. theyre telling me I need therapy and while probably I do, all of this happened because I was pushed past my limit and so overwhelmed. I had a bad day because people in my life refuse to listen to me when Im very open about my limits. So when one trigger that i could usually snap out of happened, i was so amped up and overwhelmed that I broke down.

now im super embarrassed and I feel like my family is looking down on me and thinking I need helo. When really, all I need is for my weekends to be the time im allowed to practice self care

I'll be honest, every time my OCD spikes, I become more isolated and untrusting of people. My mind kinda puts the world in two categories: other people who will put me at risk and endanger me, and myself. I don't trust anyone to do anything but trigger the mental breakdown episodes I have to work to avoid. I'm not a control freak of anybody but myself, so the option I've feel back on is just not engaging with people past a point. People are unpredictable wild cards who really dont consider how their actions can impact you.

And knowing that has made me dread social interactions, just because I don't know what stupid thing somebody will do that'll make me spiral. It's exhausting. I'm tired all the time. Every time I'm around anyone, I feel on edge because I don't know what dumb or careless thing they'll do to jeopardize my safety.

If I could live as somebody with no close ties, I gladly would. If I could exist in a world where I just go to work, have surface level relationships with coworkers then not have to deal with anyone once I'm home, that'd be a dream. It's not that I hate people, but I don't trust them. People will do something reckless that may hurt me, drag me into something I didn't want to be apart of. I don't think it's fair for another person's ignorance to hurt me, but its how life is.

I'm just exhausted. It makes every interact that isn't super curated and impersonal extremely stressful.

Hi, so this doesn't directly involve me handling one. I didn't. but I'm just asking because my BIL this evening apparently had found a baby armadillo and picked it up. He was the only person who touched it, but then he came back home and I don't know how well he sanitized his hands before went to touching things in the house I'm at. I'll be fully transparent, I have severe contamination OCD and so this triggered a huge mental breakdown because I'm like "he's going to give us all leprosy".

I read that its an very low chance, but realistically how worried should I be? I happen to already have a doctor's appointment this monday, so I wanna know if I should discuss it. I know the disease is curable and its not widespread, but I'm still irked and honestly mad that the guy decided to touch a wild animal. Leave animals that aren't domesticated and vaccinated alone, thats always been my opinon. Thanks

I have OCD, diagnosed and in 2021 therapy had lowered it a lot. All of it is sickness and disease related, and after my mother got cancer in 2023-2024, everything crumbled. Treatment worked and she beat it pretty much, and for some time my OCD lowered. 2025 was a really stressful and miserable year for me. But ever since 2026 started, and she had to go through a few rounds of chemo, It's jumped up again. My contamination OCD especially. I try to vocal about my triggers, and try to avoid stuff that'll throw me into a break, but my immediate family has never been super understanding or supportive and that increases it. Up until tonight, it's been manageable more than usual. I've even kinda started eating beef again after 7-8 years. A real accomplishment for me.

Today, right now, I'm in the middle of the worst Contamination and Disease OCD episode ive had in years. My brother-in-law decided to hold a baby armadillo, and then return home. To where I live. I know my father didn't touch it, but Im currently in the middle of a mental collapse over this because Im terrified for catching leprosy. I didn't touch him. Or it. And I know that it isn't a 100% Leprosy chance, and there's antibiotics, but I'm angry and I'm terrified.

I'm angry because I work relentlessly to prevent myself from getting in a scenario like this only for some moron to endanger me. And I'm terrified because he's touching everything in the house after doing something that stupid.

I have no idea what to do. I feel like Im never allowed to have peace. I feel like no matter what measures I take, what filtering I do to keep it from spiraling, some careless third party will put me in a dangerous scenario. I have no idea what to do, this makes me want to run away and never be around anyone again. If I could cut everybody out my life, and live in a way that made me feel secure until I was able to fix myself then I would.

I don't know what to do, and I'm angry that this is happening me all because some idiot wants to hold a wild animal. Something you shouldnt even wanna do. I feel trapped, and like my life is over. Every time this happens, its like I remove myself from people more because they'll put me in unnecessarily dangerous situations. Then, whats even worst to be genuinely suffering, only for some other family member to berate you. Which makes it worst. Whenever I'm spiraling and the concerns are brushed off, or I'm treated like I'm doing too much. It makes me fall back into the OCD more because I feel like its the only thing keeping me safe or taking me serious.

I'm not looking forward to having to disinfect every inch of the house, and still have it gnaw at me. I'm angry that somebody put me in a situation where I'm gonna have to be compulsive and get all worn out. I'm not looking forward to having to bring this up in a doctor's visit because If I don't my hypochondria will kick in. I feel so exhausted and its all because some random third party idiot did something stupid. Like why are you picking up any wild animal anyways? I'm just so tired and this really makes me antisocial, its like the OCD is the only thing keeping me safe because no one else has enough common sense to.