u/Emotional-Parsnip937

I have a diagnosis of OCD and one of the biggest parts of it is Emetophobia. I’ve been in ERP since last year and working hard on it. One of my biggest goals for recovery was to take my kids to the aquarium as it’s my daughters favourite place, last week it was my daughter’s birthday so we finally did it! I was so happy and proud, BUT, my toddler ended up getting a stomach bug from it, and he ended up so unwell that after 3 days he ended up in the hospital, it was one of my biggest fears come true. I feel torn because on one hand my daughter said it was the best birthday she’s had, and I was so happy to be able to do that for her finally, but on the other hand, the exact thing I was worried about happening, happened. How do I not let this set me right back? I’ve been doing a lot of compulsions and safety behaviours since my son got sick, way more than what has been needed to stop the spread.

So my OCD is centered around health, contamination, safety, and Emetophobia, particularly of my children. One of my biggest goals in recovery was to be able to take my kids to the aquarium by myself, well last week it was my daughters birthday, so I did it, we had so much fun and I was so happy and proud, BUT, my toddler ended up getting a stomach bug from it, he was so sick that he ended up in hospital after 3 full days of it being non stop. It was one of my worst fears come true. How do I move past this? How do I not let this be a huge setback? It just feels so unfair that this actually happened.