Anyone have any ideas on this? I have been terribly sick this winter, first with a 5 week coughing virus (not SARS), one of the worst illnesses I�ve ever had. While I had that, my son had twol bouts of the throwing up virus and a sore throat virus. I am a single mom and have very limited vacation time to use when I or my son is sick. As soon as I began to get well from the coughing virus, I got Bell�s Palsy, a paralysis of one side of my face, also thought to be caused by a virus. I am recovering. It�s slow, but I am recovering. I am doing all I can to rebuild my health but find that my germophobia (sp?) is much worse since my son and I went through all this this winter. He had a third round of the throwing up virus this week (do we win something for that?) and I was afraid to even go in the bathroom with him when he was throwing up, I was so afraid of getting yet another malady. Of course, I took good care of him but I washed my hands after every time I touched him even just to take his temperature, and I cleaned the bathroom repeatedly once his vomiting had stopped.

Before this winter, I had what I consider mild germophobia. I washed my hands often through the day and was more conscious of cleanliness than maybe most people are but I did not have constant thoughts of germs and contamination as I do now.

My son and I have never had a winter with this kind of sickness. He�s a kid that maybe gets sick once or twice a year. Part of my concern in �cleanliness� is practical. Every vacation day I take due to myself or my son being sick creates more strain in my life as I juggle it all for us. I simply am not financially able to take days off without pay and stretching that vacation time through the year when I use it primarily for sick time is a struggle. So, on one level, taking steps to try not to pass illnesses between us is practical but the though process going on in the background is definitely OCD.

And of course in the background of my consciousness is the idea of this new virus, SARS, that there is no treatment for and that many have died from. I have a dear friend in Singapore who travels for work and so the idea of SARS is not abstract to me. Someone I care about (also a single mom) is at risk. It doesn�t seem like something far away.

Any thoughts and suggestions would be much appreciated. It is exhausting to have these thoughts all the time.

Hi WriterWoman---I can relate to what you are thinking. When these illnesses hit all at once I get alittle paranoid about getting sick too. It really is alot to take when so much is going around like in the winter time.

I too have a mild case of germophobia (used to be worse). When everyone stays healthy for a time it goes away. I think once things slow down in your house for awhile your thoughts will get better. Think of it this way, you've made it through all of this so you can handle it

You're right, your cleanliness is practical, like washing your hands and cleaning up when someone is sick. We all do that. Good precaution for getting rid of the illness in the house.

This is what I do when I get those OCD thoughts going on. I use the worry lesson where it says to pick a time of the day just for your worrying time. Just one time a day and when those thoughts start creeping in I say to myself "ok, I'll worry about this at such and such a time, but right now I'm going to forget about it."

It really does work and cuts down on those OCD thoughts. Soon you'll find that you won't need that worry time as much because you forgot what it was you were going to worry about

These viruses will go away and you'll all get back to good health soon. Hang in there and for now use worry time.

Thank you, Serene, for your encouragement. I will use the technique!