How many vets have contamination fears?

[Never_falter2]

This is just “comparing notes“. We talked about this in another thread and I wondered if there are many vets who have contamination fears. My vets therapist says that it is not unusual. Somebody else’s guy too?

 

[LuckiLee]

Dirt, germs, chemicals, heat, being unorganized... We call them stressors instead of fears. J isn't afraid of these things but they do cause stress and anxiety.

 

[Sweetpea76]

Mine isn’t upset by dirt or germs, but disorganization gets him too.

He did say Iraq was the filthiest, dirtiest place he’s ever been... I could see that carrying over to trigger somebody.

 

[Never_falter2]

@LuckiLee Did your Vet ever do “exposure to contamination“ in therapy and sat around in your house “contaminated“, do you know what I mean? I did not want to hijack the other thread and started this new one. We discuss it because he needs to discuss it but still his stress level is high and maybe you know a few tips how a spouse can help a “contaminated“ vet. My guy often decides to stay contaminated for a while. His therapist encourages him to do so. In most cases she says it is okay if he showers back home (because the exposure is already over and he coped well) but it is even better if he stays contaminated for a while to get used to it, see nothing bad happens and so on. So she encourages him to stay contaminated and he wants to be brave and learn to cope with it.
Difficult to explain in English. Did it ever happen to your vet? What did you do?

 

[OrangeJulius]

This is not a thing with my vet. Things that are disorganized and/or dirty bother him and cause anxiety, but not germ-y things. He works in medicine so he's around the nastiest of germs all day.

That said, he doesn't organize or clean things to alleviate his anxiety....I do more organizing and cleaning than he does and I do more than I would if I lived alone because I know it stresses him out.

 

[Friday]

Between the military, universal precautions, & food handling I know I drive a lot of people nuts with how often I wash things, temp things, and throw things out. Shrug. It doesn’t bother me. I can swim in open sewage, eat rotten food, be covered in other people’s guts, live in tear downs unfit for human occupation, all without batting an eye. I prefer not to. So when I have any choice in the matter? I don’t.