How moving to Lancaster helped and hindered my OCD

This article contains discussions of OCD, specifically contamination OCD, and mentions vomit, food poisoning, and intrusive thoughts. 

Before moving to Lancaster University in my first year, I was incredibly apprehensive about living with others whilst also living with my form of OCD.

This week is OCD Awareness Week and it’s given me the opportunity to reflect on my experiences with this disorder at Lancaster, and what it was like dealing with it at university. OCD affects approximately 1.2% of people in the United Kingdom, according to OCD-UK.

Unlike what you may have read online, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder isn’t just being neat and tidy. Looking at you, Monica Geller! There’s an almost infinite list of fixations and compulsive behaviours that can be a result of OCD.

The main category my OCD falls under would be contamination (the ‘fear’ of being dirty and being around things that could cause my person to become contaminated) and intrusive thoughts. 

Contamination was the main issue I faced before moving to uni, as mine stems from an extreme and overwhelming fear of vomit. So, as you can imagine, not the best start to my university experience. The thought of sharing a bathroom with someone who might be sick in it, or not wash their hands after they went to the loo was absolutely terrifying to me.

This made me absolutely certain that I wanted a bathroom to myself in first year. Thankfully, Lancaster offers en-suite accommodation in every college, so I wasn’t stuck for options. 

When applying for accommodation, they allow you to write down individual circumstances that affect your accommodation choices.  If you have a physical or mental illness, you’ll be given the option to be signed up for the Disability Service, which has a whole bunch of different opportunities and welfare aid. This year during the Freshers Fest, they had an accessibility hour to help those who might find it overwhelming to be in larger crowds. 

I think that having the option to disclose physical and mental illnesses on the accommodation application definitely aided in my receiving the room I wanted – big up County South! (Yes it does exist.) 

It was definitely an experience moving to a place where people drink constantly and having to face my fear of someone ultimately chundering in front of me, or even hearing about it in the first place. Until one fated night a few months ago where I did pub golf with my mates, I hadn’t been sick since year seven, and wanted it to stay that way forever. 

I’m still not a fan of sick. Seeing it, hearing about it, accidentally stepping in it when leaving Sugarhouse at 4am, but I will say it doesn’t make me spiral into a panic attack every time the word is even mentioned.

I do still have my compulsions that I suppose are a way of me “protecting” myself from becoming ill, but it’s nowhere near as severe as it was when I started at Lancaster in 2020. It’s almost like a free version of exposure therapy. Thank you Whoops Wednesday and your 3-4-£6 VK deal. 

Food poisoning was another thing I was deathly afraid of, and still am, due to the possibility of sickness and the germs and bacteria in general.

I was vegetarian in first year because I was scared to high heaven about becoming ill from eating off or undercooked meat. Chicken was my mortal enemy. I was so relieved to learn that three of my flatmates were also veggie or vegan, meaning they were less likely to contaminate the kitchen, but remained terrified whenever one of my meat-eating flatmates would cut up chicken and not spray down the counter with anti-bac afterwards. 

I’m not vegetarian anymore, and I do think being at university has really helped me overcome my fears regarding meat. I’ve been insanely lucky to have flatmates who deal with my “is it cooked properly?” questions for the past two years, and know that I’m not being rude but genuinely scared when I ask them if they’ve wiped down the side after cutting meat up.

Before moving to Lancs, I was so worried my OCD would make me look like an arsehole, but people are a lot more understanding about it than I had originally given them credit for. 

With my fear of meat pretty much conquered, I can now eat a Sultan smash burger in peace, which, for the record, is bloody incredible.

If you’d like to learn more about OCD , you can visit OCD-UK at their website here, or check out @treatmyocd on Instagram. You can also receive support from the University’s Disability and Inclusion Service or Mind.

Related articles recommended by this writer:

• Here’s everything happening at Lancaster Uni for Black History Month
• Only a Lancs expert can get 10/10 in this campus buildings quiz
• Lancaster is the 15th best university in the UK, according to world rankings