Fear of dead bodies - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Message Board

02-21-2002, 02:57 PM

I don't think they're gonna reach out and grab me or anything. I just feel an incredible revulsion of them. When I HAVE to attend a funeral I won't go in where the body is. I avoid shaking hands with people if I can because I'm afraid that they might have touched the body and I wash my hands every few minutes (for days afterwards sometimes). I don't want an object around me that has even been in the same room as a dead person. I feel that my house is contaminated. All of this made it very difficult for me when my Dad came home to die.
I don't know how I got this way. Maybe I read too many Stephen King novels at too tender an age. Maybe it was the one and only time I ever touched a body. I was 10, it was my uncle's funeral and all the other kids did it so I did too. It was like touching clay.
I once told my friend that if I fell madly in love with a guy and it turned out that he was a mortician, he would have to choose between his job or me.

[This message has been edited by Magenta (edited 02-21-2002).]

niecsey · 05-02-2002, 07:30 AM

hi i dont think its unusual to feel like this, as alot of people l no feel the same l swore i would never look at a dead body, till my dad died. l wouldnt go to the hospital to see him, then a few days later when he came home l had this urge to see my dad, he just looked like he was sleeping, it brings tears to my eyes writing this, it was the coffin that scared me, l couldnt let my dad go till l had seen him and told him l loved him l even kissed his head before the funeral after all he was my dad and l know he wouldnt hurt me sorta speak. its not unusual at all to feel like you do, i wouldnt like a mortician boyfriend making my tea hahahahahaah take care

deliriouskittie · 05-06-2002, 07:16 PM

dont feel alone about your fear of dead bodies, its a very natural thing (unless of couse your a necropheliac which im guessing your not)
im supposing you have an abnormal fear though.
best advice is to stay away from them and maybe make breif appearances at funerals.
im not much of a help cuz my only family member whose ever died lives in australia...