Hey all

I recently had a minor kitchen fire in my apartment, nobody was hurt and nothing was damaged other than the pot I was cooking in, but since then I’ve been finding bits of soot everywhere and it’s been stressing me out a lot. My OCD has always manifested itself as contamination anxiety, so this has been my worst nightmare come true in many ways. Most things in my apartment got at most a few flecks of soot fortunately, but I just keep finding more and more soot in the area around the stove, and some of it won’t come out no matter what I do. I’ve been trying to stay strong and balance the fact that it is best for my health to clean the spot while also not letting the OCD drive me to clean the same spots repeatedly, but it’s been incredibly stressful, and each time I find soot in a new spot I want to cry. I can’t imagine staying in this apartment until my lease is up in a little under a year, but I don’t have any other options. Does anyone have any advice for how to to cope with this in a way that does recognize the valid risks but also helps put my mind at ease once I’ve addressed them?

Apologies if anything is unclear, this post ended up being kind of a ramble