Dear Dr. Bob, Please answer, donation to follow. I realize this is a stupid question but there is still that little voice in back of my head that tells me that it's not so stupid.I have a sister who has a doctorate in psychology and that I unfortunately shared this with and she cussed me out telling me what a weak minded fool I am. I asked her if she used this technique on her clients and she hung up on me. You seem to have unlimited patience even when I am sure you'd like to come and personally kick some people in the bum.Please don't tell me to get tested because I really don't feel I need it and because a little reassurance from you is all I need. I went recently to visit my aunt in the hospital following a stroke. She has also been off and on a breathing tube she has also had several blood transfusions from recently to way back. I held her hand as I have done in the past but this time after holding her hand I rubbed my neck which already had a puncture wound and scratch on it from where I had removed a pimple and which I subsequently had scratched causing it to bleed I had done this about 15 minutes before going in to see my relative but had washed my hands before going in.I held her hand and after holding it I touched and rubbed this scratch and puncture under my chin not remembering that it had been bleeding earlier. I began to worry that there could have been blood on my aunt's hand when I held it and that I could have gotten hiv from her due to her long history of blood transfusions. Dr. Bob am I being unrealistic and paranoid about this or do I have any real reason to worry here? Any contamination would have to have gone from her hand to my hand and then to my chin which seems kind of unlikely to me. I hope you agree.Thanks for all the wonderful work you do. This OCD thing does bring me down to looking as though I function about the level of an idiot. Thank you.

Hi,

Are you being unrealistic and paranoid about this? Yep!

Do you have any real reason to worry? Nope.

I can assure you OCD is a very common disorder and certainly not linked to low I.Q. However, your HIV fears are indeed completely unwarranted. Counseling may well help you confront and cope with these irrational worries.

Good luck.

Dr. Bob