The good news is that there are treatments that can help, The glycemic index (GI) is a value used to measure how much a specific food increases your blood sugar levels. Contamination OCD: An Intense Fear of Dirt, Germs, & Disease - GoodRx The OCD makes a pretty strong case for doing compulsions. If I get this disease, I may give it to my child (or partner or other loved one). Just to be sure? Often, these unwanted thoughts involve sex, violence, or religious images. Morgan Rondinelli talks about growing up with OCD without knowing she had OCD. Contamination OCD means you're neat and organized: The common utterance of "I'm so OCD" is often made by people who prefer to keep their houses, cars, and office spaces neat and organized. As of now, scientists know that if your parent or sibling has OCD, youre more likely to develop the condition. The problem, however, is that compulsions fail to guarantee success. For example, someone who has a contamination obsession fear of germs or bodily fluids may avoid public restrooms. Contamination OCD: Symptoms and Treatments - The OCD & Anxiety Center I have a OCD fear of body fluids, especially sperm and blood. If I am going to avoid unprotected sex, then what about sleeping in a hotel room where someone might have had unprotected sex? How do we develop a capacity for uncertainty tolerance when the OCD makes it seem impossible? . 71 Dorset Author Posted March 4, 2017 Thanks both of you for the replies. Both are treatable. 10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_516_18, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519704/table/ch3.t13/, mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/obsessive-compulsive-disorder/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20354438, nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd/index.shtml, ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/obsessive-compulsive-disorder, 10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_518_18, 10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_521_18, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331096/, How to Manage and Treat Real Event Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Understanding the Impact of Severe Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), No, Youre Not So OCD for Washing Your Hands More Often Now, Understanding the Connection Between Depression and OCD, Everything You Need to Know About Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Glycemic Index: What It Is and How to Use It, feel disgust or fear over certain objects or substances, including dirt, illness, body secretions, trash, or chemicals, believe you or others can be contaminated by magical or spiritual means such as by saying certain names or numbers, have a strong urge to wash your hands or shower frequently, use a very specific process or ritual for washing yourself or your surroundings, avoid places or people that may have been infected, refuse to allow others into your safe spaces, damage your skin or body through excessive cleaning, experience serious anxiety if certain things are not arranged just right, feel an urge to repeat what happens to one side of your body on the other side of your body, fear that if something is unbalanced or uneven, a catastrophe could happen. As with all kinds of OCD, treatment can help you manage the symptoms of contamination OCD. In fact, some people might experience one OCD theme or multiple themes, and those themes can change over time. (2017). Understanding differences in brain structures is important because it may point to new directions for treating the condition. Contact contamination OCD is when an individual is triggered when they are touching and/or around physical contaminants, such as dirt, bodily fluids, or garbage. Support Group. Being sick could kill you, so anything disgusting must be treated as a fatal danger. Fear that someone you love will die from germs. First of all, this problem breaks down into two parts contamination obsessions and decontamination compulsions. Contamination OCD can also include the fear of more abstract contaminants like thoughts, words, or images that you perceive to be immoral or bad luck. Whats the outlook for people with OCD-related cleaning compulsions? Williams MT, et al. Turna J, et al. Read our review of the best online therapy options to find the right fit for you. You might use certain washing or cleaning rituals to get rid of those thoughts. Give them space to talk about their feelings. So, despite there being nothing inherently dangerous about blood, somewhere in our genetic database is probably an urge to avoid being in its presence. Although DSM-5 doesnt list subtypes of OCD, some researchers group obsessions and compulsions into symptom dimensions. These clusters of symptoms share similar anxieties and behavior patterns. For example, your therapist might challenge you to touch a dirty shoe and resist the urge to wash your hand immediately. Being a perfectionist about cleaning doesnt necessarily mean you have OCD. Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is another type of therapy known to be effective in treating OCD. They can disrupt a persons social, academic, or professional life. For magical types of contamination the solution is often a magical decontamination ritual designed to remove or cancel out the problem, thought, name, image, or concept. According to the DSM-5, you need to fit the following criteria to receive an OCD diagnosis: The nature of these obsessions and compulsions can differ from person to person. Contamination: Body fluids (examples: urine, feces) Germs/disease (examples: herpes, HIV) Environmental contaminants (examples: asbestos, radiation) Obsessions are persistent, distressing thoughts or images. By staying with the anxiety, sufferers come to learn the truth of the matterthat nothing really happens when they face their fears, and that their efforts at taking precautions serve no real purpose. Mayo Clinic staff. The idea that all blood is dangerous because some blood can carry a virus makes resisting compulsions that much harder. Theyll be best equipped to help you understand and manage your symptoms. I have known clients to burn their clothes, spend hours showering, hours checking their body for cuts, abandon groceries in the parking lot of the supermarket, abandon entire locations (including their own home) for fear of blood contamination. Are you willing to sacrifice time with your family because youre stuck in the shower? And, for what its worth, thats a pretty common diagnosis. (2019). For most people with contamination OCD there are two central distorted beliefs that drive all the others. Unlike the popular view, contamination isn't simply limited to dirt, germs, and viruses. DOI: Whats the connection between cleaning and OCD? fear of sperm and body fluids - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD This type of therapy encourages patients to gradually encounter increasing doses of that which is contaminated, while resisting washing, checking, avoiding, or conducting magical rituals. In the end, only acceptance of some level of uncertainty will allow the OCD to be diminished. Obviously, washers go through large amounts of soap and paper towels (used in preference to cloth towels which can only be used once and create laundry). Showers can take an hour or longer, and in severe situations can last as long as eight hours. The Center for OCD and Anxiety. . You also describe your obsessive thoughts and your compulsive behaviors to your therapist. It may even extend to having a dirty car to be driven only when contaminated. Bradford MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 2011. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is another approach to consider if other treatments arent helping you. Researchers continue to explore the influence of genetics on whether someone develops OCD. Brain scans also reveal differences in estrogen receptors and in the amount of white and gray matter in the brains of people with the contamination and cleaning symptom dimensions. Behavioral researchers have long known that stress and trauma are associated with a higher risk of developing OCD. The types of contamination that can be spread to others are about the same as those that trouble other sufferers. OCD symptoms include not only obsessions and compulsions, but significant anxiety as well. OCD can affect your time management by making you overthink, strive for perfection, or have trouble focusing. Are there different types of OCD? Treatment is tailored to each particular persons symptoms and is done at their own pace. Last medically reviewed on August 4, 2020. Sometimes OCD goes into remission on its own, especially if it initially appears during childhood. This can also be called bathroom OCD. This can involve fearing that youll urinate or have diarrhea in public. hospitals), Avoidance of intimacy and sexual behavior for fear of catching or spreading blood-borne diseases, Excessive avoidance of sharp objects, Band-Aids, or anything that could be perceived as causing or having come in contact with exposed blood, Excessive washing to ensure there is no blood on the skin or clothes, Excessive cleaning of items feared to have come in contact with blood (i.e. Your therapist can then help you learn to restructure these thoughts in productive ways. It can also include such things as: bodily excretions (urine, feces) bodily fluids (sweat, saliva, mucus, tears, etc.) Hezel DM, et al. (2020). We include products we think are useful for our readers. But you can just not do something. (2019). OCD is well researched. A study of psychiatric comorbidities in irritable bowel syndrome. Contamination OCD: . The need to precisely perform rituals and compulsive acts can cause serious anxiety. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). The virus is actually pretty fascinating. OCD, Contamination, and the Disgust Affect | Psychology Today HIV is the boogeyman of health anxiety. Obsessive-compulsive disorder: When unwanted thoughts or repetitive behaviors take over. Learn more here. It can also include such things as: This list is by no means complete. With ERP, youll be exposed to the things that trigger your obsessions without being allowed to engage in your compulsions. The Nature and Moral Significance of Disgust writes that the disgust response is equippedunderstandably, given the nature of the adaptive problemwith a bit of a hair trigger. When you feel sick, it is very easy to become disgusted by anything that might have caused it.