And, on top of all of that, just thinking about any of this can cause physical symptoms like gagging, cramping or nausea. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our. Living with OCD comes with a range of daily challenges. Some people fear that these substances may cause harm or even death. This article reviews all you need to, Healthline has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations. There has been some kind of accident, an act of violence, or a sickness that brought the blood out of its home in the body and into your presence. After all, dirt, germs, washing what could be simpler? (2021). By trying to eliminate risk, they come to see that along with it they will eliminate their ability to function. Sometimes OCD goes into remission on its own, especially if it initially appears during childhood. The new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is an authoritative guide to psychological conditions. Non-Violent Harm OCD. Bodily Fluid Contamination. What about sex? Attend family therapy with them, if its an option. Finding a therapist can be a great first step in learning to manage your symptoms. Contamination OCD is simply one kind of OCD. Theyll be best equipped to help you understand and manage your symptoms. Clothes that are considered contaminated must be worn when living in this zone. Theres a good outlook for people who seek treatment for their OCD. The chain of thought typically goes something like this: I must be certain that I did not get any blood on me. First of all, this problem breaks down into two parts contamination obsessions and decontamination compulsions. Genetics seems to play a role in whether you develop OCD or not. You also describe your obsessive thoughts and your compulsive behaviors to your therapist. It might be that anxiety and stress can affect your digestive system because stress prompts your body to enter flight or fight mode, during which your body doesnt prioritize digestion. The answer is a combination of cognitive and behavioral treatment strategies that together define cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). They're normal, relatively benign and unharmful and no more dirty than getting some orange juice on your sheets and letting it dry. I have a OCD fear of body fluids, especially sperm and blood. Learning to support a loved one with OCD can look like practicing patience, helping them get therapy, and learning the difference between supporting. DOI: Sharma E, et al. Psych Central only shows you brands and products that we stand behind. OCD Avoidance: Signs, Treatment and Coping Strategies - Psych Central Nothing in it has to be cleaned or avoided. This can include disease-causing germs, bodily fluids, chemicals, trash, environmental toxins, dead animals, and even dirt. How is OCD with compulsive cleaning treated? If I say dont think about blood, it will have the same effect as me saying not to think about a tap-dancing giraffe! Are stressful life events causally related to the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms? Poor sleep and diet can worsen your mood, which can increase your stress levels and OCD symptoms. In some cases, family members have been drawn into the sufferers web of compulsions. The process depletes the immune system, resulting in a gradual deterioration of health, the final stages of which is called Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). I know in my house there is one person who ejackulates. With the right treatment for your OCD, you can reclaim the funny, the interesting, and the beautiful parts of life while mastering your discomfort with the dangerous. Researchers have found that people with symmetry obsession and an ordering compulsion often have trouble expressing anger in healthy ways and may have a personal history of trauma. If you suffer from food poisoning, it might have been caused by your most recent meal, or the one before that, or anything you ate in the past forty-eight hours. (2022). a red mark on a wall), Checking for blood or for cuts in the skin (on self or others), Reassurance seeking online (or elsewhere) regarding blood-borne illnesses and how they are contracted, Reassurance seeking from others that they have not come in contact with blood, Mental rituals, such as mentally retracing what could have touched what or mentally repeating reassuring statements, Scrutinizing the behavior of dentists, doctors or any other professionals who may be exposed to blood (yours or others), There are no documented cases of contracting HIV through environmental contact (i.e., touching infected blood), There are essentially only two ways to get HIV the use of shared hypodermic needles in which blood from one person is literally extracted and put into the bloodstream of another person, and unprotected sex with an infected person in which semen or vaginal secretions are essentially pushed into the bloodstream of another person through tears in the skin of the mouth, vagina, anus, or penis (other ways of contracting it include transmission from pregnant mother to fetus and transfusions of infected blood [which is no longer an issue due to testing standards]). Basic self-care, like sleeping adequately and eating a balanced diet, can be helpful. People who have an obsessive fear of blood contamination often focus as much on the fear of spreading harm to a loved one as on being contaminated themselves. Other common compulsions include repeating mantras, prayers, or safety words to ward off danger or reduce anxiety. The belief here is that these names, images, concepts, or the characteristics of certain people can be magically transferred, simply by thinking about them or by coming into casual contact with them. (2017). What is most interesting about the obsessive fear of HIV is that for all the handwashing and avoiding, HIV is not an environmental contaminant. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5) doesnt distinguish between different types of OCD, which is why contamination OCD isnt a diagnosis in itself. Our website services, content, and products are for informational purposes only. Challenging distorted beliefs and ideas about blood can help reduce the reliance on compulsions, so long as these challenges are not used as a ritualized form of a reassurance. Understanding OCD and Cleaning - Healthline A single drop of sewage can spoil an entire jug of wine, Kelly observes, but a single drop of wine doesnt much help in purifying a jug of sewage.. Everything You Need to Know About Contamination OCD Unlike the popular view, contamination isn't simply limited to dirt, germs, and viruses. In order to cut down on washing, sufferers sometimes resort to using paper towels, plastic bags, or disposable gloves to touch things. Talk therapy is one of the most common and effective treatments for OCD. As of now, scientists know that if your parent or sibling has OCD, youre more likely to develop the condition. It can also include such things as: bodily excretions (urine, feces) bodily fluids (sweat, saliva, mucus, tears, etc.) Acceptance and commitment therapy, psychodynamic therapy, and imaginal exposure are also commonly used to treat OCD. Life is dangerous and funny and interesting and beautiful. Perhaps the most visible of all OCD symptoms are those related to the fear of disease. Copyright 2023 International OCD Foundation (IOCDF). All kinds of OCD, including contamination OCD, are categorized as the same disorder as per the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). What Is Contamination OCD and How To Overcome It They can disrupt a persons social, academic, or professional life. The Center for OCD and Anxiety. Mindfulness is the practice of observing what is going on inside in the present without judgment or analysis. SSRIs would have to be prescribed by a doctor or psychiatrist. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). OCD, Contamination, and the Disgust Affect | Psychology Today If you buy through links on this page, we may earn a small commission Heres our process. But what do these look like, and how are they related? If you think youd benefit from talking with others who have OCD, you may want to check out the IOCDF OCD support groups list for local groups or the IOCDF online or telephone support groups list for remote support groups. Stress can make the symptoms of OCD worse, so engaging in healthy stress-management activities may help. Unlike the popular view, contamination isnt simply limited to dirt, germs, and viruses. 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. Also like other bodily fluids, semen is capable of hosting germs, bacteria, and viruses. Driving me a bit crazy I've never had OCD contamination fears this bad. 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. Its not considered a separate disorder or diagnosis. There is also a whole category of fears of contamination of a stranger and more magical type, which could include: Obviously, logic has little to do with these fears. DOI: Vidal-Ribas P, et al. The best outcomes happen when people are diagnosed early and start a robust treatment program right away. This can also be called bathroom OCD. This can involve fearing that youll urinate or have diarrhea in public. The obsessions in contamination OCD revolve around exposure to potentially harmful substances, Rosen said. OCD includes two parts: obsessions and compulsions. Contamination OCD: Symptoms and Treatments - The OCD & Anxiety Center Generally, contamination OCD is associated with things like dirt, bacteria, or viruses, but any substance can become the focus of contamination fearsincluding bodily fluids, chemicals, or other . It just requires an ability to cope with the associated discomfort. The two worlds may exist side-by-side like parallel universes that are never allowed to meet. Contamination OCD involves a lot more than simply being diligent about cleaning, and the symptoms can differ from person to person. After all, if you are seeing blood outside of the body, it usually means something is wrong. In addition to emotional reasoning, black-and-white thinking and magnifying can play an important role as well. It found that OCD was prevalent among people with IBS. 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. During TMS, a doctor places an electromagnetic coil on your head. (2020). When questioned about what it is they fear, they can only reply I dont really know, it just feels dirty to me. There are also cases where a sufferer will get the idea that another person is contaminated in some way, although they cannot exactly say why. One kind of medication that is commonly prescribed for OCD is selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Bradford MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 2011. Melli G. (2019). Last medically reviewed on August 4, 2020. The obsessions and compulsions usually take up an hour or more of your day. In this first installment, I will be focusing on blood, how fear associated with blood often presents in OCD, and how cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can be used to treat it. How Psychologically Conditioned Rats Are Defusing Landmines, The Innate Intelligence Observed in the Dying Process. For instance, there are some sufferers who fear to touch the floor, the ground, outdoors, or any public objects. . There are practically no limits to the things that can be contaminating. Individuals with OCD experience persistent intrusive thoughts and a compulsion to carry out certain ritualistic behaviors. This involves a gradual process of identifying with your therapist what your triggers and compulsions are, then working to overcome each one from the easiest up to the hardest. First, our ancestors learned to recognize clues to the presence of contagions, obvious ones like bodily fluids, excrement, and corpses, but also subtler signals like the skin discoloration or subdued behavior of the infected. Hello All, Does anyone have this or anything similar? Among the more common manifestations of blood-focused OCD is an obsession with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Losing Control Finding support can also be helpful. All of this adds up to a system that can incorrectly identify commonplace objects as life-or-death dangers, and instantly connect these objects with powerful and extremely unpleasant emotions and symptomscreating associations that cannot be forgotten or unlearned once established. Talk therapy, also called psychotherapy, is one of the most common and effective ways to treat OCD. Enter OCD stage right. Discomfort related to contamination and infection is universal and has deep roots in human evolutionary psychology. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a maladaptive reaction to these ordinary but unpleasant experiences of disgust, discomfort, and unease. Obsessivecompulsive disordercontamination fears, features, and treatment: Novel smartphone therapies in light of global mental health and pandemics (COVID-19). It often includes fears around dirt, germs, or illness, and it can involve excessive cleaning and washing rituals. The causes of contamination OCD are the same as the causes of any other type of OCD. DOI: Purty A, et al. Inside the body, very cool stuff indeed. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) causes repeated actions or thoughts, and it can manifest in a variety of ways. Common obsessions in contamination-related OCD include the fear of getting sick with a serious illness like rabies, ebola, H1N1 (swine flu), Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, mad cow disease, hepatitis, or avian influenza. Yet it also includes the fear of being infected with them. Get the help you need from a therapist near youa FREE service from Psychology Today. OCD can affect your time management by making you overthink, strive for perfection, or have trouble focusing. Although people with this symptom cluster generally have no history of violence, they spend a lot of time and energy trying to suppress or erase these thoughts. This disorder can be treated with therapy, medications, and procedures that stimulate parts of your brain known to be affected by the disorder. If you are diagnosed early and you participate in a treatment program consistently, its possible youll be able have a good quality of life. "Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a debilitating mental illness that consists of unwanted intrusive thoughts that cause high levels of anxiety followed by compulsive behaviors performed in an attempt to temporarily relieve the anxiety. Sometimes the usual washing or showering may even be part of the magical ritual. Further, washing just sends the message to the brain that getting stuff off your hands is an important thing to focus on. Here's my. What this means is that nobody wants to be the cautionary tale or the first person made famous by getting a terrible disease from casual contact with blood. There are many things caregivers can do to help a child manage their OCD symptoms. Take time to decompress and reach out for help if you need it. Read our review of the best online therapy options to find the right fit for you. OCD can revolve around one or more themes, or major areas of focus. This is a common misconception, though. Hezel DM, et al. Some patients can only touch something that has touched a feared substance or object, and only later do they go on to touch directly what is feared.