Treating Contamination OCD | What is Contamination OCD

Treating Contamination OCD | What is Contamination OCD

https://www.restoredminds.com/5-Rules-For-Recovery

In this episode, I discuss Contamination OCD. Contamination OCD is a common form of OCD and is recognized when a person develops a specific fear around germs or contamination. This will lead the person to perform various compulsions that primarily include washing and cleaning routines. I also discuss different forms of contamination OCD and how to properly identify it.

TRANSCRIPT

00:06 All right. Hey there and welcome to this episode where we are going to talk about contamination, OCD. And so this is going to be a multiple part series here. I'm just on contamination, OCD because I'm, I wanted to spend some time on this. So in this particular episode we're really just going to really define what is contamination. OCD is just a foundation and then in the following up, so it's, we're gonna really dive into, you know, treating it in some kind of specific things you need to know if it is something that you struggle with or know someone who does. So when it comes to contamination OCT, what we need to understand is that, um, a lot of people will notice contamination, OCD from the behaviors. So with OCD, right, we have the fi, uh, the four main components, right? Where we have the obsessive thought, the anxiety or uncomfortable sensation, and then we have the compulsive behavior and the relief that that generates, right?

00:58 And what happens is it forms this kind of loop over and over again. So with contamination OCT, generally speaking, the intrusive thoughts that a person experiences are going to be related to this idea of germs. Um, you know, but it, it could be any form of contamination, meaning that, um, it could be germs, it could be blood, it could be, um, you know, bodily fluids. It could be, um, environmental pollutants. Um, it could be, you know, contamination from, um, you know, something like raid or bug spray. Right. And, um, and the idea is, is that when I have any kind of exposure to it, you know, whether I touch something, I touch a door handle, I touch a, you know, an elevator button, my brain generates a thought saying, you know, well what if, and then fill in the blank. Right? So what if I just touched, you know, someone's blood, cause they had a bloody finger and they touched the elevator button and now I touch that.

01:53 Right? And so it's this fear of being exposed, exposed to, um, you know, something that could be threatening. Now, the thing that makes obviously this an anxiety disorder, um, versus an actual, you know, um, you know, like an actual exposure, like, you know, a dangerous exposure is the idea that there's usually no evidence to support that whatever they may have touched is actually dangerous. So for instance, if you're touching the hand rail at a mall, the, someone with OCD with contamination, OCT may, you know, their brain may generate, well, you know, they, they could be right, there could be a disease, you know, or I could have touched blood versus someone who actually, um, you know, let's say was exposed to radiation. I mean, it's, it's a really clear cut dry situation, right where you weren't, and, um, you know, and, and so in those cases, right, where we're OCD, Simone might drive past a radiation plant and they might be like, well, what if I got exposed to a radiation?

02:55 And it's that, what if thinking that we're really looking for there. Um, so, you know, really help, you know, identify it. And so the, the what ifs happened and then the person's anxiety generates, um, or you know, or, or they may even have that feeling of, um, that uncomfortable contaminated feeling, right? That's very, very common with contamination of STI. And that's that psychosomatic, um, you know, F feeling that we're looking for, right? So, cause I've talked to several people and we're working together, um, you know, with contamination of OCT and they will report literally like, no, my hand feels dirty, right? And it will be from touching. It could be like the couch, right? Or, you know, it's like, it feels dirty. So what we need to understand here is that when we talk about the uncomfortable feelings, sensations that are related to the OCD loop, we need to understand that with contamination, OCD, the person may literally report feeling contaminated or feeling dirty.

03:52 And that feeling is actually what we're looking to expose ourself to and habituate to, right. To, to show our brain that that actually isn't dangerous. And that essentially is the, is the point of treatment, right? So, um, and that's, you know, when you really talk about exposure and response prevention, I mean, you know, people talk about rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty. I mean, that's what we really do with, um, with treatment, with contamination of city. Now again, I'll talk about that, um, in the latter parts of the series. But for this particular episode, what I really wanted to do is just dive into kind of some different, um, ways that this can manifest for people and some things that you're gonna want to look for. So the first and foremost, like I said, is just this idea of germs and what we, what we also need to realize is usually someone who's afraid of germs or you know, whether it's blood or, you know, whatever it is they say maybe that they got exposed to.

04:49 Usually if you dig a little bit, there's a specific disease that they may be afraid of, right? So, for instance, most people aren't actually afraid of blood. They're afraid of bloodborne diseases like HIV and AIDS or you know hepatitis or you know, like that's what they're actually afraid of getting, right? So what happens is, is their brain kind of takes these radical jumps in. They never challenged the idea if that's rather if it's true or not. And because there's such an emotional misfiring from the fear center of the brain, what happens is they kind of, so they'll touch a door handle. Their brain will say, well, what if you touch blood? And then immediately jumps to, Oh my gosh, I might have AIDS. And then that leads to them washing their hands in a compulsive way, which reinforces the idea that that door knob was in fact dangerous, which then lead intern leads to the next time they touched the doorknob, their brain fires off again.

05:45 And the cycle just repeats itself. Now, the big, big problem that we find with contamination OCD is that just like any other compulsions, people habituate, or I'm sorry, people grow a tolerance to the compulsive behavior. Now what I mean by that? Well, you know, generally speaking, people don't start off by taking two hour showers, right? Or using bottles of Parell per day, right. That grows over time because what happens is people's, they, they develop a tolerance to the relief that the compulsion actually brings. Um, so what started is they may have washed their hands for another quick second after they felt a little dirty. We do this cycle enough, right, of the, you know, touching contaminated things in washing and touching, in washing, touching and washing. What happens is, is that that washing becomes not enough, so the person needs to wash more or maybe they need to wash with hotter water or a different soap.

06:46 And you know, this leads in extreme situations to the person washing their hand under like boiling hot water for, you know, an extended periods of time to the point where like, people's hands are blistering. You know, I remember one client I had, I'm just used so much per that it ultimately like dried out their whole hands, um, and where they're all cracked and blistered, you know, which ironically makes them more susceptible to catching some kind of, uh, you know, disease. Cause now their hands are like open sores and stuff. Um, you know, and there's, there's the irony of OCD, right? Is that, um, you know, it's just like the harder and harder you try, um, the worst and worst things get right. And so when it comes to understanding contamination, so do we need to realize that it can take on many forms? Um, and it's always about identifying.

07:35 So usually the people will notice, like family members will notice the person washing extensively or doing these like cleaning rituals or avoiding certain things. Right? So one of the things about contamination, OCD and why it's so well known is because it's very visual, right? A lot of the compulsion's are very physical behavior oriented. It doesn't mean they don't do mental convulsions. It just means they have a lot of physical behaviors that are really noticeable. Right. You like, you notice when someone's washing their hands and they're washing all the way up to their bicep, you know, like covering it and soap. You're like, what are you doing? You know, you know, or they're taking two hour showers or things like that, right? So usually it gets noticed by the compulsive behaviors itself. And, um, what's happened is, is that tolerance is built to the point where it started to really take over the person's life.

08:23 And, and, and again, these, these fears can come in many forms. It could be the germs, it could be blood, could be bodily fluids, it could be, um, you know, again, environmental pollutants, um, pesticides, I mean, you, you name it, right? I mean, you know, it's, it's kind of like I've seen people with all sorts of different contamination fears. So the key though is to really identify the four main components are really the two main components. Like, look, what is the actual fear. So I'm, you know, for this first part, what I want to leave you with here in this episode is just the first step is really identifying, look what is the actual fear that they're, the person is afraid of. Right? Whether it's a fear of blood or, you know, and if there's a certain disease underneath that, is that like what's the actual disease they're afraid of contracting?

09:08 And two are what are the compulsions they do now that can be anything from the washing to washing your clothes to, you know, wiping down things with sanitary wipes to using PRL, um, to avoiding situations, to getting reassurance to making sure like, well, I didn't really get AIDS, right? So, cause I had one gentleman who one time who just always got tested for AIDS, right? And it, and it was like this vicious cycle because he would go get tested and then the results would come back negative, but then his mind would generate the idea, well, what if I got contaminated when I got tested? And then you have to go test again. And it just kept going and going and going and going. So, um, for the first part of this series, I just want to talk about, you know, what is contamination OCT, and again, obviously I can't cover every aspect of it, but just identifying those two main parts is crucial to the treatment process. And then in the next part of the series, I'm going to talk about, um, kind of some main steps when we talk about treating contamination. OCD. I'm using something called exposure response prevention. So I'll see you in the next part of this series where we're going to talk about that. And until next time, I hope you have a great day. See you soon.