Fear of Germs

Fear of Germs

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

https://www.restoredminds.com/ocd-assessment

Hello, welcome to a new series where I will discuss the different types of fears that people wrestle with. 

In this first episode, I am going to discuss the fear of contamination, also known as the fear of germs. I will discuss how this fear develops, common symptoms and experiences, and what to expect in the healing process. Fear of germs is one of the most common types of OCD, and if left untreated, can become very overwhelming and time consuming for the individual who struggles with it.

Hope you find this information helpful!

TRANSCRIPT

(00:00):

All right. Hey there. And welcome to this episode where we're going to talk about the fear of germs or being a germaphobe quote unquote. And so, um, in this, in this episode, what I want to do is kind of want to start a new series and just really dive into very specific fears. And so they're going to be shorter episodes, and we're going to try to roll these out quicker. Um, you know, really just to get them out and to, to help with education on a lot of the different fears that people have. Right. And, um, in what we're talking about here is kind of the Sunbrella of psychological stress, right? So what is psychological stress? It's basically, you know, the thoughts that we're having are actually producing a stress or a stress response in the body, right? And so that's how we kind of indicate what you would call anxiety for the most cases right now it's not only anxiety, right.

(00:49):

But psychological stress is our mind's ability to future pace and event. Right. And then we're reacting to that event like it's happening right now. Okay. And that's, what's causing the stress response. Now, obviously the stress response can be very good in the sense of keeping us alive with the fight or flight or freeze response. Right. But when you're talking about psychological stress, the problem is, is that you're creating events that aren't happening right now. And then you're responding to them as if they're a current threat. Right. And then that can just happen again and again and again. So one of those things that, um, happens, you know, one of the common ways that that manifests for people is fear of germs. Now, you know, um, obviously this, this wasn't even a fear, right. Until, you know, essentially germ theory was discovered. Right. Um, but what what's interesting about the, the fear of germs is this yes, there, there are certain people that just have that fear of, of germs.

(01:45):

Right. And they, you know, they'll leave report what we call like psychosomatic experiences where, um, you know, psycho being mind and body somatic. Right. Um, you know, so essentially the fear will cause them to feel like dirty on their hands or unclean or, you know, just contaminated or whatever the word might be that they use. Right. Um, but they're, you know, a lot of times people have fears of certain diseases, right. And it's not necessarily the germs that they're afraid of. Right. But it's the, that that could lead to them getting a disease or the horrible outcome of the disease, or, you know, even getting germs or disease on their hands and then spreading them to other people. Right. I mean, there's so many ways that this can manifest, and that's why it's important to not just assume that if you have a fear of germs, it's the same as everyone else's because very rarely, you know, in fact, I think about like all the people I've worked with who have had this particular fear, um, it's never the same.

(02:47):

Right. As, as anyone else's, I mean sure. There's similarities and treatment is, is very similar. Right. But overall, the fear is, is almost like it's unique to the individual. And so in this, in this episode, what I want to talk about is just kind of what a germaphobe is. Right. And I don't even like using the word germaphobe, but just like the fear of germs. Right. And, and just kind of really, um, really breaking that down right. And saying, okay, like, this is what it is. And then let's now talk about, you know, how you go about treating this. Right. Because what we need to understand is that we have to start with a, you know, a restorative mindset, like, you know, we start with the idea that recovery is possible. Right. And so what we need to understand is this fear develops based on behaviors that you engage in that reinforce the idea that this is dangerous.

(03:40):

Right. So that is how anxiety disorders, um, you know, or any, any kind of anxiety struggle, so to speak develops, right. It builds over time. Most people who, um, you know, are, have a fear of germs, what happens is, is it starts, you know, with an initial thought like, Oh my gosh, like, what if that was contaminated? What if this had that, you know, whatever the thought is, right. And then from there, what happens is, is that they do a behavior, right. So maybe they avoid touching something or they, that, that they think is contaminated or they wash, or they use parental or hand sanitizer, um, or, you know, I mean they could check something again and again, and again and again, right. So there's so many ways that, that that happens. But the point is that they engage in behaviors or they do mental behaviors like analyzing or ruminating or, um, you know, reassuring themselves in their head.

(04:32):

And all these behaviors then reinforce the idea that the initial thought they had was actually a danger, right. In that it's something that the body should be responding to with the stress response. So then in the future, when they experienced that same event, um, you know, if they touch that same object, the same response is going to happen, and then they're going to have to do the behavior more and more and more. So what we do when we're working with someone who is experiencing like a, you know, a fear like this is we do, you know, progressor progressive, you know, exposure and response prevention, right. And then we also incorporate tools like acceptance commitment therapy, as well as, um, you know, mindfulness, um, and, and, you know, a few other, um, exposure tools that, that, you know, we, we kill in depth to, in our program.

(05:17):

But the idea is, is to expose yourself to the feared stimuli, right? In this case, the things that you think are contaminated and then prevent yourself from responding with, um, any kind of the, any of the behaviors you do. Now, the only way that this works is if you actually eliminate all the behaviors, right. It's very, very critical that we understand that. Um, because a lot of people, what they do is they try the exposure and response prevention and they only eliminate certain behaviors and then they don't get results. And they think that the process doesn't work, the process only works if you eliminate all the, all the compulsion's or all the response or any of the safety behaviors that you engage in. So, um, you know, that's helpful in understanding this fear of germs, right? And so if this is something you struggle with, you know, we have resources [email protected].

(06:03):

In fact, we have some links right down beneath in, uh, in the notes here. Um, and so for, for you specifically, so you can go ahead and check those out. Also, uh, if you found this helpful, please like subscribe and share with your friends, um, you know, because we want to get this information out to people and we know that a lot of people are struggling. And so, um, and it's important to understand that you, you can get help and you can get better. Right. And especially, um, with, with this fear, it's like, I've seen it. I've seen wild transformation take place, um, with, with very, very brave people, you know, and again, they're not like any, it's just normal everyday people that are able to do all sorts of wonderful things when they really learn the right tools and, and really taking back control of your life. Because that's one of the things that will happen with this is that your life will become smaller and smaller and smaller, the more stuff that you avoid and avoid and avoid. So, um, thank you for taking the time to hang out with us today. And I look forward to seeing you on the next episode, take care.