How do you overcome fear of contamination?
How do you overcome fear of contamination?
Like all types of OCD, Contamination OCD can be treated with Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), specifically with treatment approaches called Exposure with Response Prevention (ERP), and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. Mindful-Based CBT teaches patients that everyone experiences intrusive thoughts.
What causes fear of contamination?
Usually the fear is caused by physical contact with a contaminant and spreads rapidly and widely. When a person feels contaminated it drives a strong urge to remove the contamination, usually by washing. The fear and subsequent urges over-ride other behavior.
Is fear of contamination OCD?
Contamination OCD is a subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) where a person experiences obsessive thoughts around fears of becoming contaminated, contaminating others, or contracting and spreading disease.
What is the phobia of being dirty?
Mysophobia, or the excessive fear of germs and dirt, can lead people to engage in extreme cleaning, compulsive hand-washing, and even avoidance of things or situations perceived as dirty. In some instances, this phobia may be related to obsessive-compulsive disorder.
How do you help someone with Mysophobia?
Antidepressant medications known as SSRIs are frequently prescribed to help manage symptoms of anxiety.4 Exposure therapy is also used to treat mysophobia, as individuals become gradually used to reversing behaviors in a way that feels safe and gradual (i.e. increasing time in between hand washing).
What is mental contamination OCD?
Mental Contamination OCD involves anxiety symptoms that also includes feelings of contamination that are triggered by thoughts, images and memories or by association with an individual that has harmed the sufferer in some way.
What’s it called when you make up scenarios in your head?
This is known as catastrophic thinking, or “catastrophising.” It’s a habit people get into for various reasons, and it can be difficult to break. But it can be done, by learning to be logical and calm, and having a support network of sensible people you can call when you feel out of control.
What phobia is the fear of infection or contamination?
Germophobia is the pathological fear of germs, bacteria, microbes, contamination and infection. The phobia can cause restlessness, fatigue, shortness of breath, headaches, digestion problems and other physical symptoms that can affect quality of life.
How to overcome OCD?
Identify and Write Down Your Triggers. Write down the thoughts or situations that bring on that OCD behavior.
Why are people afraid of germs?
The fear of germs may also be related to a secondary fear of contracting an illness from the germs. The cause of mysophobia may be as small as observing someone in a movie who contracts an illness in a fictional germ warfare.
What is contamination anxiety?
1: contamination anxiety: a persistent, abnormal, and unwarranted fear of contamination, despite conscious understanding by the phobic individual and reassurance by others that there is no danger. 2: contamination anxiety: an extreme unwarranted fear and/or physical aversion to contamination.
