OCD Contamination Public toilets Anxiety
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The fear of being dirty and contamination is the obsessional worry, often fear is that contamination might cause harm to ones self or a loved one. The common compulsions might be to wash or clean or avoid.
The cleaning or washing is often carried out multiple times often accompanied by rituals of repetitive hand or body washing until the person ‘feels’ it is clean, rather than someone without OCD who will wash or clean once until they ‘see’ they are clean.
The time this takes can have a serious impact on a person’s ability to hold down jobs and relationships and there is also a secondary physical health impact of the constant scrubbing and cleaning on the skin, especially the hands where people will scrub until the hands are bleeding. Some people have also gone to the extremes of bathing in bleach.
A person may also avoid entire places, people or objects if they experienced contamination fears previously.
Fear of and avoidance Using public toilets (fear of contracting germs from other people).
The cleaning or washing is often carried out multiple times often accompanied by rituals of repetitive hand or body washing until the person ‘feels’ it is clean, rather than someone without OCD who will wash or clean once until they ‘see’ they are clean.
The time this takes can have a serious impact on a person’s ability to hold down jobs and relationships and there is also a secondary physical health impact of the constant scrubbing and cleaning on the skin, especially the hands where people will scrub until the hands are bleeding. Some people have also gone to the extremes of bathing in bleach.
A person may also avoid entire places, people or objects if they experienced contamination fears previously.
Fear of and avoidance Using public toilets (fear of contracting germs from other people).