Fear of Germs Part 2
Seeking help from an OCD specialist is essential in learning to manage intrusive thoughts and compulsions related to contamination OCD.
Exposure and response prevention exercises are often used in therapy to help you confront your fears and resist compulsions.
Contamination OCD is a common form of OCD characterized by irrational fears of germs and contamination. Contamination OCD leads to compulsive behaviors like excessive hand washing.
By addressing these fears through therapy and practicing exposure exercises, you can learn to overcome your OCD symptoms and lead a more balanced life. Remember, seeking help is a proactive step towards improving mental health, and you are not alone in your struggles.
Let’s explore how exposure and response prevention exercises can help you confront your fears and resist compulsive behaviors.
Practice mindfulness: Mindfulness techniques such as deep breathing, meditation, and yoga can help you stay present in the moment and reduce anxiety. By focusing on the present moment, you can learn to shift your focus away from intrusive thoughts and fears.
Get regular exercise: Physical activity has been shown to have numerous mental health benefits, including reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression. Exercise can also help individuals with contamination OCD release pent-up energy and tension.
Engage in hobbies: What activities bring you joy and relaxation? Hobbies such as painting, reading, gardening, or cooking can give a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction.
Connect with others: Social support is important if you have contamination OCD. Talking to friends, family members, or support groups can provide emotional support, validation, and understanding. It can also help you feel less isolated and alone.
Practice self-compassion: Be kind and gentle with yourself. Remember that struggling with OCD is not a reflection of your character or worth. Treat yourself with the same kindness and understanding that you would offer to a friend in need.
By using these strategies, in addition to therapy with an OCD specialist, you can better manage your contamination OCD symptoms and improve your overall quality of life. Remember that seeking help and support is a strength, not a weakness. You deserve to live a life free from the grip of OCD. Take steps today towards healing and OCD remission.
Join my email newsletter for a more personal connection and free tips. Stay tuned for more content next week!
Transcript:
Fear of Germs Part II
[00:00:00]
We're partnering with NoCD to raise awareness about OCD. OCD is more than what you see on TV and in the movies. Imagine having unwanted thoughts about your relationship stuck in your head all day, no matter how hard you try to make them go away. That's Relationship OCD. It comes with unrelenting intrusive images, thoughts, and urges about your partner or loved one.
Breaking the OCD cycle takes effective treatment. Go to N O C D dot com to get evidence based treatment.
Alright, according to a New York Times post, there are 40, 000 times more germs in your reusable water bottle than there is on a toilet seat. Yikes. I am definitely one of those that uses a reusable water bottle because I'm thinking I'm trying to be conscientious of the planet and not have all the plastic, but a little [00:01:00] bit concerning that there's 40, 000 times more bacteria in my water bottle as compared to a toilet seat.
Hi, I'm Erin, Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and OCD Specialist. I'm also a Christian, wife, mom to three, and small business owner, helping those who are overwhelmed by stress to climb out of that valley and enjoy the view. Reheat your coffee and pop in your AirPods to learn how to boss up to OCD.
Are you someone who worries about germs or gets freaked out by contamination? We're going to be talking about All things, germs, contamination, and what that contamination, OCD, or germophobia looks like.
Okay, and today is episode 20 of the Bossing Up Overcoming OCD podcast. And I really appreciate you guys listening, and I [00:02:00] thought I would give some stats on who is listening. And if you know anyone who would benefit from listening to the podcast, please
share the podcast their way.
And the most listened to episodes so far is starting with episode eight, which is the OCD brain. And in that episode, I was talking about the different parts of the brain that are impacted and affected and play a role in the OCD cycle. So give that a listen if you haven't done so already. And
The second most listened to episode is episode six, which is diet changes that help OCD. And that's a great episode where you can learn about the different foods that can make OCD worse or AKA or really like inflammation because inflammation can play a role in contributing to OCD. And then on the flip side, we're going to talk about foods that can help improve your [00:03:00] mental health or reduce inflammation.
And of course, always check with your doctor before trying any new supplements or regimen or foods. But that's a great episode to listen to if you're a foodie or if you like any of that. Like natural organic ways to improve your health. That's a great episode to listen to. Then the third most listened to episode of the podcast is episode five, which is the mind games of health OCD and health OCD.
I feel like has really spiked because of COVID. We're still not really free from COVID, I just got COVID several weeks ago for the first time and it's been out for four years. So I felt pretty proud that it was. Not scratch that, but yeah, we're still not free and clear of COVID.
We just went to a baseball tournament over the weekend, out of town, right? Further than we normally go. And there were many people wearing a mask still, and and to each their own, if you feel like that's what is helping you and [00:04:00] protecting you, like you do you, but I'm sure there are some people who may be wearing a mask out of OCD reasons and that's where, you can talk with your therapist.
when it comes to OCD and if you haven't noticed already, there's like that fine line between what's reasonable and then what is unreasonable. So in just seeing those people with masks on, I was wondering like, I wonder if they struggle with health OCD or do they legitimately and reasonably have a compromised immune system and need the mask for their own protection?
So I don't know, it was just something to think about. Yeah, if you listen to last week's episode, we talked about Howie Mandel's germophobia. And today I want to continue that conversation in talking about germs and the contamination OCD Subtype . .
With contamination OCD, it's one of the more common OCD presentations, and it's probably that. [00:05:00] stereotypical type where you're imagining someone washing their hands repeatedly ritualistically and just continuing to wash their hands until, it's beyond reasonable. But there are other variations of this contamination OCD, and maybe you have struggled with one of these.
I know for myself, public bathrooms are like very unpleasant. Oh my goodness. Which I think we all have our own threshold of what we can tolerate when it comes to cleanliness. And yeah, I've definitely had some hard times in a public bathroom where it's Do I really? Or get away, probably.
But yeah, so like maybe you're someone who has a fear of public bathrooms and you just completely avoid using a public restroom at all costs. There are also, there's also a variation here, which is pretty interesting, where you may be worried about getting AIDS, or HIV, [00:06:00] or rabies,
and of course those conditions would feel uncomfortable.
extremely threatening to get. And here's the difference with OCD. So with OCD, you may be afraid of contracting HIV through just touching someone, right? And therefore, you may not shake hands, you may not give hugs, and none of the above because you don't want to contract HIV. And there could be other forms of this showing up to where it's
Okay. Let's say your friend works at an animal shelter and your friend at the animal shelter may come in contact with an animal that has rabies. Just probably naturally part of the job, right? And Let's say you have your friend over, your OCD may spin up a whole story about what if they have rabies and now they have touched my sink, they've touched my countertop, they've used my bathroom, they have eaten my food, and your OCD kicks into overdrive wanting you to [00:07:00] clean and sanitize everything so as to
keep you safe. So the cleaning is your safety behavior.
And then the other way it could show up, back in the really thick COVID days when we were all, it was a lot of new information, a lot of misinformation, and so people were like changing their clothes repeatedly. And at that time, we could probably say it was reasonable to change your clothes because you just don't know how much was truly on your clothes, which now, to my understanding, they say it doesn't stick to fabric, but,
anyway, the point is, I remember once the massage therapy places opened back up, some of those
Massage therapists would change their clothes in between every appointment for fear of contamination. so over the weekend when we were still out for that baseball tournament, I went to a store and [00:08:00] it's one of the stores I've visited frequently and they've got just some lovely lotions and scrubs and nice fragrance things.
Oh, and if you come to my office, I'm going to be trying a new fragrance. And I think it's going to be very refreshing. And so anyway, they ended up closing their spa because she said, ever since COVID, they really haven't had the same customers. A lot of people. At least in this area, we're still very fearful of COVID and just not wanting to be in close proximity to someone in a small room.
Yeah. So just in thinking about the signs of contamination, OCD, you might be someone who has that excessive or repetitive hand washing or. Or maybe you're doing long extended showers or some very extensive cleaning sessions.
You may also be throwing away items that you feel like are quote unquote contaminated. [00:09:00] You could be doing that, changing your clothes routinely kind of thing. You could be.
Using some very harsh chemicals to try to clean your skin or clean surfaces. And that may be a risk to your health by using such harsh chemicals or, researching on the internet about germs, illnesses, ailments. And, Dr. Google doesn't always have the answers and it seems like everything you Google leads to cancer.
So it's just best to talk to your doctor or see an OCD specialist so that you can get the care that you need and recognize how to manage those intrusive thoughts.
We're partnering with NoCD to raise awareness about OCD. OCD is more than what you see on TV and in the movies. Imagine having unwanted thoughts about your relationship stuck in your head all day, no matter how hard you try to make them go away. That's [00:10:00] Relationship OCD. It comes with unrelenting, intrusive images, thoughts, and urges about your partner or loved one.
If you think you may be struggling with Relationship OCD, there's hope. NoCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. NoCD therapists are trained in Exposure Response Prevention Therapy, the gold standard treatment for OCD. With NoCD, you can do virtual Live face to face video sessions with one of their licensed specialty trained therapists.
It's affordable and they accept most major insurance plans. Breaking the relationship OCD cycle takes effective treatment. To get started with NoCD, go to nocd. com slash savage.
And the other thing that's pretty interesting that shows up with contamination OCD is some people will feel like, Oh, if I sleep on my side, or if I tap both feet evenly, or if I touch my shoulders a [00:11:00] certain number of times, like whatever compulsion it is, sometimes an OCD sufferer feels like they need to do that particular compulsion in order to not get contaminated. And then when it comes to thinking about the repetitive handwashing, I've worked with so many people who have a certain way that they wash their hands. So it might be using magic numbers. They're using a magic number of pumps of soap, or a magic number of seconds they're washing, or a number of times they're turning the handles on the faucet.
And one more sign of contamination OCD is when you have this fear. Obviously when you have the fear of getting contamination of some kind, But what can happen sometimes is when you have what's called like the magical contamination.
magical contamination is when you're experiencing. Fears about getting contaminated in an irrational way. So something that's not logical, not reasonable. [00:12:00] It's really over assuming and jumping to conclusions.
So for example, I have worked with someone before who had fear of accidentally impregnating someone just by giving them a hug. Okay, so we know the process of how making babies happens, and it's not through a hug, especially, and it's not through being fully clothed and giving a hug, but OCD will trick you, lie to you, and try to tell you otherwise.
And that's where, again, it can feel very embarrassing to talk about OCD to a therapist, or to anyone. to anyone. And, oftentimes I hear my patients say, please don't judge me for this. And I want to remind you all that your therapist is not there to judge you. Your therapist is there to help you.
And the more authentic you can be with your therapist, the more your therapist can give you the appropriate
exposure and response prevention [00:13:00] exercises. So then we can directly target your fears.
And if anything, it's very, Comforting and fulfilling. Honestly, it's very fulfilling whenever you are genuine and open in sharing your worries and your thoughts, because that shows a sign of trust and a good sign of positive rapport. And so it's not only helping you, but it's also helping the therapeutic relationship when you're open and honest
and forthcoming.
And speaking of honest communication in therapy, if there's ever a point in your therapeutic relationship that you feel like something's not going the way you expected or you have questions about your treatment plan, definitely ask your therapist.
Okay, so let's talk for a minute about what some of those exposure and response prevention exercises might look like if you have contamination OCD.
Okay, and do you guys remember that show called Obsessed? [00:14:00] It was on A& E. I remember watching that show and being the younger version of myself in pre Graduate school and all that. That was intense. And it seemed like they had a lot of contamination, OCD people on there. And I specifically remember watching an episode where they had their patients jump in a dumpster, literally get in the dumpster and touch things. And oh my goodness, it makes me feel a little bit nauseous, even thinking about it. And I could totally empathize with how, oh my goodness, how extreme that would feel for someone living with OCD. And that would be Yeah, one of those exposures that you're probably not going to see in my treatment planning because my philosophy in the work that I do is that we're going to do things that are reasonable and within your normal day to day routine.
So jumping in a dumpster is probably not part of your routine, but if it is, we will [00:15:00] consider it. And I will do it with you because again, as being your OCD specialist, I will lead the way to show you that all is going to be okay. And I will never ask you to do anything I wouldn't do myself or that I wouldn't ask another family member or friend to do.
Yeah, so even maybe using those video clips from that show Obsessed might be an exposure because just watching someone else get into a dumpster may incite your OCD and raise the stress level and so we would repeatedly watch those clips to help you calm down or until your stress level came down by 50%.
Some other ideas that we may do, again, I'm not going to have you eat on a toilet seat because that's not going to be reasonable, but now knowing what we know about the reusable water bottle,
I may encourage you to get a reusable water bottle and use that as your exposure, and to use that [00:16:00] for a specified amount of time, and we may work on your own personal goals of how long can you use this water bottle, and let's be reasonable, we're going to wash it every day.
24 hours, but we're not going to wash it, let's say, 10 times a day for a repetitive amount of
100 seconds under hot water. Like we're not going to be doing those extremes. The other thing may be going to the public restrooms.
You may have some rituals, even if you can tolerate a public restroom, like maybe you have gloves like Howie Mandel and we would work on removing the gloves at, and again, at a pace that works for you so that you can be successful. We may also consider touching contaminated surfaces. So it may, we may have this idea of Oh, what if someone with, rabies touch the countertop, or maybe you've got a,
like a cat, for example, and they've just used their litter box. We're going to allow them to [00:17:00] jump on the countertop and then you can touch the countertop after the fact. And then another idea too, like
we may consider having you eat a meal without washing your hands first. It's very common for the general public, it seems like they're not very good about washing their hands and. Have you noticed like in every bathroom, which I appreciate it, but they have all these signs about employees must wash their hands before returning to work.
And it's makes you wonder how many don't, even though there is a sign. But if you ever stand outside a public restroom, like maybe at a mall or something, and you listen in to how many people wash their hands. Yeah. It's concerning. Like not Mary, not very many people wash their hands.
And they go on about their day. I've, I've heard that even a gas pump, the handle on the gas pump is pretty dirty. And you could challenge yourself by not using hand sanitizer afterwards. Or maybe going for a meal after that.
And so some of the things you'll learn will be [00:18:00] managing those intrusive thoughts, like recognizing that just because you think it, it doesn't mean it's true. And just because you feel it, it doesn't mean it's dangerous. All right? So just because you haven't washed your hands before you eat a meal, it doesn't mean that you're going to get AIDS, right?
Or it doesn't mean it's going to be so dangerous that it's going to lead to death.
It doesn't mean that it's going to lead to an extreme death. Illness or any of the like. Now the other thing when it comes to hand washing, let's say you are that person who uses four pumps of soap. We're gonna bring it down to three pumps, to two pumps, to one pump, and we're not gonna allow you to turn the faucet handles.
We're not like, we're not gonna allow you to turn the handles a certain number of times. You're only gonna wash your hands, In a very simple, practical way. You're not going to go and do the whole in between your fingers, or you're not going to do that ritual that you do [00:19:00] that helps you feel safe, right?
We're going to do something different, mix it up. And the goal of exposure and response prevention is to help you get accustomed to these
involuntary thoughts that bring you stress because we all get them. So you're going to learn how to manage them. And once you,
once you are managing these thoughts better, then you can graduate from therapy. Therapy is not intended to be a longterm thing.
And if your kid is struggling with OCD like with this contamination OCD for example, I will teach you how to help your kid with the hand washing exposures or the contamination exposures so that you as a parent are directly involved and you know how to coach them for the long term. And your kid will also know how to handle it themselves so that they can continue their exposures when needed.
In closing today's episode, I want to remind you all to join my email [00:20:00] newsletter where I've got some exclusive content.
And emails that I would,
and emails where I take the opportunity to get to know you better. And I want to know you better personally. I want to hear your challenges and I want to hear your successes. So grab a spot on my email newsletter so we can start that conversation.
And so when you join my email newsletter, it's not just another marketing tactic. Like I'm really wanting to know my audience and have that two way conversation.
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We're partnering with NoCD to raise awareness about OCD. OCD is more than what you see on TV and in the movies. Imagine having unwanted thoughts about your relationship stuck in your head all day, no matter how hard you try to make them go away. That's Relationship OCD. It comes with [00:21:00] unrelenting intrusive images, thoughts, and urges about your partner or loved one.
Breaking the OCD cycle takes effective treatment. Go to N O C D dot com to get evidence based treatment.
Okay. I hope you all are enjoying the beautiful spring weather.
Come back next week, and I'm going to be talking about self care. We're going to be talking about the importance of self care, and a couple of free self care ideas.
And I can't wait for you to give that a listen.
Thank you for listening to another episode of Bossing Up Overcoming OCD. This information is intended to be helpful and not a substitute for professional counseling. If you're struggling with any mental health challenges, I encourage you to seek help from a qualified therapist or health care professional.
If you enjoyed today's episode, please take a moment to rate and review the show. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and don't forget to check out the affiliate links in the show notes for free. For hand [00:22:00] picked recommendations that can brighten your day. Your support through these links helps keep the show running and provide valuable content.
You're not alone in your journey. Stay strong, stay resilient, and keep bossing up. See you next time.
