Contamination OCD
Contamination OCD is one of the most researched subtype of OCD. For people with contamination fears, they often struggle with anxiety around the threat of a health related illness or death, tolerating sensations of being unclean, or being exposed to pollution in some way.
The fears around contamination are not limited to dirt or germs they can also be related to blood, chemicals, or faces of animals.
People with OCD often struggle with the worry that they may get contaminated or they may get someone else contaminated in some way. This could bring on excessive guilt or shame.
Our program is developed with compassion, kindness and empathy in mind. We help patients by:
Observing that they are already taking risks in their lives to accept dirtiness.
Educate them on cognitive distortions that are keeping them stuck
Helping them recognize what they need to accept to overcome their OCD
Build an ritual reduction schedule and work on it collaboratively to reduce rituals
Help with exposure when they are fully ready to do so (we don’t push anyone).