Contamination OCD: a common subtype of OCD where obsessions center around sickness, germs, filth, or other contamination related fears. Individuals with C-OCD*, commonly called “germaphobes”**, have a strong fear of pathogens, contracting illness, and spreading illness to others. They may have compulsions such as excessive hand-washing/showering, using hand sanitizer constantly, changing clothes multiple times a day, avoiding hospitals, cleaning their home excessively, constantly wearing gloves, or not touching anything or anyone. In order to prevent their fear from happening, people with C-OCD may spend hours researching diseases, pathogens, and how they spread (although this gives them no reassurance and only reinforces their fears and compulsions). While they fear contracting an illness, they often also fear spreading illness to others, the idea of which causes severe distress as they don’t want to make anyone sick. While pathogens/illness are the origin of the obsessions, people with C-OCD usually also fear dirt, dust, and other visible representations of contamination. C-OCD is similar to hypochondria/illness anxiety but hypochondriacs don’t necessarily have compulsions and their response to the same fear can differ- however, these disorders heavily overlap.
Colors represent contamination and sanitizing/washing/sterilization.
Learn more about Contamination OCD.
*C-OCD is a shorthand to go along with the other subtypes that have them.
**Don’t call them that please. It’s just a part of the definition in order to help people put two and two together and use the correct terminology instead. People with C-OCD may refer to themselves in this way though.
