Contamination and Cleaning

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

One type of OCD is referred to as "Contamination and Cleaning". Individuals with this type of OCD are obsessed with the fear of becoming dirty or contaminated. In order to prevent contamination, they spend excessive amounts of time cleaning themselves or their possessions.

Obsessed with Contamination

People with a contamination obsession have an intense fear of becoming unclean. They may be afraid of being contaminated by specific substances such as:

• dirt
• blood
• household chemicals
• germs and viruses
• sticky substances
• insects and animals
• people who appear unclean or unkempt

These individuals may be fearful of mental contamination as well as physical contamination. Someone with a fear of mental contamination may feel unclean or contaminated after thinking about something they consider dirty or dangerous (i.e. a homeless person or a story on the news about a rape).

Fear of Illness or Disease

Individuals who have a contamination obsession often believe that contact with feared substances or thoughts about them will lead to illness or disease. They obsess about the possibility of becoming ill or spreading disease to other people.

Compulsive Cleaning

In order to prevent contracting illness or disease, people with the OCD subtype "Contamination and Cleaning" often go to great lengths to avoid certain places or situations in which they believe there is a danger of exposure to feared contaminants.

Commonly Avoided Places and Situations:

• public bathrooms
• shaking hands
• visiting a hospital

These individuals may also feel compelled to go through elaborate rituals or routines that they think will offer protection from contamination.

Common rituals, or compulsions, include:

• excessive disinfection and sterilizing
• throwing objects away
• changing clothes frequently
• designating "clean" areas within their home that are off limits to others

If someone with this type of OCD feels that they have been contaminated, they will often resort to excessive hand washing, body washing, showering, or housecleaning in an effort to decontaminate themselves or their possessions. This cleaning compulsion is used as a temporary way to relieve the individual's anxiety about being unclean. For a person with OCD, however, this anxiety is likely to return shortly thereafter since the perceived threat of contamination is always on their mind.