Fear of mold: Is it OCD, Mysophobia, or something else?

“I’m terrified of black mold. How will I know if it’s spreading in my house and I just haven’t spotted it?”

“What if I didn’t notice mold spores on the bread I had for lunch?”

“Blue cheese is technically mold. Will something bad happen if I eat it?”

There are not many good things to say about mold. It smells musty, looks nasty, and appears in the corners of your attic, under your bathroom sink, and even on the strawberries you paid $12 for and forgot were sitting in the back of your fridge. While it’s not uncommon to be grossed out by the fungus, some people’s fear of mold is at another level. They’re not just disgusted by mold, but legitimately afraid of it to the point where that fear regularly interrupts their daily life. 

If you feel consumed by a fear of mold, it might be a sign of mysophobia or mycophobia. Or it could be related to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a mental health condition that can cause an obsession with or fear of practically anything—yes, including mold. Read on to understand what could be causing your anxiety and learn how to better manage distress.

Why does mold give me anxiety?

We’re taught to react when we spot mold and there are good reasons for that. Long-term exposure to mold can lead to health issues like asthma, inflammation, and sinus troubles. Some people may be particularly sensitive to mold, or even have a full-blown allergy. 

So, when you notice a patch growing in your basement, you’ll probably stop everything to remove the contamination and deep-clean (and dehumidify) the area. Depending on the level of infestation and whether or not anyone got sick, it’s completely normal to be a little anxious after handling a mold issue, according to Dr. Patrick McGrath, PhD, Chief Clinical Officer at NOCD. You might even have a professional come give the area a sweep to determine if the mold problem has actually been resolved. All of that is well and good, but if intense distress about mold lingers long after the fungus has been eliminated, that may be a sign of a mental health issue.

Is it mysophobia or mycophobia?

If you experience discomfort when there’s mold in your presence, you may be dealing with a specific phobia. The DSM-5 defines a specific phobia as a “marked fear or anxiety about a specific object or situation.” 

There are a couple different types of specific phobias that your fears may fall into.

First, there’s mysophobia. If your fear of mold is centered around the dirtiness created by mold, your concerns could be related to mysophobia, a.k.a the intense fear of germs, bacteria, and contamination. Sometimes mysophobia is referred to as germaphobia, bacillophobia, bacteriophobia, or verminophobia—they’re all the same thing. 

Mycophobia, on the other hand, refers to the irrational fear of fungus. People with mycophobia may believe that all forms of fungi—including mushrooms and mold—are toxic and the environment they’re found in is “tainted.” 

Diagnosing a specific phobia

Simply being afraid of something is not the same as having a phobia that severely disrupts your life. Certain criteria must be met for a fear of mold to be considered a phobia. Here’s what’s needed for a diagnosis, according to the DSM-5:

• Your fear is excessive or out of proportion to the actual “threat”
• Your fear leads to intense distress, anxiety, or panic 
• Your fear of mold (or avoidance of mold) interferes with your life 
• You’ve had the fear for at least six months
• Your fear is not a result of another mental disorder, such as OCD

What does being afraid of mold have to do with OCD?

Another possibility for what’s behind your fear could be obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a chronic mental health condition that’s characterized by two key symptoms: obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are thoughts, urges, feelings, sensations and/or mental images that are intrusive, unwanted, and lead to distress. In this case, obsessions may manifest as excessive worries about being infected by mold.

“So with mold, it could be: ‘what would be the worst things that would happen if there was mold on me, my house, or my children?’” Dr. McGrath explains.

Your mold-related obsessions might sound like:

• “What if the mold in my basement causes cancer? Will I die?”
• “What if I’m exposed to mold and have an allergic reaction that makes me sick?”
• “What if there are mold spores in my house and I spread them to my elderly neighbors?”
• “My mom found mold on her groceries. I don’t trust her to cook for me and I want to go to her house for the holidays anymore.”
• “I don’t feel clean after showering because there was mildew in my bathroom a few months ago.”
• “There have been so many food recalls. What if there’s mold on my lunch meat and I just can’t see it?”
• “What if my pet accidentally ingested molds and became ill?

A lot of these thoughts are in line with contamination OCD, a subtype of OCD marked by a fear of contracting an illness or spreading germs. There may also be some crossover with responsibility OCD, which centers on a person’s sense of responsibility for other people and animals around them. With this subtype, you may feel an overwhelming urge to keep your home up to certain standards of cleanliness—not because you care so much about things being neat and clean, but because you want to “protect” others from the potential hazards of mold.

Keep in mind that OCD involves two symptoms: obsessions as well as compulsions. When someone with OCD has an intrusive thought or fear surrounding mold, they respond to it with a compulsive behavior or mental act done in an attempt to reduce their anxiety or distress. 

Compulsions can vary in how extreme they are. “People will very often start using very harsh chemicals as a way to try to clear the mold out,” Dr. McGrath says. “They may move their whole family out of their house into another place. They may hire several different contractors to look for mold—even if they say there is none, they may not believe them.”

Mold-related compulsions may include:

• Excessive cleaning
• Constantly checking and re-checking areas (or food) for signs of mold
• Throwing away items you believe to be “contaminated”
• Avoidance of places where you think mold could grow (i.e. avoiding baths or showering because of previous mildew spots)
• Using gloves or other protective gear when it’s unnecessary
• Seeking reassurance that the mold is totally gone
• Spending hours researching mold online  

Specific phobias vs. OCD: What’s the difference?

Specific phobias and OCD may be (on the surface) hard to tell apart, but they are distinct diagnoses. 

One way to differentiate OCD fears from a mold-related specific phobia is exploring how you feel when you’re not directly looking at the substance. “Someone with a mold phobia would probably see mold and then want to run away from it—but if they don’t see it, they’re probably not spending too much time checking and rechecking and cleaning,” Dr. McGrath says. 

Do you experience intrusive thoughts about mold even when it’s nowhere near you? Do you feel like you have to perform certain actions when you get these thoughts to prevent something bad from happening or cope with your distress? Then it’s most likely OCD.  

The problem with using compulsions to manage distress caused by your fear is that “OCD can never be satisfied,” according to Dr. McGrath. Rather than performing compulsions enough times to escape the intrusive thoughts about mold, compulsions actually reinforce the idea that obsessions need to be taken seriously and must be met with some sort of action. This is why proper treatment for OCD is so critical—as recovery requires breaking the OCD cycle rather than feeding it.

Another way to discern if OCD is at play is to examine whether you have any other fears that cause similar feelings of uneasiness. Perhaps, in addition to your concerns about mold, you’re also bothered by worries about things not being symmetrical or you’re regularly experiencing intrusive thoughts that you might harm someone. It’s totally possible (and pretty common) for your OCD to latch onto various themes over time, rather than just one. Plus, OCD symptoms wax and wane all the time. You may ruminate about mold for months after a storm flooded your basement, but then your OCD might suddenly fixate on whether your breathing patterns mean you might die in your sleep.

How to overcome a fear of mold

The good news is that there are effective methods to manage these distressing feelings about mold whether they’re caused by OCD or a specific phobia. Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is an evidence-based therapy designed to treat OCD, but experts also use it to address specific phobias. 

ERP is done in partnership with an ERP-trained therapist, and it’s an active form of therapy—meaning you’ll do certain exercises or practices that are called exposures. 

During an initial appointment, you will work with your therapist to identify your primary fear. For example, do you have a fear that you might become ill due to mold, or is it more about pure disgust?

The response prevention part of ERP asks you to resist performing compulsions. “I might start by asking a NOCD member to limit the amount of time they spend checking for mold or limiting the amount of chemicals that they use,” Dr. McGrath says. That might mean going from checking the attic for mold ten times a day to only five times. After a few sessions, maybe you only look once a week. 

“Sometimes at the start of ERP, it’s just about gradually decreasing the amount of compulsions that one is doing,” Dr. McGrath explains. “You might have to start there before purposely exposing people to things that are more uncomfortable.” 

Once you’ve taken on easier exposures, you’ll move on to ones that cause more distress. That might mean watching a show like “The Last of Us” where a fungus infects humans and turns them into zombies. (Yes, in case you’re wondering, the HBO show spawned fungal fears in many people.) Over time, you’ll find that you are better equipped to tolerate any anxiety brought on by mold.

Bottom Line

ERP specialists are prepared to help you—pardon the pun—“break the mold” of unhealthy coping mechanisms. Whether your fear of mold stems from OCD or a specific phobia, know that effective treatment is out there and can bring you significant relief.