Common Fears & OCD Subtypes
OCD subtypes can help people to find community with others who share similar experiences, and they can assist therapists in designing targeted treatment plans, but they don't tell the whole story. If you can't find your subtype, that doesn't mean you don't have OCD—everyone's experience is unique, and many people's OCD symptoms don't fit neatly into any specific theme.
Health and Contamination OCD
Health Concern/Contamination OCD is a subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) where a person experiences obsessive thoughts around fears of becoming contaminated, contaminating others, or contracting and spreading a disease. These obsessive thoughts drive people to engage in various compulsions aimed at alleviating their anxieties about contamination (e.g., showering for hours or until they feel clean).
Fear of concussions in OCD involves recurrent, persistent, unwanted, and intrusive thoughts related to head trauma/concussion.
Fear of spit in OCD involves repetitive contamination fears and worry about contracting illness by coming into contact with saliva or spit.
A fear of sunburn associated with OCD involves recurrent, persistent, unwanted, and intrusive thoughts, images, or urges related to sunburns.
An intense fear of boogers or mucus is common in Contamination OCD, and can be very debilitating interfering with many areas of life.
OCD fear of HIV is a focus in Contamination/Health OCD where individuals fear they will contract, or may have contracted, the HIV virus.
Reviewed by Patrick McGrath, PhD
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If you’re experiencing fears about coming into contact with sperm and becoming contaminated or feeling dirty, it may be Contamination OCD.
By Stacy Quick, LPC
For people with OCD fear of toilets anything involved with restroom contaminants can become an issue that is hard to manage.