Book contents
- Everything You Need to Know about OCD
- Reviews
- Everything You Need to Know about OCD
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 What Is OCD and Is It Really a Problem?
- 2 Who Gets OCD and How Would Anyone Know if They Had It?
- 3 Types and Presentation of OCD
- 4 Drug Treatment
- 5 Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD
- 6 Children and Adolescents with OCD
- 7 Old Treatments, Modern Developments, New Research, and Potential Treatments for the Future
- 8 Other Conditions Which Appear Similar to OCD
- 9 What Can Family and Carers Do to Help a Person with OCD?
- 10 What Can You Do to Help Cope with Your OCD?
- 11 General Principles of Treatment
- 12 How to Better Manage Your Symptoms Before and During Treatment
- 13 Overcoming Fears of Contamination
- 14 Fear of Harm to Self or Others Due to Failure to Act
- 15 Fear of Harm to Self or Others Due to Your Own Actions (or Thoughts)
- 16 Overcoming ‘Taboo’ Obsessive Thoughts
- 17 Loss of Something (Objects or Part of ‘Self’)
- 18 Overcoming Obsessive-Compulsive Slowness, Perfectionism and Symmetry
- 19 Overcoming Obsessive Ruminations (Sometimes Known as ‘Pure O’)
- 20 When the Treatment Doesn’t Go According to Plan or Even If It Does, What to Do Next
- Appendix
- Glossary
- Resources
- References
- Index
13 - Overcoming Fears of Contamination
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 May 2022
- Everything You Need to Know about OCD
- Reviews
- Everything You Need to Know about OCD
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 What Is OCD and Is It Really a Problem?
- 2 Who Gets OCD and How Would Anyone Know if They Had It?
- 3 Types and Presentation of OCD
- 4 Drug Treatment
- 5 Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD
- 6 Children and Adolescents with OCD
- 7 Old Treatments, Modern Developments, New Research, and Potential Treatments for the Future
- 8 Other Conditions Which Appear Similar to OCD
- 9 What Can Family and Carers Do to Help a Person with OCD?
- 10 What Can You Do to Help Cope with Your OCD?
- 11 General Principles of Treatment
- 12 How to Better Manage Your Symptoms Before and During Treatment
- 13 Overcoming Fears of Contamination
- 14 Fear of Harm to Self or Others Due to Failure to Act
- 15 Fear of Harm to Self or Others Due to Your Own Actions (or Thoughts)
- 16 Overcoming ‘Taboo’ Obsessive Thoughts
- 17 Loss of Something (Objects or Part of ‘Self’)
- 18 Overcoming Obsessive-Compulsive Slowness, Perfectionism and Symmetry
- 19 Overcoming Obsessive Ruminations (Sometimes Known as ‘Pure O’)
- 20 When the Treatment Doesn’t Go According to Plan or Even If It Does, What to Do Next
- Appendix
- Glossary
- Resources
- References
- Index
Summary
Treatment for all types of OCD is essentially the same and features prolonged graded exposure in real life to the feared situation combined with self-imposed response prevention. The necessary steps to set about doing this have been fully explained in . This chapter will address additional factors and difficulties which may arise with contamination fears. The chapter will describe what constitutes contamination fears, and look at fear of dirt, germs, and illness as well as the idea of ‘mental contamination’, when an individual fears becoming ‘contaminated’ by an abstract agent such as ‘evil’ or ‘bad thoughts’. Risks and dangers of both OCD with contamination fears and risks of any treatment itself will be explored. Issues such as how the pandemic impacts on successful treatment and what should be done in such circumstances are also discussed. Personal stories will be used as a guide to help you plan your treatment.
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- Information
- Everything You Need to Know About OCD , pp. 205 - 222Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022