Emotional Contamination OCD
What is Emotional/Mental Contamination OCD?
Emotional/Mental Contamination OCD combines Magical Thinking with Contamination OCD. People are concerned that other people they know or don’t know can impact them negatively mentally or emotionally. Often times, individuals suffering from this form of OCD are concerned that someone has contaminated them, their space, bedroom, house, or anything that belongs to them. The worry can be that the individual with OCD is at risk of taking on negative personality traits such as bossiness or nastiness, or mental/physical disabilities of another person.
Common Obsessions (fears and doubts)
- Taking on negative personality traits of another person
- Such as: being mean, or a jerk
- Taking on a feared emotional state of another person
- Such as: sad, angry, or depressed.
- Fears of being emotionally contaminated by someone you deem as gross, mean, abusive, hurtful or a bad person.
- Fear of taking on with a physical or mental disability
Common Compulsions (safety behaviors) “What if?”
- Avoidance of persons, places, objects
- Cleaning self, belongings, areas that are deemed contaminated by others
- Avoiding saying or writing words or phrases that remind them of triggers
- Avoiding reading or watching anything that could cause them to take on those traits or negative events
- Throwing items away that may be connected to a person, place or memory