How Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected Those With OCD & Health Anxiety?
By Brittany Freeman
Happy Mental Health Awareness Month!
I think we can all agree that there’s been an increase in our collective hand sanitizer consumption over the past few years. The pandemic has been hard for everyone, with the threat of an invisible but omnipresent virus hanging over our heads wherever we go. However, people with health anxiety and mysophobia, the fear of germs, have had their worst fears come to fruition. For them, the thought of getting sick and being exposed to other people’s germs can be debilitating enough without a potentially deadly virus going around. So now that there is one? We’re sure it hasn’t been fun for them, and wanted to get a sense of how they’re coping.
Mysophobia is most commonly associated with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and anxiety, but can appear in anyone. Those with OCD are at a higher risk of mysophobia due to the disorder’s susceptibility to obsessive thoughts and behaviors. Not limited to just germs, those with this phobia also have a pathological fear of bacteria, uncleanliness, contamination, and infection. To deal, they may obsessively wash their hands, sanitize their workspaces, and avoid physical contact with other people. Sound familiar? Most of these behaviors are exactly what we’ve been forced to do as a result of the pandemic. Those with health anxiety, also called illness anxiety and hypochondria, spend an obsessive amount of time irrationally fearing that they may have a serious illness and / or experience imagined symptoms of illness. For someone who harbors a constant fear of getting sick, we can only imagine how the very real threat of widespread illness may have affected them during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unsurprisingly, studies have shown that COVID-19 has negatively affected those suffering with health anxiety throughout the pandemic. A 2020 study revealed that the r/HealthAnxiety forum on the social media networking site Reddit showed an increase in posts referring to suicidality, more than doubling in quantity. The study also indicated that posters in that specific forum began expressing concerns about the coronavirus in early January, indicating that they were under pandemic-related stress earlier than the general population. Additionally, health anxiety emerged as a theme across Reddit.
The International OCD Foundation (IOCDF) suggested that the pandemic may be affecting people who suffer with contamination fears; their proposed solution is to give yourself permission to set a basic safety plan based on recommendations from trusted health professionals, and refrain from adding anything else to it. They also suggest only sanitizing spaces once a day, and only spend a few minutes doing it. A bright side - Katharine Phillips, a psychiatrist and professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, says it’s possible that “patients who have been in consistent, good treatment for their OCD are well protected against the stress of COVID-19.” Many with this kind of OCD feel “normal” for the first time, seeing the rest of the world having the same fears that they do.
Reaching out for help is essential if health anxiety or mysophobia begins to feel overwhelming or unmanageable, or if you’d just like some extra support. It may be helpful to find a therapist who is either familiar with health anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder or specializes in these areas. IOCDF is a great resource for this and put together a guide on how to find the right therapist.
Above all, take care of yourself! Mental health is wealth.