What is Contamination OCD?
Published September 11th, 2025
7 min read
Contamination OCD causes intense fears of germs and illness, leading to distressing rituals and avoidance behaviors that disrupt daily life.
Written by Simon Spichak
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is one of the most common and misunderstood mental health conditions, affecting one in every 40 people worldwide. People with OCD experience persistent, debilitating, intrusive thoughts called obsessions. These obsessions cause substantial distress, compelling people with OCD to carry out compulsive actions or rituals to alleviate the distress. Contamination OCD is one of the most common subtypes of OCD, involving fears linked to germs, illness, dirt, and feeling unclean.
What is Contamination OCD?
People with contamination OCD have irrational, intrusive fears over germs, dirt, disease, and other aspects of cleanliness.
Unlike ordinary preferences for cleanliness or precautions when the flu or COVID-19 levels are high, the obsessive thoughts in contamination OCD are unwanted, excessive, time-consuming, and negatively impact day-to-day life.
The compulsive actions and rituals that people perform are driven by distress and anxiety, rather than logic. In some cases, people with contamination OCD are aware that these actions are irrational but perform them just in case.
Physical contamination OCD
Physical contamination OCD manifests as anxieties and concerns about coming into physical contact with dirty or infected things, places, and people. To alleviate these thoughts, people with physical contamination OCD will frequently handwash, clean, and avoid public spaces they perceive to be dirty or contaminated.
Mental and emotional contamination OCD
Mental contamination involves intrusive thoughts and distress over feeling internally impure or unclean. Emotional contamination refers to the fear that simply thinking about, or being near, certain people, places, or ideas can make someone "dirty" or "bad.”
Symptoms of Contamination OCD
People with contamination OCD experience obsessive, intrusive thoughts about germs, illness, physical/emotional/spiritual contamination, and dirtiness. These thoughts lead to intense and potentially debilitating feelings of fear, anxiety, and disgust.
To alleviate these feelings, people with this subtype of OCD perform compulsions that temporarily alleviate these feelings. But the relief doesn’t last. As long as the person with OCD continues to perform these compulsive rituals, the symptoms will continue.
Common examples of these compulsive thoughts and behaviours include:
Excessive handwashing
Disinfecting, washing, or sterilizing household items
Frequently throwing away household items like clothing to get rid of contamination
Frequently changing clothing to get rid of contamination
Avoiding certain places that are considered dirty or infested with germs
Trying to avoid thinking about certain objects
Physically avoiding contact with contaminated places or objects
Repeating cleansing mantras or thoughts over and over
Seeking reassurance that you aren’t contaminated
Causes and Risk Factors
Many different factors play a role in OCD. While no single factor causes contamination OCD, these factors play potential roles:
Differences in brain connectivity and function
Genetic factors that make OCD run in families
In rare cases, infections cause OCD-like disorders in children
How is Contamination OCD Diagnosed?
OCD is diagnosed by mental health professionals like psychiatrists who will ask questions about your symptoms. They’ll ask about your obsessive, intrusive thoughts and whether your compulsions impact your daily life. They might also run other tests to rule out other diagnoses or conditions.
Some might use standardized scales, like the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), which check to see the frequency and severity of symptoms. People who experience obsessions and compulsions that take up more than an hour per day or cause significant impairment are signs of OCD.
How is Contamination OCD Treated?
Contamination OCD is treated using a combination of therapy and medications.
Exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy
The frontline treatment for OCD is a type of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) called exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy. The goal is to desensitize your brain to your obsessive, intrusive thoughts of contamination.
The therapist will expose you to things that trigger your contamination OCD. Many therapists use a hierarchy, starting with the least scary triggers. You might need to touch a doorknob out in public, for example, while preventing yourself from compulsively washing or disinfecting your hands afterward. Once you become desensitized, you’ll move on to a more anxiety-inducing trigger, like touching a spider or an insect.
Gradually, you’ll learn that the intrusive thoughts aren’t dangerous and that you can tolerate the distress without needing to do compulsive actions or rituals.
Medications for OCD
Although we aren’t sure why, the same drugs used to treat depression and anxiety often help with OCD. Many of these drugs belong to a class of medications called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. They affect the flux of chemical signals within the brain.
The following medications are the first-line drug treatments for OCD:
Anafranil (Clomipramine)
Prozac (Fluoxetine)
Luvox (Fluvoxamine)
Paxil, Pexeva (Paroxetine)
Zoloft (Sertraline)
Many of these medications come with side effects that are most intense during the first few weeks of treatment. Please speak with your doctor if you experience unpleasant side effects because you might respond better to another treatment.
Some of these side effects include:
Dry mouth
Sexual difficulties or low sex drive
Dizziness
Irritability
Blurred vision
Decrease in appetite
Indigestion
How Resolvve Can Help
If you think you might have contamination OCD, Resolvve is here to help. We have many other resources on OCD to help you learn about the condition and its symptoms:
Our therapists in Ontario specialize in ERP therapy for OCD, with sessions starting at $30. If you’re ready to take the next step, you can get matched to a therapist and book your complimentary 15-minute consultation today.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are common triggers for contamination OCD?
Triggers often include contact with dirt, germs, bodily fluids, public spaces, or even thoughts that feel “unclean” or “dangerous.” Triggers vary person to person.
Is contamination OCD a mental illness?
Yes, contamination OCD is a recognized mental health condition and is considered one of the primary OCD subtypes.
Can contamination OCD go away on its own?
OCD rarely resolves without intervention and typically requires therapy such as ERP and sometimes medications.
How does ERP work?
ERP helps individuals face the thoughts, situations, or objects that trigger their obsessions (exposure), while preventing the rituals or compulsions they usually perform to reduce anxiety (response prevention). Over time, this process retrains the brain to view triggering situations as less threatening and makes it easier to resist compulsions.
How severe can contamination OCD become?
Without treatment, contamination OCD can severely disrupt daily life, relationships, work, and can lead to physical harm from excessive cleaning.
What medications are prescribed for contamination OCD?
Common medications include SSRIs such as sertraline (Zoloft), fluoxetine (Prozac), fluvoxamine (Luvox), paroxetine (Paxil), and clomipramine (Anafranil).
Please note that this post is written for educational purposes; it is not therapy. If you need to talk to a professional, please book a consultation with a psychotherapist through Resolvve.
