Hygiene is important for our health. Most people have a fixed morning and evening ritual and wash their hands regularly.

We also clean our house regularly so that bacteria and dirt cannot harm our health.

However, if personal hygiene and brushing become an obsession and determine your life, we call it fear of contamination or misophobia . This can manifest itself as follows:

• You wash your hands excessively and shower several times a day.
• If you have come into contact with others, you feel extremely dirty.
• You avoid handling objects because you are afraid of the coronavirus.
• You clean your house several times a day down to the smallest detail and follow a fixed ritual.
• If you think something isn’t clean, you don’t want to touch it or you panic.

Are you indeed too hygienic or do you fear that you will become infected if you handle something? Do you spend all day trying to keep everything as clean as possible? Does the fear of dirt or viruses determine your entire life?

Then this article can certainly help you with this. I will teach you what the most important symptoms are and what the possible causes of your fear of contamination are. And I will also show you how to go through life without fear.

Table Of Contents

What is fear of contamination (misophobia)?

What is a phobia?

What is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?

The symptoms of fear of contamination

Possible causes of fear of contamination

The consequences of fear of contamination

Tips for treating fear of contamination

Purpose of this blog: with this article I give you insight into the problem of fear of contamination or misophobia. We discuss the symptoms and delve deeper into the causes. Of course, this background information is interesting, but if you suffer from a fear of contamination, you naturally want to tackle this problem. I would like to give you some tips to overcome fear of contamination.

What is fear of contamination (misophobia)?

Fear of contamination is also called misophobia. It is a fear of contamination due to dirt, bacteria, viruses and other substances or objects. Yet fear of contamination is much more than a phobia. It is a form of obsessive compulsive disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder .

What is a phobia?

If you have a phobia, you are excessively afraid of something. These can be objects, animals or situations. For example, people with arachnophobia are extremely afraid of spiders. When they see a spider walking, they are so scared that they may even have a panic attack.

Fortunately, this does not happen every day and most people can live with such a phobia. It gets worse when a phobia starts to determine your life. For example, agoraphobia (fear of agoraphobia) can mean that you no longer dare to go anywhere.

However, with a phobia there are no compulsions. These do occur in obsessive-compulsive disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder – such as fear of contamination.

What is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?

Obsessive means that thoughts start to control your life, just like with a phobia. If you fear contamination, you are convinced that everything is dirty and dirty.

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But it doesn’t stop there. Your fear of dirt and bacteria is so great that you constantly want to avoid becoming infected. To do this, you perform compulsive actions such as washing your hands extremely often or brushing excessively. These compulsive actions are called compulsions.

The symptoms of fear of contamination

We all have fears, but phobias are generally considered unreasonable or excessive compared to standard fears.

Symptom 1: Fear of dirt and contamination

The very first symptom of contamination is an extreme fear of dirt and contamination. Everyone has an aversion to dirt, but if you have a fear of dirt you feel more than just a normal aversion.

Dirt, contamination and bacteria instill immense fear in you. This fear is so great that you constantly want to clean yourself and everything around you. The news about the coronavirus virus outbreak can worsen fear of contamination.

Symptom 2: Compulsive actions

If you have a fear of contamination or misophobia, then a quick cleaning will not be enough for you. Everything has to be done according to a certain routine and you often brush the same objects over and over again.

It can even go so far that if you can’t follow this routine, you have to start all over again until you’re sure everything is perfectly clean.

Symptom 3: Avoiding handling used objects

If you have a fear of contamination, you try to avoid handling anything that has already been touched by others.

For example, shopping carts or door handles are often a real nightmare. If people with a fear of contamination really cannot avoid it, they sometimes only use part of their hands or elbows to hold something.

People with a fear of contamination often also have cleaning wipes with them and keeping everything in plastic bags is not strange to them at all.

Symptom 4: Excessive personal hygiene

Someone with a fear of contamination or misophobia is so afraid of dirt that they wash their hands extremely often or take a shower several times a day.

People with a fear of contamination often immediately change their clothes when they have been outside. Washing your hands regularly indeed reduces the risk of contamination, but washing your hands frequently until they become extremely dry can be a symptom of fear of contamination.

Symptom 5: Panic attacks

Sometimes the fear of dirt and contamination can be so great that you become completely confused when you have to touch an object.

This can lead to panic attacks, especially outdoors where you have no control over the hygiene of certain objects.

Possible causes of fear of contamination

There is usually no clear reason for fear of contamination or misophobia. However, scientific research has shown that both heredity and environmental factors play a role.

The International OCD Foundation , an American non-profit organization that specializes in obsessive compulsive disorders, sees four possible causes for taint anxiety:

Cause 1: heredity

Genes probably play a role in the development of fear of contamination. If fear of contamination runs in the family, you may be more sensitive to this.

Cause 2: stress

Stress can also lead to obsessive compulsive behavior. It is, as it were, a defense reaction of the brain when you feel that you cannot handle things in a routine manner.

By focusing on compulsions you get the feeling that you have better control over things.

Cause 3: perfectionism

If you are a perfectionist, you are more likely to develop a fear of contamination. If you suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder, you want to keep things completely under control and that is precisely one of the characteristics of perfectionism.

Cause 4: deficiency of certain substances in the brain

A deficiency of serotonin (also called the happiness hormone) in particular can be a cause of obsessive compulsive disorder.

Whatever the cause, fear of contamination is difficult to live with. If you suffer from contamination, this not only has consequences for your own life, but also for that of those around you.

The consequences of fear of contamination

Because you are so afraid of contamination, fear of contamination can lead to social isolation. You do everything you can to avoid situations that could lead to infection, such as eating out at a restaurant or having sex.

• First of all, you dread visitors. You are afraid that people will touch something in your house and that you will become infected. When the visitors have gone home, you clean the house all over again.
• If you fear contamination, you also avoid situations where you could become infected. As a result, you often only go outside if you really have no other option. For many people with a fear of contamination, shopping is a real nightmare.
• Contamination anxiety is not only an unpleasant condition for yourself, those around you can also suffer from it. Family members or friends often find it quite annoying that you want to keep everything extremely clean and often get the feeling that they are not welcome at all.

If social isolation becomes too great, fear of contamination can even lead to depression .

If you have a fear of contamination, you realize very well that this is not normal behavior. Yet it is often difficult to overcome these obsessive thoughts and actions.

 If you think it is high time to live life a little easier again, the tips below will certainly help you:

Tips for treating fear of contamination

Fear of contamination can be treated in different ways. Very often, people with a fear of contamination are referred to a psychologist.

If you are not ready for this or do not want to go that far, there are also many other ways to overcome your fear of contamination:

Tip 1: Exposure Response Prevention Therapy (ERP)

If you have read this article carefully, you have probably learned a lot about fear of contamination. Informing yourself about this is already a first step in the right direction.

ERP is when you voluntarily expose yourself to the source of your fear over and over again, without exerting any force to neutralize or stop the fear.

By repeatedly facing something you fear, you force your brain to recognize how irrational it is.

Examples of ERP treatment:

Your therapist may ask you to make a list of things you fear, such as touching door handles or not washing your hands. Your therapist may then ask you to rank the items on the list by how anxious they make you.

Then you start the exposure exercises, starting with the relatively low anxiety tasks. The tasks become more challenging as you go further down the list.

You might end up doing things like handing a homeless person a euro coin or touching the tap in a public bathroom.

Tip 2: how do others deal with hygiene?

Everyone considers personal hygiene important and wants to keep their home tidy. Consciously consider how others deal with this.

Most likely, your friends or family members are not so extreme about this. Do these remain healthy? Will something bad happen to them if they are less concerned with this? Do they get sick from touching objects?

Most likely, the answer to these questions is negative. Why would you have to brush so compulsively?

Tip 3: step by step

Although it won’t be easy, try skipping something during your brushing routine. Then check with yourself whether something has happened as a result or if you have become infected with something.

No? Then the first step towards healing has already been taken. This way you can tackle brushing less thoroughly step by step.

Above all, realize that normal hygiene is important, but that you should not be compulsive about it.

Tip 4: talk about it

If you have a fear of contamination, you usually cannot count on much understanding from those around you.

Yet it is important to talk about this. A good conversation with someone is always a relief. This allows you to identify your problem and allow you to view things better from a distance.

Tip 5: structure

You may consider the routine you follow while brushing as a certain structure in your life.

Structure is indeed important, but try to replace this polishing structure with other structures. This allows you to break the cycle of obsessive thoughts and actions.

Try to find another way to spend your day. Plan your day in advance with more fun things and stick to it.

Life has so much more to offer if you don’t worry about dirt and contamination all the time.

Tip 6: Keep a diary

Keeping a diary can also help you overcome fear of contamination.

Start by naming your fears. What are you afraid of? How do you tackle this fear?

Then consider whether this fear is well-founded. Also keep track of your daily routine in the diary.

 Are there days when you haven’t been able to do this routine? Has this had negative consequences?

If you read your words again after a while, you can evaluate them more critically. Then try to replace these anxious thoughts with more positive thoughts. Keep track of what changes over time.