This pandemic has been difficult for everyone, nobody enjoyed staying at home for two months, no parents were thrilled at the prospect of working from home whilst also trying to home-school their children; and people certainly didn’t like wearing face masks. One group within the UK that has been particularly affected by COVID-19, are those people already living with OCD, especially those who have contamination OCD.
Contamination OCD is arguably the most well-known type of OCD. Think Emma Pillsbury from Glee. People with contamination OCD have a lot of distressing thoughts about encountering germs and becoming sick. In order to ease their anxiety, a person with contamination OCD will perform compulsions such as washing their hands and belongings excessively as well as avoiding touching things like door handles and taps in public spaces. People with contamination OCD already spend enough time completing compulsions in order to ease their anxiety surrounding germs and contamination, a global pandemic complete with a lockdown, media panic, as well as false information, only feeds this more.
Now that the lockdown is easing, however, do not expect your OCD to disappear. The lockdown lifting may actually be triggering your OCD (it certainly is for me), so I asked Olivia Bamber (the OCD Action Media and Communications Officer) for some advice on how to evict OCD from my mind, as I am sick of it living there rent-free.
‘OCD causes sufferers to experience unwanted, intrusive, or distressing thoughts and carry out either mental or physical compulsion’
First, I asked Olivia to define OCD, a term which we all too often hear being used so frivolously both in the media and real life.
Olivia: OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) is an anxiety disorder that causes sufferers to experience unwanted, intrusive and distressing thoughts and carry out either mental or physical compulsions. These compulsions will give the person a short-term relief from their anxiety, however, acting out the compulsions may lead to a vicious cycle.
What Olivia is referring to here is a lot more taxing than having the desire to keep your house clean and your books in alphabetical order. I used to work in my sister’s hair salon as a Saturday girl, and if I didn’t touch the corner of each surface and dust it four times, I believed I would throw up. The nauseous feeling that bubbled in my stomach whenever I tried to refrain from completing my compulsion only reinforced this belief. In the short-term, touching every corner four times did relieve my anxiety (and nausea), but in the long-term, completing this compulsion on every single surface and on every single Saturday made my job a lot more difficult than it needed to be. This was only one of around 30 daily compulsions.
After getting a definition of OCD from Olivia, I asked her about the trends OCD Action have seen during the pandemic.
Olivia: During the lockdown, there was a 37% increase in helpline calls and emails to the service. OCD Action noticed numerous trends related to this increase, such as people seeking support during the break from their therapy due to lockdown restrictions. Others just needed an ear to listen while isolated from their friends and family. A lot of those reaching out were unsurprisingly experiencing OCD symptoms related to the virus. There were, of course, a lot of calls about contamination OCD, but also harmful thoughts about spreading the virus.
Personally, during the lockdown, I did not experience many distressing thoughts or compulsions, because I felt safe and secure locked away in my home. Now, I am feeling more and more rituals sneaking in due to my contamination anxiety. I think that OCD is only just sneaking in now because I am becoming more exposed to the outside world and thus COVID-19 a lot more. Olivia told me that she is experiencing the same thing and OCD Action is expecting the large volume of calls and emails to remain. This is because as lockdown lifts, OCD doesn’t.
So, if you think you have OCD, what should you do?
‘Follow the COVID-19 guidelines but don’t do any more!’
Olivia: Reach out for help, even if you feel as though your symptoms are minimal. OCD rarely disappears on its own, instead, it usually gets worse if left untreated. CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) can be very successful in easing OCD symptoms but there are lots of things you can do whilst you’re waiting for your first appointment. OCD Action provides a CBT checklist that can help you make sure you’re getting the best CBT possible, as well as a fact sheet all about making the most of your treatment. Both are linked below and as are some great resources to use in preparation for your therapy, to make sure you get the most out of your limited sessions (note: you could be waiting on the NHS waiting list for a long time).
Olivia: Talking to someone else with OCD, who you can relate to, is always a big help. If you don’t know anyone in your personal life with it, there are Skype/phone groups and forums on OCD Action. There are also a few books available such as Overcoming OCD by David Field and Rob Wilson, and Break Free from OCD by Fiona Challacombe, Paul Salkovskis and Victoria Bream Oldfield.
Neither talking to fellow OCD sufferers or self-help books should be a replacement for therapy, but they can be helpful in putting you on the right path and giving you a head start since the NHS doesn’t offer many CBT sessions in succession. There is also a variety of medication that can help ease your OCD, so you can always ask your GP about starting medication while you await therapy.
OCD Action created a help sheet that gives some great advice for those living with OCD right now, including limiting the amount of time one spends checking the news and following the public health guidelines but not doing any more than necessary. If you feel as though you may be going too far in your cleaning, ask yourself ‘who told you to do that?’, ‘did the government guidelines tell you to wipe down your jewellery with anti-bacterial every time you’ve been outside or was that the OCD?’. (hint: if you’re doing that, it’s definitely the OCD talking!).
Huge thanks to Olivia Bamber
Below are some helpful links from OCD Action.
OCD Action skype/phone support groups:
Making the most of treatment factsheet
Words By: Alice Colton