Pandemic Anxiety Is Fueling OCD Symptoms—Even for People Without the Disorder

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Research shows that OCD symptoms have gotten more severe during COVID-19 and new diagnoses have increased

in October, focused on young people ages 7-21 and found that nearly 45% experienced a worsening of overall OCD symptoms within the first pandemic year.For people suffering with OCD involving contamination, the pandemic has been something of a validation—a “told-you-so” to all of the people who had scolded them that their compulsive need to wash their hands and socially distance before the pandemic was excessive and unhealthy.

The problem is, people without OCD respond to pandemic-era guidelines very differently than people with the disorder. Washing your hands once for 20 seconds after entering the house may have become common practice for most people in the age of COVID-19; washing your hands multiple times for 20 minutes at a time is too often the response of people with OCD. It’s that kind of overreaction that clinicians are worried is becoming too prevalent.

What’s more, ERP is traditionally meant to be practiced in the supportive presence of a clinician—a context that isn’t necessarily comfortable or even available for many during the pandemic. But ERP practitioners have adapted;via Zoom and other platforms have exploded over the past two years, and plenty of exercises can be done virtually and just as supportively on-screen as in person.

“I, predictably, imagine doomsday scenarios whereby we wipe out his entire nursery school because we were cavalier about minor cold symptoms,” he says.

 

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I’m a germaphobe now

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