From practicing social distancing working from home, the COVID-19 era has seen us acquiescing to several shifts in our lifestyles. We’ve also had to adapt mentally, which has been taxing on our mental health. Recent studies have shown a surge in Individuals experiencing obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)and/or their symptoms being exacerbated during the pandemic.
OCD, as often stereotyped, is not about having one’s belongings neatly laid out to be aesthetically pleasing, nor is just it about needing everything to be squeaky-clean. OCD is a form of anxiety disorder in which an individual is caught between a recurring cycle of obsessions and compulsions.
Obsessions are categorized as intrusive thoughts, images or urges that lead one to feel intensely distressed. Compulsions are the behaviors–such as checking, seeking reassurance, and performing rituals –that an individual engages in to “undo” the obsession and consequently alleviate their distress.
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Research on OCD patterns (Clark &Radomsky, 2014) has shown that obsessions often surround the following themes:
- Contamination
- Unwanted sexual thoughts
- Harm (to someone)
- Religious or superstitious obsessions
- Perfectionism
Obsessions feel outside of a person’s control and can trigger intense feelings of fear, disgust, and/or doubt. We can already begin to understand that the general fear of getting infected and the emphasis placed on personal hygiene may have an impact on individuals developing or triggering their OCD.
OCD During The Covid-19
The universal guidelines imposed to reduce the risk of infection including measures such as quarantine, social distancing, and self-isolation, may worsen the symptoms of someone with OCD– especially if the person’s obsessions coincide with contamination, falling ill, or holding the fear of being responsible for harming others. For instance, an individual may develop a distressing obsession about being the one to pass the virus on to someone else.
To counter these obsessions, individuals may exhibit compulsive behaviors such as excessive reassurance-seeking and checking for cleanliness as well as selectively attending to issues around health and hygiene. For instance, a person may look at the handwashing guidelines and feel an intense urge to take the instruction further (e.g. wash hands for longer than recommended).
They can also become hyper-focused on one specific instruction, discounting the other aspects of the guidance; this begins to explain how rituals develop in OCD. Finally, individuals may begin to avoid situations where even the slightest risk of contamination or illness presents itself, which can snowball into these individuals becoming socially and/or physically isolated.
However, it would be remiss to assume that all individuals struggling with OCD have had their symptoms aggravated by the pandemic. Individuals may not feel perturbed by COVID-19, with their ongoing worries focused on another area altogether.
Moreover, some individuals may feel better equipped to cope during these uncertainties they have been engaging in therapy for OCD; they have already been practicing strategies to overcome the gamut of distressing feelings that come with OCD, which they can also utilize to cope during the pandemic.
How the pandemic has impacted this clinical population depends on each particular individual and is highly nuanced– and not a one-size-fits-all.
