Yes, people with OCD, particularly contamination-focused types, often take much longer showers due to obsessive fears of germs and compulsive washing rituals, sometimes lasting hours, repeating actions until a subjective feeling of "clean" is met, or following strict sequences, making it a time-consuming and mentally draining behavior.
Showers may be utilized by OCD individuals as a place to “check out” of the sensory and anxiety overload that is life. Excessive showering can lead to chronic lateness, inability to get out of the house, and routine absence from the family system.
There isn't one single "hardest" OCD, but treatment-resistant OCD (when standard therapies like Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) fail) and types with deeply distressing, taboo themes like Harm OCD, Sexual Orientation OCD (SO-OCD), and Primarily Obsessional OCD (PO-OCD) are often considered among the most challenging due to their intensity, shame, and disruption to life. These often involve intrusive thoughts of violence, forbidden sexual acts, or religious blasphemy, leading to severe anxiety and difficulty engaging in treatment, with severe cases sometimes requiring advanced interventions like TMS, DBS, or residential care.
People with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) may experience impulses to perform a specific ritual or repetitive behavior in the shower. And these behaviors can be both time-consuming and distressing. Depression and personal hygiene: Depression can make showering really hard.
Exhaustion from Mental Work
The constant mental work required to manage obsessive thoughts and compulsions can be exhausting. Even if a person with high functioning OCD appears to be managing well on the outside, they may feel drained and overwhelmed by the end of the day due to the nonstop mental effort.
The 15-Minute Rule for OCD is a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) technique where you delay performing a compulsion for 15 minutes when an obsessive thought triggers anxiety, allowing the urge to lessen naturally as you practice exposure and response prevention (ERP). It teaches your brain that discomfort decreases without the ritual, building resilience and breaking the obsessive-compulsive cycle by gradually increasing tolerance for uncertainty and distressing feelings.
But these fears don't reflect intent or danger—they're symptoms of OCD. Harm OCD is very common, with research showing that 31.8% of people report experiencing harm-related obsessions.
Anxiety disorders, including specific phobias related to bathing or personal care, can also play a role. For those struggling with social anxiety, the fear of being judged can lead to avoidance behaviors. The idea of showering—often associated with vulnerability and exposure—can become overwhelming.
What are the signs and symptoms of OCD?
A shower should ideally last 5-15 minutes. In-Depth Explanation: The optimal shower duration varies, but generally, 5-15 minutes is sufficient. Longer showers can lead to water waste and strip your skin of its natural oils, potentially causing dryness, particularly if your shower temperature is hot.
Leonardo DiCaprio lived with mild/moderate OCD for most of his adult life. He often feels the urge to walk through doorways multiple times.
Severe OCD is also marked by compulsive behaviors or compulsive rituals that people do to try to ease anxiety. These can include excessive handwashing, checking and rechecking behaviors, counting, repeating words or phrases, or arranging objects in a specific manner.
Individuals with OCD may also have other mental health conditions such as depression, attention deficit disorder/hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD), anxiety, Asperger syndrome, eating disorders and Tourette syndrome (TS).
Yet in the United States, average shower time often runs much longer than experts recommend. National surveys show the average shower lasts about 13–16.1 minutes, while dermatologists usually suggest staying under 10–15 minutes.
4 Rare Forms of OCD
Compulsive behaviors in OCD can sometimes present in atypical ways. In this case, the compulsion to urinate frequently was a dominant compulsion which brought her to clinical attention.
Some theories suggest that OCD may be caused by something physical in our body or brain. These are sometimes called biological factors. Some biological theories suggest that a lack of the brain chemical serotonin may have a role in OCD.
The OCD cycle is typically broken into four components: obsession, anxiety, compulsion, and relief. Explore these four parts, and then discover how BrainsWay Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (Deep TMSTM) technology offers a novel way to break the OCD cycle.
OCD can affect men, women and children. People can start having symptoms from as early as 6 years old, but it often begins around puberty and early adulthood. OCD can be distressing and significantly interfere with your life, but treatment can help you keep it under control.
These issues relate to executive function—the brain running the 'home office' of the kid's life. Poor executive function is why it takes kids with ADHD an hour to shower.
What Is Diogenes Syndrome? Diogenes syndrome is a behavioral-health condition characterized by poor personal hygiene, hoarding, and unkempt living conditions.
If you feel better with a daily showering routine, go for it. If you would rather skip some days, that's OK, but never go more than two or three days without washing your body with soap.
OCD is most commonly triggered in older teens or young adults. Studies indicate that late adolescence is a period of increased vulnerability for the development of OCD. Boys are more likely to experience the onset of OCD prior to puberty and those who have a family member with OCD or Tourette Syndrome are most at risk.
Does God Forgive Intrusive OCD Thoughts? While I can't speak for God, if we continue from the above logic, where there's no sin, then there's nothing to forgive. God approaches people from a place of grace, mercy, and love. He is omniscient and knows what you're going through.
Also, some of the behaviour that people do to cope with OCD (including compulsions) can also have devastating affects, including: Physical damage from compulsions (red and raw bleeding skin. Eye damage) Substance abuse (self-medicating with alcohol or other substances)