Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is often characterized by time-consuming rituals that can have ripple effects throughout a client's life. While many people find comfort in the cleansing experience of a shower, for those of us with OCD, it is a common area to be gripped with compulsions.
For example, a person with OCD may spend 2-3 hours every day in the shower, and several more hours hand washing, or washing clothes, food and household items. Their anxiety may not only be that they are dirty themselves, but that they may infect others, contaminate foodstuffs and so forth.
On the other end of the spectrum, you may find that some people who suffer from mental health issues like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety treat cleanliness and hygiene like a ritual. OCD isn't always about cleanliness — and even when it is, it's often misunderstood.
Extreme tiredness and cognitive effects, such as brain fog and negative thinking, can pose a personal hygiene challenge. People with depression commonly experience executive dysfunction, a mental processing issue. It can manifest in difficulty in starting and finishing a task, such as showering.
Everybody experiences OCD differently. For some people, it might involve compulsions that relate to cleaning, order, and symmetry. For others, it can look totally different. In this sense, it's possible to have OCD and be messy or have what may be considered a regular approach to cleaning.
Primarily obsessional OCD has been called "one of the most distressing and challenging forms of OCD." People with this form of OCD have "distressing and unwanted thoughts pop into [their] head frequently," and the thoughts "typically center on a fear that you may do something totally uncharacteristic of yourself, ...
However, one thing that is clear is that comorbidities, stress, anxiety, and major life changes or circumstances can all play a significant role in how much worse OCD might become. As symptoms increase or intensify, people with OCD may also experience the following: Failure at work and/or school.
Taking a shower can feel like a chore if you have mild depression, a painful physical condition like arthritis, or you're showering when you're tired. Taking a shower can feel almost impossible if you have severe depression, fibromyalgia, or ablutophobia.
Ablutophobia, like all phobias, is an anxiety disorder. It's clinically known as a specific phobia, which is an excessive or unreasonable fear of an object or situation. 1 It can manifest in many ways, from a fear of showering to a complete phobia of all washing.
It's because of sensory sensitivity, one of the many ADHD symptoms. Sensory sensitivity or simply hypersensitivity is a common characteristic of people with ADHD. It occurs when we are more sensitive to things.
Symptoms fluctuate in severity from time to time, and this fluctuation may be related to the occurrence of stressful events. Because symptoms usually worsen with age, people may have difficulty remembering when OCD began, but can sometimes recall when they first noticed that the symptoms were disrupting their lives.
Symptoms of OCD – compulsions
Common compulsions include: excessive hand washing, showering and tooth brushing. excessive cleaning and washing of house, household items, food, car and other areas. excessive checking of locks, electrical and gas appliances, and other things associated with safety.
Approximately 16% of all patients with OCD suffer from some form of washing compulsion, which is manifested by frequent long and ritualised compulsive hand washings up to 50–100 times daily [2].
Because bathrooms are often thought to be dirty, many people with contamination OCD develop anxiety around bathrooms, whether public or private. Many people also develop OCD around bowel movements or urination.
In general, showering every other day or every few days is enough for most people.
"Showering every day may be bad for your skin because it can remove essential oils and dry out your skin," she says. "Dryness can lead to eczema or skin inflammation, or make your skin red and itchy."
While there is no ideal frequency, experts suggest that showering several times per week is plenty for most people (unless you are grimy, sweaty, or have other reasons to shower more often). Short showers (lasting three or four minutes) with a focus on the armpits and groin may suffice.
Many doctors say a daily shower is fine for most people. (More than that could start to cause skin problems.) But for many people, two to three times a week is enough and may be even better to maintain good health. It depends in part on your lifestyle.
If you don't wash your body, it makes it easier for germs that cause actual skin infections to flourish. If you didn't wash at all, dirt, sweat, dead skin cells and oil would start to accumulate, and infections or ongoing skin conditions can become more serious, more difficult to manage, and harder to undo.
Rates of OCD were found to be higher with women (1.8%) than men (0.5%). Childhood OCD has a stronger genetic link than adult-onset OCD, with up to 65% having a genetic link. About 25% of men with OCD develop their symptoms prior to the age of 10.
OCD symptoms can worsen if left untreated. Likewise, stress and other mental health symptoms like trauma, anxiety, and themes of perfectionism, can aggravate OCD. Sometimes, symptoms may worsen dramatically and suddenly, but it's more likely for them to escalate gradually.