My fear has changed from one thing to another throughout my life, but it has settled on one particular thing for years now. I have a fear of certain kinds of germs. I guess this would be called a germ phobia. It stands to reason that if you have a phobia, you are going to go through the whole OCD type routines to avoid the thing you are afraid of and the anxiety it causes you, so do OCD and phobias go hand in hand, or is one exclusive from the other?
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Connection between OCD and Phobias
- Thread starter Sasha37
- Start date
SoldierOfSoul
Senior Veteran
They probably come from the same place in the mind where natural fear and anxiety come from, the problem with OCD is that our mind does not stop the fear and anxiety after we have done what was required. In other words, it is good to be worried if your not sure you locked your house door at night, but if after you go and check it and you are still not convinced even after checking it a hundred times, you lack the required switch off in the brain. This is how I see OCD.
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In my opinion, OCD and phobias are separate because many people have phobias but not OCD. However, it seems that if someone has both OCD and phobias, they effect each other negatively (make each other worse).
Here's an example from my experience. I have emetophobia, which is the fear of vomit/vomiting (might sound weird, but it's actually one of the most common phobias). Therefore, I'm deathly afraid of food poisoning and stomach viruses and go through extensive obsessions and compulsions to avoid getting it. And if a thought pops into my head that I might have eaten contaminated food, it puts me in a high state of anxiety for days. I've known other people that have emetophobia without OCD, and even though they are afraid of throwing up, they're not obsessive compulsive about it. So, OCD makes my emetophobia worse because it makes me have recurring thoughts about it, and emetophobia makes my OCD worse because it makes me have to do more compulsive rituals (on top of the ones I already have to do!). I have other phobias/examples that follow the same pattern. It's a never-ending vicious cycle.
Sorry about the rant, hope I at least sort-of answered your question.
Here's an example from my experience. I have emetophobia, which is the fear of vomit/vomiting (might sound weird, but it's actually one of the most common phobias). Therefore, I'm deathly afraid of food poisoning and stomach viruses and go through extensive obsessions and compulsions to avoid getting it. And if a thought pops into my head that I might have eaten contaminated food, it puts me in a high state of anxiety for days. I've known other people that have emetophobia without OCD, and even though they are afraid of throwing up, they're not obsessive compulsive about it. So, OCD makes my emetophobia worse because it makes me have recurring thoughts about it, and emetophobia makes my OCD worse because it makes me have to do more compulsive rituals (on top of the ones I already have to do!). I have other phobias/examples that follow the same pattern. It's a never-ending vicious cycle.
Sorry about the rant, hope I at least sort-of answered your question.
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So they feed off each other. I can totally see that. Thanks for the advice, both of you. It really helped!
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I think there is a connection. Phobias and ocds are both a type of anxiety so that would make sense. I know that I've always had ocd-typish stuff but after I started having panic attacks it went so much worse than it was.
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