OCD, the Coronavirus Freakout, and Me – ELLE.com
By daniellenierenberg
You get home from work and walk through the door. Your house is the Zone of Least Contamination, and the outside world is the Zone of Full Contamination. All day long youve been forced to interact with keyboards, doorknobs, subway poles, and handshakes. Youve stood in the same air as strangers, cringing in agony as sloughed off skin cells and droplets of spittle fly off their bodies and into your shared space. If you live in a densely populated city, youve been forced to press your body up close to theirs and breathe in shared, stale air.
This is a normal day if you have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder like I do, a disease thats still widely misunderstood and parodied in culture. Now imagine those painful, intrusive thoughtsevery cell in your body feeling swollen with contagion, the crushing fear that if you dont spend three hours decontaminating yourself and your house youll actually diecompounded by the coronavirus pandemic, which seems like the ultimate validation of all your obsessive tendencies.
What exactly happens to the obsessive-compulsive mind in the midst of a global pandemic, when a fear of germs and contamination suddenly seems perfectly rational? As of March 20, more than 244,000 cases of novel coronavirus have been reported worldwide, and at least 10,000 people have died. In Italy, which has the largest outbreak outside of China, the entire country is on lockdown, all shops and venues have closed, and prison revolts are breaking out across the region, as incarcerated people recognize the unique threat they face living in close quarters, with deeply uneven access to quality medical care. In the U.S., markets are in freefall, a national emergency has been declared, and even Broadway theaters have gone dark. UNESCO estimates that around 776 million students across the globe are currently out of school because of the virus. Even for someone without OCD, this kind of a public health crisis is impossible (and inadvisable!) to ignorelife as we know it has fundamentally changed.
What exactly happens to the obsessive-compulsive mind in the midst of a global pandemic?
But for folks with abnormally high levels of serotonin reuptake and a hyperactive amygdala, our threat-detection meter is malfunctioning constantly. Upsetting thoughts are paired with cognitive alarm bells, dousing your body in fear, anxiety, and adrenaline. Your system gets used to this feedback loop and starts to equate your thoughts and fears with actual danger. Next thing you know, the thought, What if that doorknob had coronavirus on it? becomes I just got coronavirus and now Im going to die. And with the 24-hour news cycle blaring desperate pleas to wash your hands, wash your hands, WASH YOUR HANDS!! the idea of getting a handle on that harmful feedback loop becomes even more impossible.
Unsurprisingly, the coronavirus panic has hit people with OCD especially hard. The disorder is going to become exacerbated in every sense, Dr. Robert Lancer, a psychologist and co-founder of the New York Center for OCD and Related Anxiety Disorders, told ELLE.com. Folks with OCD are very vulnerable to the power of suggestion, so hearing that hand sanitizer is selling out and seeing people wearing masks in public is going to trigger their need to compulsively purify.
Ute GrabowskyGetty Images
Nadia*, a 16 year old in Alberta suffering from OCD, described how intense her fear has gotten amid the outbreak. I freak out every time I touch my face, constantly ask for reassurance. I dont leave my house on the weekends anymore and I was crying every morning before school. I forgot my lotion at home one day and washed my hands to the point that they felt like sandpaper.
Its difficult for Nadia to escape her triggers, especially on social media. Twitter news has played a huge part in my panic and got me scared about it in the first place. When anyone talks about it my mind starts going crazy.
Smith, a 26 year old who lives in New York, said theyve been shocked by how much the pandemic has affected them. Im on medication for my OCD and I had it relatively under control before this started, but now it has constructed real barriers to my ability to function in the city. The stress is making it hard to focus on work; Im more isolated and more reluctant to participate in anything at all.
Lancer described this slow retreat into total isolation as inevitable. The more they avoid, the more the threshold is raised on what could be contaminated, he explained. The need to avoid is more and more...but avoidance is, in and of itself, a compulsion. The more they give in to that compulsion, the more extreme it will get. Now that so many Americans are on self-imposed quarantine, or at home due to school and work closures, this avoidance feels justified.
Although scientists say that decontamination and avoidance practices are our best bets for flattening the curve of infection, the rhetoric of intensified hand washing, surface sanitization, and social isolation runs directly counter to OCD therapeutic recommendations. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, one of the most common and effective treatments available in treating OCD, requires patients to break the ritual behaviors associated with their contamination obsessions. This usually involves a complete moratorium on all non-essential behavior associated with the compulsive rituals.
So for someone like Nadia, who is trying to break her ritualized hand-washing, a public health crisis acts as license to immerse herself fully in the behavior that holds her mind captive. Shes now up to 60-plus hand washes in a seven hour period.
I feel like it makes people with contamination OCD compulsions seem more valid, which results in us feeling a lot more inclined to agree with the intrusive thoughts rather than fighting them, she said.
"Im more isolated and more reluctant to participate in anything at all."
John, a 47 year old man living in the UK, agreed that the constant (but warranted) surge of messaging urging him to decontaminate has been detrimental to his mental health.
The irrationality of the condition feels more rational now, he said. The compulsions feel more justified. Any psychological progress I've made has been wiped out.
As an OCD sufferer myself, my heart goes out to our anxious little community as we try to navigate an unprecedented global disaster. Its scary enough to be living through this time with a normal relationship to dirt and germs, and Im sure there are even folks out there who do not suffer from OCD who have still descended into full paranoid germaphobia.
The actual illness isnt even the only concern that could affect our mental health. The economic realities were all facingas layoffs begin and industry after industry is hobbled or shuts downleaves freelancers, independent contractors, gig workers, small businesses, and day laborers vulnerable to a partial or complete loss of income, with no expectation of if or when their job could come back. Its enough to drive anyone insane with worry.
But to those of us whose amygdalas were screaming out in terror even before this all started, my advice is this: Listen to the incoming guidelines and restrictions and follow standard hygienic protocol. But please, for the love of God, stay off of social media, news outlets, and message boards. I know the compulsion to check in on the minute-by-minute feed is gnawing on the back of your brain stem at all times, but the best thing you can do for yourself is only read the completely relevant updates.
Theres so much misinformation out there, Lancer also said. Dont seek that information out compulsively; if you have OCD, you already arent thinking about it rationally, and all that doubt and uncertainty over what to believe is going to override your ability to have a safe and reasonable response.
Instead, check in with your therapist about establishing a baseline acceptable standard for virus-limiting decontamination practices, and otherwise continue your work to limit compulsive behavior. And if you cant afford therapy (well hey, wouldnt now be a great time for Medicare for All?), here are some great resources to check out. Community support is the greatest balm to the soul in times of extreme alienation; and if we know OCD, we know its primary goal is to alienate us inside our own minds. Solidarity to my squeaky clean community.
Here is the original post:
OCD, the Coronavirus Freakout, and Me - ELLE.com
- 001 Elaine Fuchs discusses research on skin and adult stem cells [Last Updated On: June 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: June 25th, 2011]
- 002 Skin Stem Cells: Their Biology [Last Updated On: June 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: June 25th, 2011]
- 003 Come Back Kid [Last Updated On: June 26th, 2011] [Originally Added On: June 26th, 2011]
- 004 Emerge Labs New Anti Aging Swiss Apple Stem Cell Skin Care [Last Updated On: June 26th, 2011] [Originally Added On: June 26th, 2011]
- 005 PhytoCell.mp4 [Last Updated On: June 26th, 2011] [Originally Added On: June 26th, 2011]
- 006 Elaine Fuchs Part 2: Tapping the Potential of Adult Stem Cells, and Summary [Last Updated On: June 28th, 2011] [Originally Added On: June 28th, 2011]
- 007 Elaine Fuchs Part 1: Introduction to Stem Cells [Last Updated On: July 1st, 2011] [Originally Added On: July 1st, 2011]
- 008 Stem Cell Facial At Metamorphosis Day Spa Using Emerge Labs Skin Care [Last Updated On: July 1st, 2011] [Originally Added On: July 1st, 2011]
- 009 A Major Breakthrough in Skin Care and Nutrition [Last Updated On: July 7th, 2011] [Originally Added On: July 7th, 2011]
- 010 The Skin Gun stem cell research [Last Updated On: July 7th, 2011] [Originally Added On: July 7th, 2011]
- 011 The Skin Gun [Last Updated On: July 7th, 2011] [Originally Added On: July 7th, 2011]
- 012 E'shee HBA Global Expo 2011, NYC. Skin Care Anti-Aging Symposium [Last Updated On: July 8th, 2011] [Originally Added On: July 8th, 2011]
- 013 World's 1st Nutricosmetic with Stem Cell Nutrients [Last Updated On: July 15th, 2011] [Originally Added On: July 15th, 2011]
- 014 Stem cells acquired from human skin [Last Updated On: August 22nd, 2011] [Originally Added On: August 22nd, 2011]
- 015 DermaStem Renewal Serum - Stem Cells for Your Skin from STEMTech - New Paradigm in Beauty! [Last Updated On: August 30th, 2011] [Originally Added On: August 30th, 2011]
- 016 Stem Cells Made From Human Skin [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 017 ReLuma-stemcells- skin rejuvenation [Last Updated On: September 5th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 5th, 2011]
- 018 Jeunesse Global Business Opportunity with Stem Cell Skin Care Developed by Dr Nathan Newman [Last Updated On: September 5th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 5th, 2011]
- 019 Dr Nathan Newman- Formulator of Stem Cell Skin Care Line LUMINESCE [Last Updated On: September 6th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 6th, 2011]
- 020 Luminesce Stem Cell Skin Care - Leaders in Jeunesse [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2011]
- 021 Stem Cell Therapy - BioLogic Anti-Aging Skin Cream [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2011]
- 022 Isolation and Culture of Adult Epithelial Stem Cells from Human Skin [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2011]
- 023 Stem Cell Skin Care- What is the role of stem cells in Luminesce Featuring Dr Nathan Newman [Last Updated On: September 9th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 9th, 2011]
- 024 Genetic Skin Disease (EB): Spotlight on Stem Cell Research - Patient Advocate [Last Updated On: September 11th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 11th, 2011]
- 025 Genetic Skin Disease (EB): Optimizing Embryonic Stem Cell Differentiation Protocols [Last Updated On: September 12th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 12th, 2011]
- 026 Genetic Skin Disease (EB): Spotlight on Stem Cell Research - Introduction [Last Updated On: September 13th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 13th, 2011]
- 027 The Skin Gun (Stem Cell research to replace burnt off skin. Done in 3 days!) [Last Updated On: September 15th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 15th, 2011]
- 028 Best natural skin care serum using stem cell technology [Last Updated On: September 22nd, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 22nd, 2011]
- 029 Stem Cells: Fulfilling the Promise - 2011 CIRM Grantee Meeting [Last Updated On: September 24th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 24th, 2011]
- 030 Jeunesse Global Opportunity- Stem Cell Skin Care [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 031 Research on skin cancer: ERC funds studies on stem cells [Last Updated On: September 26th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 26th, 2011]
- 032 Stem Cell Therapy Skin Repair and Anti-Wrinkle Cream [Last Updated On: September 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 29th, 2011]
- 033 Skin engineering [Last Updated On: September 30th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 30th, 2011]
- 034 Stem Cell Face Treatment - What People Are Saying | Beverly Hills | Los Angeles [Last Updated On: October 1st, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 1st, 2011]
- 035 How To Use Your Stem Cells For Facial Skin Rejuvenation [Last Updated On: October 5th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 5th, 2011]
- 036 AMAZING - Stem Cell Skin Cream And Liquid Face Lift Revealed [Last Updated On: October 5th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 5th, 2011]
- 037 Dr Nathan Newman MD Stem Cell Face lift on Channel 7 KABC.flv [Last Updated On: October 5th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 5th, 2011]
- 038 Genetic Skin Disease (EB): Spotlight on Stem Cell Research - Welcome [Last Updated On: October 5th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 5th, 2011]
- 039 Dr.Thomas Barnes' PRP Hair Growth and Skin Rejuvenation [Last Updated On: October 5th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 5th, 2011]
- 040 For Damaged Skin - Rejuvenate Your Own Stem Cells [Last Updated On: October 5th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 5th, 2011]
- 041 real food real life - Stemulance stem cell face products [Last Updated On: October 5th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 5th, 2011]
- 042 Dr Amiya Prasad discusses ACell for Hair Regrowth and Skin Rejuvenation with EYES IN Magazine [Last Updated On: October 5th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 5th, 2011]
- 043 Stem Cell Face Lift - English (Part 5) [Last Updated On: October 6th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 6th, 2011]
- 044 Cell Reprogramming Transformed [Last Updated On: October 6th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 6th, 2011]
- 045 Care for Your Skin with Lifeline Skin Care [Last Updated On: October 6th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 6th, 2011]
- 046 Dr Nathan Newman Repairs Laugh Lines With Stem Cell Face Lift [Last Updated On: October 6th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 6th, 2011]
- 047 Ellis Martin Report with International Stem Cell Corp [Last Updated On: October 6th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 6th, 2011]
- 048 Stem Cell Banking: The Perspective of an iPS Donor Family [Last Updated On: October 6th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 6th, 2011]
- 049 Dr Nathan Newman Stem Cell Face Lift on Entertainment Tonight [Last Updated On: October 8th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 8th, 2011]
- 050 Elaine Fuchs Part 1: Introduction to Stem Cells English Subtitle [Last Updated On: October 12th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 12th, 2011]
- 051 Signals Stem Cell Skin Care Anti Aging Skin Care - Video [Last Updated On: October 14th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 14th, 2011]
- 052 Stem Cell Skin Care - Born Different.mp4 - Video [Last Updated On: October 18th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 18th, 2011]
- 053 APPLE STEMCELL by SEMCELL - Video [Last Updated On: October 21st, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 21st, 2011]
- 054 Jeunesse Luminesce Stem Cell Skin care Before and After Pictures - Video [Last Updated On: October 23rd, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 23rd, 2011]
- 055 Stem Cell Therapy -- Reduce Wrinkles,Promote Younger, Healthier Looking Skin - Video [Last Updated On: October 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 25th, 2011]
- 056 Scientists Create Liver from Reprogrammed Human Skin Cells No Stem Cells Needed - Video [Last Updated On: October 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 25th, 2011]
- 057 Vitiligo and Stem Cells: Narrowband UVB Phototherapy in Nonsegmental Vitiligo - Video [Last Updated On: October 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 25th, 2011]
- 058 Dr Nathan Newman MD Stem Cell Face lift on Entertainment Tonight - NewHopeForAging.com - Video [Last Updated On: October 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 25th, 2011]
- 059 Skin Healing And Anti-Aging - Rejuvenate Aging Skin Cells - Video [Last Updated On: October 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 25th, 2011]
- 060 Stem Cell Face Lift - Video [Last Updated On: October 27th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- 061 Stem Cell Therapy Face Cream - Video [Last Updated On: October 27th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- 062 Growing skin in lab with stem cells Video Reuters - Video [Last Updated On: October 27th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- 063 Stem Cells and Their Lineages in Skin - Video [Last Updated On: October 27th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- 064 Stem Cells Rock - Video [Last Updated On: October 27th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- 065 Stem Cell Therapy: Healing Force of the future - Video [Last Updated On: October 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 29th, 2011]
- 066 Alex Cosmeceuticals - Phyto Stem Cell Technology - Video [Last Updated On: October 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 29th, 2011]
- 067 Reprogramming skin cells into embryonic stem cells - Video [Last Updated On: October 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 29th, 2011]
- 068 Ellis Martin Report with International Stem Cell Corp - YouTube2.flv - Video [Last Updated On: October 30th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 30th, 2011]
- 069 Dr Lyras Plastic Surgery - Skin Needling 3 - Tv 2011 - Video [Last Updated On: November 5th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 5th, 2011]
- 070 Donna Queen-Lifeline Skin Care at the CACS - Video [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2011]
- 071 Turning Science Into Action with Heather Livingston - Part 1 www.miraclecell.info - Video [Last Updated On: November 12th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 12th, 2011]
- 072 US scientists unveil new cloning method for embryonic stem cells - Video [Last Updated On: November 12th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 12th, 2011]
- 073 A Stem Cell Story - Video [Last Updated On: November 12th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 12th, 2011]
- 074 Perspectives of a Stem Cell Donor Family - Video [Last Updated On: November 13th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 13th, 2011]
- 075 Adult Stem Cell Success Stories - Amy Daniels - Video [Last Updated On: November 15th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 15th, 2011]
- 076 StemCellTV - From National Geographic - The Skin Gun - Healing Burns with Stem Cells - Video [Last Updated On: November 16th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 16th, 2011]
- 077 Stem Cell Skin Care Jeunesse- Dr Newman FAQ - Video [Last Updated On: November 18th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 18th, 2011]
- 078 Dr Nathan Newman and Jeunesse Stem Cell Skin Care - Video [Last Updated On: November 26th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 26th, 2011]
- 079 Apple Stem Cell-Skin aging solution - Video [Last Updated On: November 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 29th, 2011]
- 080 Luminesce rejuvenation serum cellular rejuvenation stem cell skin Products - Video [Last Updated On: November 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 29th, 2011]
