Doctors Say Excessive Handwashing in Fight Against COVID-19 Increased OCD Cases

From the onset of this pandemic, experts have already cautioned of an increase in mental health problems as people fight with this global health crisis that has upended so many lives across the world.

For many months now, COVID-19 has brought major challenges for individuals whose OCD or obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms align with the present apprehensions.

For instance, regulation on how proper hygiene can stop the virus from spreading may result in other people to go to extremes.

According to doctors, OCD, as well as other severe anxieties, face exceptionally challenging battles against mental health problems, including an attempt to distinguish worries resulting from such conditions from general fears the public shares about COVID-19.

People with OCD feel obligated to demonstrate certain behaviors like repeated, compulsive cleaning, and they tend to fixate on such routines. OCD can result in continuous, disturbing thoughts.

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Excessive Hand Wash

For example, 24-year-old Smriti was always afraid to hold the bar of a bus or metro and would always carry a sanitizer in case she needed to go to a public washroom even before the occurrence of COVID-19.

But in the past couple of months, even though she has not been out due to lockdown protocols, Smriti has started to wash her hands more often with her one initiative, and without others telling her to do so.

Doctors said she's not one of her kind as they have been dealing with a growing number of patients having dry skin because of excessive hand wash, washing laundry, or cleaning surfaces at home, including doorknobs.

A senior psychologist at the New Delhi-based Indian Spinal Injuries Centre or ISIC, Dr. Shanu Shrivastav, said his hospital is attending to at least two patients each day who experience dermatological problems generated by their COD.

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Skin-Related Problems Linked to Psychological Issues

Since April, Dr. Shrivastav elaborated they have been receiving one to two patients a day, who have gone to local physicians for their "skin-related problems and were referred to psychological counseling."

Roughly 60 percent of these patients were going out to work prior before the pandemic occurred, making them think they have been infected by the virus and have brought the infection home.

Those with a child or older adults at home were more worried compared to working couples without kids or seniors living with them.

Lifestyle Changes

With the wave of COVID-19 in most parts of the world came some lifestyle changes people need to adopt. Reports on these changes say, experts have seen them in people's responses to their everyday lives.

The favorable aspect which has been generally seen as the development of hygiene, although the other component was exaggerating the same.

Furthermore, the causes which have activated OCD among individuals included changed lifestyle, fear of COVID-19, contamination apprehension, distress among individuals to take care of their loved ones in this time of crisis resulting in obsessive cleaning and sanitizing.

Nevertheless, doctors explained that this condition is treatable through medications or psychotherapy, or a combination of both.

According to Aakash Healthcare Senior Pulmonologist, Dr. Akshay Budhraja, people who are 35 years old and older are more vulnerable to OCD.

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