Solution-focused hypnotherapist Angela Brown answers your questions on hypnotherapy for mysophobia

What is mysophobia and what are some of the symptoms?

Mysophobia is an extremely debilitating condition associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Its other common names are germophobia, bacillophobia, and bacteriophobia, meaning a ‘pathological fear of contamination and germs’, as described by the Cleveland Clinic.

Clients will obsessively worry about contaminating themselves, and so carry out avoidant behaviour to eliminate any risks. It may well interfere with a client’s day-to-day life, and the brain could encourage the client to carry out ritualistic behaviours, such as excessive hand washing, wearing gloves, and ceasing social interactions, which can lead to isolation.

Is mysophobia the same as OCD?

Mysophobia and OCD are different conditions, but have some similarities. They can involve compulsions and obsessions to avoid germs and contamination from germs. The behaviours cause a high level of anxiety, which often gets worse over time.

Clients with mysophobia are classified as clients with a specific phobia. Clients with OCD who have mysophobia often have intrusive ‘sticky thoughts’ which play almost on a constant loop. The clients think they are helping relieve this stress and anxiety by following these thoughts, however, the opposite is true and they can actually increase it in a seemingly never-ending cycle.

How can hypnosis help me overcome my fear of germs?

During a typical hypnotherapy session, we explain what is happening in the brain, and why we are convinced we need to avoid germs by carrying out this avoidant behaviour and ritualistic washing.

We talk about the limbic system, which controls all our emotions, behaviours, and responses. Knowledge is power, and we help clients understand that they have more control over how they think, feel, and behave than they realise they do. The hypnotherapy part at the end of the session consolidates information, as we have access to both brains and can make useful suggestions for the client’s benefit.

Generally, clients feel more positive after the first session, and have a greater understanding of what is happening when our emotional and physical needs are out of balance – and what our brain does to compensate really helps the process.

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Angela’s tips for managing mysophobia day-to-day:

1. Box breathing or ‘take five’ breathing is brilliant at lowering the heart rate. This gives people time to make a solution-focused assessment of a situation before acting upon a thought.

2. Remember: thoughts without action generally only last about 90 seconds.

3. Put some Post-it notes up with some coping statements, such as: ‘This is a false alarm,’ ‘I am strong,’ ‘I can handle this,’ ‘Anxiety can’t hurt me,’ and ‘The more I face things the easier it becomes.’

Read more about Angela on the Hypnotherapy Directory.