Disgust & OCD

[Daniel E.]

Types of Mental Illness

Learn more from WebMD about the different types of mental illness.

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Disgust rather than fear may drive some people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to wash their hands incessantly or perform other irrational behaviors. A [2013] study shows the brains of people with contamination preoccupation OCD react more strongly to disgusting images like rotting food than other people.

Researchers say the findings could signal a shift in thought about the causes of OCD. Certain groups of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder may have unwanted thoughts about cleanliness or contamination concerns because of an overreaction to disgust, not due to fear or anxiety about a potential disastrous outcome.

"Disgust can be misidentified as fear," says researcher Wayne K. Goodman, MD...

"The findings get us to think about the role of disgust in our everyday lives," says Goodman. "In fact, people should take note of how many times they say they find something or someone disgusting. It reminds us that disgust is a bona fide emotion. Although it has similarities to fear, it has distinct differences."

 

[Daniel E.]

The relationship between disgust sensitivity, anxiety and obsessions

Three hundred participants, including volunteers from an obsessional support group, filled in questionnaires relating to disgust sensitivity, health a…

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Research studies have made claims for the role of disgust in a range of disorders including those based on shame guilt and embarrassment such as eating disorders (Davey, Buckland, Tantow and Dallos, 1998, Troop, Murphy, Bramon and Treasure, 2000) obsessive compulsive personality types (Quigley, Sherman, & Sherman, 1997) and obsessive compulsive disorder (Straus, 1948; Rachman, 1994; Sprengelmeyer, Young, Pundt, Sprengelmeyer, Calder, Berrios, et al., 1997; Muris, Merckelbach, Nederkoorn, Rassin, Candel and Horselenberg, 2000; Phillips, Marks, Senior, Lythgoe, O’Dwyer, Meehan et al., 2000; Mancini, Gragnani and D’Olimpio, 2001).

Disgust sensitivity scores were significantly related to health anxiety scores and general anxiety scores and to all the obsessional subscales, with the exception of hoarding. Additionally, multiple regression analyses revealed that disgust sensitivity may be more specifically related to washing compulsions: frequency of washing behaviour was best predicted by disgust sensitivity scores.

Disgust sensitivity may be important in the initial occurrence of obsessions (leading to a repetition of action, for example) but plays a subsidiary role in the emotional consequences of those obsessions (distress). Essentially, it may be that disgust gives rise to some obsessions but subsequent processing of the obsession, such as worry about the implications for one’s health, results in the experience of distress.

 

[Daniel E.]

Frontiers | Morality and disgust: insights from obsessive compulsive disorder

www.frontiersin.org

"Visceral and moral disgust share, at least in part, common neural and cognitive mechanisms."

 

[Daniel E.]

APA PsycNet

psycnet.apa.org

People often experience anger and/or disgust when observing wrongdoings....

Anger provoked both direct and indirect punishment, whereas disgust provoked indirect punishment and distancing from the transgressor.

 

[Daniel E.]

OCD: obsessive–compulsive … disgust? The role of disgust in obsessive–compulsive disorder

Sympathetic magic beliefs have been found to be significantly elevated in patients with OCD. In one study, investigators touched a clean pencil to an object that patients with OCD identified as contaminated.⁴ A second pencil was touched to the first pencil, a third pencil was touched to the second pencil, and this was continued for 12 pencils. Patients with OCD perceived a chain of contagion, in which successive degrees of removal from the original object did not diminish or dilute the contamination. Controls and individuals with panic disorder, on the other hand, demonstrated nearly 100% reduction in contamination beliefs across pencils.

 

[Daniel E.]

Mindfulness and willingness to try insects as food: The role of disgust

"Mindfulness may increase disgust..."

 

[Daniel E.]

Amazon product

A spiritual understanding of life can be attained through horror. Classic horror steers a middle path between fanaticism and despair: the path of wonderment.

Horror teaches us that the human personality is paradoxical, that revulsion and disgust are the obverse ["other side of the coin"] of excitement and freedom, and that both poles are vital to individual, social and ecological well-being.

 

[Daniel E.]

Thinking About Disgust: Cognitive Processes Mediate the Associations Between Disgust Proneness and OCD Symptom Domains - International Journal of Cognitive Therapy

The present study explored selected cognitive domains in the relationship between disgust proneness and OCD symptomatology, investigating the associations between disgust proneness, cognitive processes, and OCD symptom domains. Undergraduate participants (N = 149) completed questionnaires...

link.springer.com

August 4, 2022

...Disgust proneness was found to be a significant predictor of OCD symptoms broadly, as well as of each individual OCD symptom domain. This replicates previous research that has found a strong link between disgust proneness and OCD contact contamination symptoms (e.g., Moretz & McKay, 2008; Olatunji et al., 2010a, b), mental contamination symptoms (e.g., Inozu et al., 2021), repugnant obsessions (e.g., Inozu et al., 2021), and ordering compulsions (e.g., Olatunji et al., 2010a, b). Further, it extends our understanding of the relevance of disgust proneness as an affective vulnerability factor for OCD symptoms above and beyond contamination fear and demonstrates its relevance to checking symptoms as well. Across all symptom domains, the inclusion of OBQ belief domains, CTAF, and CS as mediators emerged as significant mediators, demonstrating that existing cognitive mechanisms seem to explain a large and meaningful portion of the relationship between disgust proneness and OCD symptoms. That said, the relative explanatory power of individual mechanisms varied across symptom domains.

Cognitive models of OCD point to particular appraisals and beliefs as being key mechanisms at play in the onset and maintenance of the disorder. Specifically, the Obsessive Compulsive Cognitions Working Group (2005) outlined three belief domains that are associated with a variety of OCD symptoms — importance/control of thoughts, perfectionism/intolerance of uncertainty, and responsibility/overestimation of threat. One of the most robust findings from the present study was the finding that beliefs about the importance/control of thoughts were found to be a significant mediator in the context of both repugnant obsessions and mental contamination. This suggests that individuals who find the experience of disgust particularly aversive may develop beliefs about the importance of controlling thoughts associated with the experience of disgust (e.g., “I must control my thoughts at all costs in order to avoid feeling disgusted”). Holding these beliefs may increase the salience of disgusting thoughts, thus leading to increased frequency of, and distress associated with, thoughts of this nature (i.e., heightened repugnant obsessions). Alternatively, individuals prone to disgust who have intrusive disgusting thoughts in the context of strong beliefs about the importance of controlling thoughts may interpret these thoughts as a violation, leading to heightened feelings of mental contamination. These findings align with past research that suggests that for individuals high in disgust proneness, these OBQ belief domains may exacerbate particular OCD symptomatology (Wheaton et al., 2010).

Contrary to our hypotheses, beliefs about responsibility/overestimation of threat were not found to significantly mediate the relationship between disgust proneness and any OCD symptom domain. Given that this belief domain primarily captures concerns about preventing harm to others, it may tap more into the anxiety-/fear-based affective component of OCD than disgust. Therefore, these beliefs might prove to better explain the relationship between anxiety-based affective vulnerability factors (e.g., anxiety sensitivity) than disgust-based affective vulnerability factors (e.g., disgust proneness (García-Soriano et al., 2016)). While beliefs about perfectionism/intolerance of uncertainty were found to be a significant mediator in the context of “just right” symptoms, the power for this effect was quite low and should be interpreted with caution.

Contamination-related cognitive mechanisms, particularly CS, were also found to be relevant mediators in the model. CS was found to significantly mediate the relationship between disgust proneness and both contact and mental contamination-related OCD symptoms. This replicates past research that has shown its relevance to washing/cleaning behavior in OCD (Rachman et al., 2015; Radomsky et al., 2014). By contrast, CTAF was not a significant mediator in the relationship between disgust proneness and mental contamination and had minimal power as a mediator in the context of contact contamination. These findings suggest that CTAF may not add substantial explanatory power in this context after accounting for other contamination- and OCD-relevant cognitive processes (i.e., CS, importance/control of thoughts). Alternatively, in line with the model proposed by Inozu et al. (2021), CTAF might be better conceptualized as a cognitive vulnerability factor for contamination-related symptomatology than a mediator between disgust proneness and contamination symptoms. Though power was limited, CTAF was found to significantly mediate the relationship between disgust proneness and “just right” symptoms. “Just right” experiences often incorporate magical thinking. For example, a patient with OCD might report tapping their hands until it “feels right” as a way of preventing bad consequences. As such, feelings of disgust might propel “just right” symptoms through the experience of CTAF (e.g., appraisal of contamination-related thoughts as causing actual, physical contamination).

Finally, findings from the present study were the first to demonstrate that disgust proneness significantly predicts checking symptoms to the best of our knowledge. While the connection between these constructs may not be as evident as for other symptom domains (e.g., contamination), this finding may underscore the notion that checking behavior in OCD may be motivated by a wider range of cognitive processes than previously thought. Specifically, checking behavior is prototypically conceptualized as an attempt to prevent harm/a dangerous outcome (e.g., checking locks to prevent a burglary, checking stoves to prevent a fire) or to reduce anxiety. However, these findings demonstrate the overlapping nature of OCD symptom domains and reinforce the idea that people may engage in checking in response to both feelings of disgust and anxiety. For example, someone who comes in contact with a disgust-provoking stimulus, such as dog feces, may engage in checking behavior to confirm whether they got any on their shoes/clothes. Further, someone who experiences repugnant intrusive thoughts about being a pedophile might engage in checking behavior (e.g., excessive internet searches, reassurance seeking from loved ones) to reduce feelings of self-directed disgust. Thus, greater proneness to experience disgust may lead to heightened checking behavior. While these findings lend support for this relationship, none of the cognitive mechanisms examined were found to significantly mediate this association. Therefore, future research should aim to better understand what unique cognitive processes might better explain the relationship between disgust proneness and checking.

A growing body of research has demonstrated the relevance of disgust proneness as an affective vulnerability factor implicated in the onset and maintenance of OCD (Knowles et al., 2018; Olatunji et al., 2011). Accordingly, cognitive strategies directly targeting disgust-related appraisals and beliefs have been shown to bolster the effectiveness of exposure and response prevention (ERP) interventions for contamination-related OCD (Ludvik et al., 2015) and reduce contamination-related avoidance (Wong et al., 2021). The findings from the present study provide additional support for the relevance of disgust proneness across all OCD symptom domains. Notably, several OCD-relevant belief domains were found to mediate this relationship: CS in contamination symptoms; importance of/need to control thoughts in repugnant obsessions; CTAF in “just right” symptoms; and CS and importance of/need to control thoughts in mental contamination. Therefore, to maximize the benefit of interventions for OCD, clinicians might benefit from selecting cognitive strategies that directly target these belief domains depending on the specific symptom profile of their client. For example, incorporating case formulation-driven psychoeducation about and behavioral experiments aimed at modifying these beliefs into interventions may prove to be more effective than traditional ERP on its own.

 

[Daniel E.]

That's Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion

"A lively look at all things revolting." —New York Times Book Review Why do we watch horror movies? What is the best way to persuade someone to quit smoking? And what on earth is the appeal of competitive eating? In this lively, colorful book, Rachel Herz answers these questions and more...

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"A lively look at all things revolting." —New York Times Book Review

Why do we watch horror movies? What is the best way to persuade someone to quit smoking? And what on earth is the appeal of competitive eating? In this lively, colorful book, Rachel Herz answers these questions and more, shedding light on an incredible range of human traits—from food preferences and sexual attraction to moral codes and political ideology—by examining them through the lens of a fascinating subject: disgust. Combining lucid scientific explanations and fascinating research with a healthy dose of humor, That’s Disgusting illuminates issues that are central to our lives: love, hate, fear, empathy, prejudice, humor, and happiness.

 

[Daniel E.]

Self-disgust in OCD and other disorders:

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[Daniel E.]

Self-disgust as a potential mechanism underlying the association between PTSD and suicide risk

Suicide risk is highly prevalent among individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Self-disgust, defined as disgust directed internally and…

www.sciencedirect.com

Conceptually, self-disgust has been recognized to hold some overlap with related constructs of self-criticism, shame, and contempt (Overton et al., 2008, Simpson et al., 2010); however, emerging theory and evidence suggests that self-disgust is distinct and more extreme by comparison.