Contamination OCD Test: Score Your Obsessions, Washing, Avoidance and Mental Contamination
This contamination OCD test goes deep on one theme instead of skimming all of them: 20 questions across contamination fears, washing and cleaning, avoidance, and the feeling of being dirty when nothing has touched you. You get an instant score with a four-part breakdown and an optional PDF.
Reviewed byMichael Callans, MSWContamination OCD Test is a free, confidential 20-question self-assessment, original subtype screener, not the Y-BOCS. It takes about 6 minutes, runs entirely in your browser, and gives you a plain-language score across 4 interpretation bands plus an optional in-depth report. It is an educational screening, not a diagnosis.
Four parts of one theme, scored separately
Contamination fear is the most recognizable face of OCD and the least well served by general screeners, which usually give washing two or three questions and move on. This page stays on the theme for all 20 questions and splits your score into four parts, because two people with the same total can be living very different days. It is an educational screening for self-reflection, not a diagnosis.
The loop, not just the fear
Most quizzes on this topic ask whether germs worry you. This one asks about the whole cycle: the thought that will not move on, what you do to make it stop, how long the relief lasts, and what you have given up to avoid the whole business.
Mental contamination included
Feeling dirty with nothing having touched you, after a memory, a word or a particular person, is a well-described part of contamination fear and is missing from almost every online version. Five of the 20 questions are about it, alongside reassurance seeking and self-checking.
A breakdown you can act on
Washing, avoidance and mental contamination respond to different parts of treatment. Seeing which of the four columns carries your score tells you what to describe first to a clinician, which is more useful than a single number.
| Feature | Typical free quiz | Psychology.com |
|---|---|---|
| Questions dedicated to the contamination theme | Two or three inside a general OCD quiz | All 20 |
| Covers mental contamination (dirty with no contact) | Almost never | Yes, five questions |
| Separates obsessions, washing, avoidance and reassurance | One lump score | Yes, four columns of five |
| Honest about what the Y-BOCS is | Often implies it is the Y-BOCS | Named, explained, and not reproduced |
| Tells you where mysophobia differs from OCD | Treats them as the same thing | Yes, with the compulsion loop as the dividing line |
| Clinician-reviewed interpretation | Rarely | Yes, clinician reviewed |
| Answers stay on your device | Often collected | Scored in your browser; only summary scores if you request a PDF or report |
Therapists Who Work With OCD
If your result points to something you want help with, these licensed therapists work with it. Every member is matched to the federal NPI Registry; board checks are dated on the profile.
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Colin McWilliamsAGNP, CNP
License verified, checked Sep 18, 2026
“Adult Nurse Practitioner specializing in behavioral and psychiatric health and psychotropic medication management”
Kingston, Massachusetts Telehealth and in person $75 to $200 per session
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Dobritte NorrisLMHC, MEd
License verified, checked Sep 29, 2026
Searsport, Maine Telehealth and in person $150 per session, sliding scale
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James NatterPsyD
License verified, checked Oct 16, 2026
“You are a universe of one, gladly to lovingly explore.”
Newburgh, Indiana Telehealth $220 to $240 per session
How scoring works
Answers are scored 0–80 in total. Your result falls into one of 4 bands:
| Score | Band | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 0–15 | Lower range | Your answers put you in the lower range on this screener, the first of our four. Contamination fear does not look like it is running your days right now. |
| 16–31 | Some range | Your answers put you in the second of our four ranges, the one we call some. Something is there, it has a shape, and it is still small enough to be worth catching now. |
| 32–47 | Substantial range | Your answers put you in the third of our four ranges, substantial. This is the level at which contamination fear usually starts taking real time and real territory. |
| 48–80 | Heavy range | Your answers put you at the heavy end of our four ranges. That is a lot to be managing, and it is worth saying plainly that this pattern is treatable. |
How the score is put together
Twenty statements, each rated from not at all (0) to extremely (4), give a total from 0 to 80. The four columns in your breakdown hold five statements each, so each one runs from 0 to 20: contamination obsessions, washing and cleaning, avoidance, and mental contamination plus reassurance. Those four groupings are ours. They were chosen because they match how contamination fear is usually described in the clinical literature and because they map onto different pieces of treatment, but they are not validated subscales and no factor analysis stands behind them.
The four ranges are our own educational divisions of a 0 to 80 total. The Y-BOCS is scored differently and by a clinician, its commonly cited severity ranges are a convention rather than part of the published instrument, and a score here does not convert to a Y-BOCS score. The statements are our own, the scoring is our own, and the ranges here are educational descriptions rather than clinical cutoffs. A score of 30 on this page does not mean a score of 15 on the Y-BOCS, which a clinician administers in an interview and scores on time, distress, interference, resistance and control rather than on a list of statements.
Contamination OCD, mysophobia, ordinary hygiene and health anxiety
People arrive here searching for a mysophobia test as often as a contamination OCD test, and the two are not the same thing. Mysophobia is the everyday name for an intense fear of germs or dirt. When that fear is the whole picture, it looks like a specific phobia: the object itself is frightening, you feel better once you are away from it, and there is no ritual holding the fear in place. Contamination OCD has a loop. An intrusive thought or a feeling of being dirty arrives, you wash, check, ask or avoid to make it stop, the relief is real but brief, and the loop asks for more next time. The loop is the difference that matters, because it is the loop that treatment targets.
Ordinary hygiene is the other boundary, and it is a real one. Washing your hands before you cook, cleaning a kitchen properly, or being careful around someone with a stomach bug are not symptoms. The questions on this page are about cost: time you did not want to spend, sequences that have to be completed, skin that is paying for it, and places you have crossed off. Health anxiety sits close by but points somewhere else: the fear there is that you are already ill and the behavior is checking your body, researching and seeking tests, rather than cleaning and avoiding. If that is nearer your experience, Health Anxiety Test (Hypochondria) covers it, and Phobia Test: What Are You Afraid Of? is the better start if the fear is specific and there is no ritual.
How this fits with the main OCD test
Our main screener at OCD Test (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) is built around the six areas of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised: washing, checking, ordering, obsessing, hoarding and neutralizing. Washing gets three questions there out of eighteen. That is the right design for a first look, because OCD rarely stays in one lane and a whole-picture score catches the themes you were not searching for. It is the wrong design for someone who already knows which theme is theirs, which is why this page exists.
The two are meant to be taken together, in either order. If you came here first and the score is anything above the lower range, take the main test as well: finding that checking or taboo thoughts also score highly changes what you would bring to an assessment. Contamination fear also travels with other themes worth a look, including harm-related intrusive thoughts at Harm OCD Test, intrusive thoughts with no visible ritual at Pure O OCD Test, and the difficulty tolerating not knowing at Intolerance of Uncertainty Test, which is one of the better-studied engines underneath the whole pattern.
What to do with the result
Write down three things before you talk to anyone: how much of yesterday went to washing, cleaning, checking or asking; what you have stopped doing or touching; and what you are afraid would happen if you did not do the thing. Those three answers are what a clinician needs and what no questionnaire can supply. If your skin is damaged, mention that first, because it needs treating in its own right.
The treatment with the strongest evidence for contamination fear is exposure and response prevention, a structured form of cognitive behavioral therapy in which you approach what you avoid and then do not perform the ritual, with the gap between the two getting longer on purpose. It is uncomfortable by design and it works, and it is specific enough that it is worth asking a prospective therapist directly whether they practice it and how often. Some people also benefit from medication, which a physician or psychiatrist can discuss. Ask about ERP by name, ask how many people with contamination fear they have treated, and keep the question practical rather than diplomatic.
Methodology & sources
The 20 statements on this page were written for Psychology.com and are original. They are informed by how contamination fear is described in the research literature, in particular Rachman's account of mental contamination, where a sense of internal dirtiness arises and persists without any external dirt (Rachman, 1994; Rachman, 2004), and the contamination dimension of the Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Abramowitz et al., 2010), which is named here and not reproduced. The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Goodman et al., 1989) is the standard severity measure for OCD; it is clinician-administered, copyrighted, and not reproduced on this page in whole or in part. Neither is the Padua Inventory (Sanavio, 1988). Nothing here is taken from the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised either. The four columns in the breakdown are our own grouping of five statements each and are not validated subscales.
The four ranges are our own educational divisions of a 0 to 80 total: 0 to 15, 16 to 31, 32 to 47 and 48 to 80. The Y-BOCS is scored differently and by a clinician, its commonly cited severity ranges are a convention rather than part of the published instrument, and a score here does not convert to a Y-BOCS score. The ranges describe your own answers, they are not clinical cutoffs, and they have not been validated against any clinical assessment. This test screens for education and self-reflection; it cannot tell you whether you have OCD, a specific phobia, or anything else, and only a licensed clinician working in an interview can assess that. It is written for adults. If you are looking at a child's washing or avoidance, the questions here will not fit, and a pediatrician or a child mental-health service is the right first stop.
References
- Goodman WK, Price LH, Rasmussen SA, et al. The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. I. Development, use, and reliability. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1989;46(11):1006-1011. doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1989.01810110048007
- Rachman S. Pollution of the mind. Behav Res Ther. 1994;32(3):311-314. doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(94)90127-9
- Rachman S. Fear of contamination. Behav Res Ther. 2004;42(11):1227-1255. doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2003.10.009
- Abramowitz JS, Deacon BJ, Olatunji BO, et al. Assessment of obsessive-compulsive symptom dimensions: development and evaluation of the Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale. Psychol Assess. 2010;22(1):180-198. doi.org/10.1037/a0018260
- Ruscio AM, Stein DJ, Chiu WT, Kessler RC. The epidemiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Mol Psychiatry. 2010;15(1):53-63. doi.org/10.1038/mp.2008.94
Cite this source
Psychology.com. (2026, October 21). Contamination OCD Test. Psychology.com. https://psychology.com/tests/contamination-ocd
Contamination OCD Test FAQ
What is contamination OCD?
It is the name for the OCD theme in which the intrusive material is about germs, dirt, bodily fluids, chemicals, illness or a sense of being unclean, and the compulsions are washing, cleaning, avoiding and asking. It is not a separate condition in the diagnostic manual; it is one of the common themes within obsessive-compulsive disorder, and themes can shift over a lifetime.
Is this the Y-BOCS?
No. The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale is administered by a clinician in an interview, is copyrighted, and is not reproduced here. The 20 statements on this page are our own. Nothing here is borrowed from it, the result ranges included: the four ranges on this page are our own educational divisions of a 0 to 80 total, and the severity ranges people often quote for the Y-BOCS are a widely used convention rather than part of the published instrument. A score here does not convert to a Y-BOCS score.
Should I take this or the main OCD test?
Both, in either order. Our OCD Test scores six areas of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised and gives you the whole picture, with washing as three of its eighteen questions. This page spends all 20 questions on one theme. The whole-picture score catches themes you were not looking for; this one tells you how heavy the theme you came for actually is.
Is mysophobia the same as contamination OCD?
Not quite. Mysophobia is the everyday word for an intense fear of germs or dirt. When the fear stands alone, with no ritual holding it in place and relief once you are away from the object, it looks like a specific phobia, and our Phobia Test is the better fit. Contamination OCD adds the loop: the urge to wash, check, ask or avoid, brief relief, then the loop asking for more. This test scores the loop as well as the fear.
What actually helps?
Exposure and response prevention, a structured form of cognitive behavioral therapy, has the strongest evidence for contamination fear: you approach what you avoid and then deliberately do not perform the ritual. Medication helps some people and a physician or psychiatrist can discuss it. Ask a prospective therapist about ERP by name and how often they use it, because general talking therapy without the response prevention part tends to do much less for this theme.
Is the test really confidential?
Yes. It runs entirely in your browser. Your individual answers are scored in your browser and are never sent to us or linked to you. They stay in this tab so you can return to your result, and closing or clearing the tab clears them. If you ask us to email the PDF, we receive your summary scores with your email address, never your individual answers. No account is needed.