In these dark times, silly homemade videos encouraging people to vigilantly wash their hands to curb the spread of the coronavirus have been a rare source of levity for many people. The lineup has been eclectic and powerful, as if half of A-list Hollywood were competing to create the most viral Sesame Street special of all time. Jimmy Fallon played guitar for his two singing daughters, Neil Diamond rewrote Sweet Caroline, Miley Cyrus lent her lyrics to an instructional meme, and Gloria Gaynor belted out I Will Survive next to a bathroom sink.

Ive laughed at a few of the hand-washing videos, too. But for the most part, they serve as a reminder of a bleak chapter in my life, one that I fight every day to not repeat. Its always difficult to have obsessive-compulsive disorder, and for many people with OCD, this global pandemic is an unprecedented challenge.

Ive certainly observed in my clients and in my community just how profoundly activating this moment is for people with OCD, OCD-spectrum and mental health concerns, said Annalise Ophelian, a San Francisco-based psychotherapist. A lot of whats going on right now will feel like its undoing progress that was made in treatment.

OCD can manifest in many different ways, all of them connected to a central tension, according to Jeff Szymanski, the executive director of the Boston-based International OCD Foundation.

The core struggle for those who have OCD is the need for certainty along with a constant struggle to try to get away from anxiety, he said.

For those who have contamination OCD a subset of the mental health condition in which people are terrified of getting an infection germs present the ultimate uncertainty. Theyre an invisible threat that cannot be avoided. With work, you can achieve hard-earned moments of clarity where you know that, while life may be uncertain, its unlikely youre at a heightened risk of catching any particular illness. But an outbreak as widespread and deadly as COVID-19 can seem to validate those original fears and inflame them even further.

Stephanie Jones, a woman in the United Kingdom who has contamination OCD, told HuffPost that she has severely curtailed her time outside over the last month. As a social worker, shes considered an essential employee. However, shes received permission to work from home three days a week and takes a taxi instead of public transportation to her job when she does go in.

At the same time, Tim Abbott, who lives with contamination OCD in Australia, said that the public response to the pandemic has somewhat eased his mind.

Knowing that everyone is cleaning their hands and surfaces makes it actually a little easier to be able to cope with being in a social setting, Abbott said.

People with OCD who have obsessions and rituals that have little to nothing to do with contamination or germs are also handling the pandemic and the quarantines in variable ways.

Personally, a lot of my OCD manifests in rigidity, from meals and exercise to work and places I visit. Im very grateful and fortunate to be healthy, but suddenly having to be flexible with every aspect of my well-honed daily existence is its own exhausting battle.

For those having difficulties in this new world, here are a few tips from professionals that might help you cope better.

Use your existing skills.

The first thing to remember is that despite the elevated pressures, if youve learned tools in therapy, theyre still valid and crucial.

We have heard from both individuals with OCD and therapists all across the country who are saying the individuals who have been in effective treatment for their OCD are in general faring better than the average person, Szymanski said. In part, this appears to be [because] one of the basic skills you learn in treatment is how to accept and live with uncertainty.

Many of the tools are meant to help you de-escalate and stop what can feel like a violent whirlpool of unwanted thoughts. Ophelian lists helpful behavioral exercises such as thought-stopping, reality-checking and de-catastrophizing. Basically, its all about taking a breath and trying to remember that there is no dire threat demanding certain rituals.

In some cases, the unpredictability and severity of COVID-19 might feel like it directly conflicts with that advice. To combat such thoughts as much as possible, recognize the unusual circumstances without jumping to conclusions or concerns that years of hard work in therapy have now been negated.

Whats important is being able to objectively separate the facts of a situation from the way that you feel about it, Ophelian said. The facts of our circumstances have changed, so what were striving for is to always be making appropriate behavioral choices for the reality that were living in.