Cleaning Obsession

What is the Obsession of Cleaning?

Compulsive rituals are repetitive behaviors you perform to reduce obsessive anxiety and restore a sense of security. These behaviors are often based on certain “rules”. Of course, these compulsions are extreme and unrealistic rituals of suppressing obsessive fears. However they take up a lot of your time, interfere with your life and difficult to resist them. Cleaning obsession is one of them.

Excessive Washing and Cleaning Behaviors According to Certain Rules

• Handwashing (Ritualistic hand washing)
• Private toilet routines (showering, changing clothes at the time of wiping or after each toilet use)
• Washing and cleaning the products bought from the market one by one before bringing them home
• Excessive behaviors while showering, bathing, combing to hair or brushing teeth
• Changing clothes often
• Object cleaning (e.g. mailbox, warehouse or clothes)
• Using hand sanitizer or other hygiene products
• Using other means, such as gloves, to prevent or clean up contamination

Contamination Obsessions and Cleaning Rituals

This type of OCD usually also includes odors from bodily fluids or wastes (such as urine, feces, or sweat), dirt, germs, diseases, toxic chemicals or substances. You may have obsessions about infecting loved ones or other strangers with disease or germs. Maybe you are afraid of contaminants because you think they will get you sick or make others sick; Or maybe the contagious waste just makes you feel “disgusted” rather than a fear of disease.

Whatever the reason, you try to avoid situations and objects that you believe are the source of the contaminant (doorknobs, shoes, floors, toilets, hospitals, certain people, places, or parts of the body) or things that remind you of contaminants (for example, anything that reminds you of blood).

To feel safe about feared diseases and contamination, you likely avoid sources of feared contaminants. When you cannot avoid it, you may engage in excessive cleansing and washing rituals, including ritualized showering, bathing, toilet routines, and excessive use of wipes or disinfectant hand gels. Maybe you need to do these rituals according to certain methods, such as counting while washing your hands or brushing according to a set routine.

You can also look: What Causes Compulsive Cleaning?

You may also be interested in this article: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Types

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Last Edited: January 29, 2024