WHAT IS CLEANING DISEASE?
It's good to get dirty
Wash, sweep, tidy up, no hopp, wash your hands again, undress outside the door, and rush to the bathroom , wipe again, sweep, shake, tidy up…
Is any place dirty? Let the kitchen be cleaned too, okay! Now again, we washed our hands one, two, three, four and five yes five times... If I don't shampoo 3 times, something bad will happen for sure...
Cleaning routines that last for hours, never ending, that are never believed to be enough...
I'm not talking about being an orderly or meticulous person who likes to clean. A clean house, a clean car, a tidy office… who wouldn't want
So why should being clean complicate one's life? Especially when it has become so important in the days of the pandemic we are in.
Of course, what I'm talking about is not a cleaning that can be considered normal.
Delete, scavenge, then again and again...
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a person's repetitive patterns of thought and behavior that disrupt daily life activities. . We call the thoughts that appear involuntarily in the mind and cause restlessness in the person, obsessions, and the behaviors that the person does to relax against the uneasiness caused by these obsessions, compulsions or rituals.
Obsessions are the fact that the person cannot let himself go to the natural flow of the waters of the flowing river, in fact, the person whose spontaneity has been lost, repeats his balance and naturalness and tries to find it with symmetry.
The obsession with cleanliness, which is among the Obsessive Compulsive Disorders and makes one's life really difficult and its prevalence cannot be underestimated, goes hand in hand with the thought that no matter how much it is cleaned, it will not get rid of that dirt.
Hygiene obsession, which can occur for different reasons, is attributed to different reasons, but its origin is usually based on past life traumas. In order to avoid experiences that caused negative emotions from the past life, the behavior of cleaning everything with the belief that it is dirty as a defense emerges. is running. In addition, the effect of environmental and genetic factors should not be ignored.
The nature of the bond established within the family, the parents' evaluation of many behaviors as dirty, dirty or bad, the cleaning disease of family members, the evaluation and suppression of sexuality as sin, shame and uncleanness, exposure to violence, interest and Growing up in an environment where their needs cannot be met…
Even though people with cleaning disorders are often aware that their repetitive cleaning behaviors are irrational, they are quickly distracted by the disturbing thoughts that circulate in their heads and keep them busy. They turn these thoughts into action in order to get rid of it.
When we say that cleaning behavior is 'normal' up to what level, 'abnormal' after which level or can be considered a disorder, we can say the following.
Hygiene disease can be mentioned when it disrupts the flow of a person's daily life, interferes with functionality, when difficulties begin to continue in the normal course of life or when relations with the environment are affected. Apart from all these, even if there is no obvious pollution or mess, when you start to want to do an intense cleaning and you start cleaning for hours without end, this becomes a problem.
What are the symptoms for cleaning sickness?
Personal cleaning is very important for cleaning patients. Shower times are longer than others, and no matter how much they wash, there is still a question mark in the back of their minds that they are not fully cleaned.
Facing the constant fear of contamination, cleaning patients have a recurrent obsession with hand washing. In some advanced cases, wounds or cracks may occur due to washing hands frequently and with some hygiene items. There are also cleaning patients who do this more than once because of the belief that the dirt will not reach anywhere. The need for repetitions such as 3,5,7 while cleaning is another behavioral pattern.
Cleaning patients find everything that comes from outside to their living area dirty. It may feel the need to wash many times. No matter how much cleaning is done, it is not enough, the thought that it is dirty continues, and it thinks that it is not clean.
These behaviors affect the family and environment of the person significantly.
People who have a cleaning disorder may also experience obsessive behaviors against certain conditions. While the thought of being dirty constantly manifests itself in some patients, some cleaning patients may repeat their behaviors to avoid negative situations and repetitive thoughts. For example, if I don't wash my hands 3 times, something can happen to my mother (usually disaster scenarios)
Is it possible to treat?
Of course, just like other psychological disorders, treating people with hygiene diseases allows them to continue their lives in a healthy way. While medication and psychotherapy are recommended in some cases, psychotherapy is often sufficient. The most effective method used in the treatment of OCD and obsessions is cognitive behavioral therapy.
Let's say you got a mess on your hands, you washed them 1, 2, 3, 10, 20, 50 and 100 times. Is there a difference between the 50th wash and the 100th wash? So why wash 100 times…
Actually, the most important step in the treatment process with cleaning patients is cognitive restructuring. Our mind tends to focus on the negative, while obsession has repetitions that constantly focus on the negative filter of the mind, trapping it and causing you to constantly look at life through the same hole as if it were a prisoner. It works with the person's distorted thoughts through reframing through cognitive therapy.
Focus on the positive like Pollyannaism, instead of saying everything, exploring with an expert and discovering whether it is pollution or repetitive thoughts.
If you are obsessed with cleaning very intensely, look at what you are trying to clean, not your hands or your house, but your thoughts you are trying to clean. What you wash 50 times is your thoughts and your anxiety... It is done to remove the food. If we look at the world with thoughts, anxieties may follow us. Thoughts are perceptual, our perceptions can sometimes mislead us. We tend to focus on negative stories (the mind is like that, it flies and tends to focus negatively) But getting lost in stories always makes us wash our hands and our house. To accept that every thought is in flux and is a guest, regardless of past and future connections.
Exploring with an expert without forgetting family and environmental support.
Accepting the possibility of getting dirty instead of cleaning in order to avoid getting dirty. To be able to see the circular behaviors done to relieve repetitive thoughts.
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