Cleanliness is a pleasant feature of the home and workplace, however, it sometimes becomes a source of prolonged suffering for the person who experiences anxiety when household chores are not done their way or when they notice that some object decoration is not in the intended place.
In these cases, the obsession with cleanliness becomes a source of suffering for those who, through this external order, wish to have everything under control, since there is a constant relationship between the external and the internal. In this Psychology-Online article, we show you how to overcome the obsession with cleanliness.
A person with an obsession with cleanliness seeks to maintain control of their life, diverting attention from their internal world by putting the focus of their time on this external scenario through a goal of cleanliness that reflects perfectionism as a frequent characteristic in the .
Why am I obsessed with cleanliness? The origin may vary depending on people. Next, we will see the most frequent causes of obsession with cleaning:
- irrational beliefs: The person has dramatic thoughts about what can happen if they neglect some aspect.
- Emotional deficiencies and internal voids: The obsession with cleanliness can also disguise other deeper feelings. For example, a person may devote themselves to household chores as a way to show their attention to caring for their family members. However, he may experience the contradiction that he does not feel that he receives the gratitude he deserves in relation to his efforts.
- Lack of interest in activities: This disorder can also be a consequence that occurs progressively when the person has less and less social life, that is, when their main role focuses on carrying out housework. Furthermore, this may be little valued by the environment or by society itself.
Before telling you how to overcome the obsession with cleaning, it is important that you learn to detect the signs of this obsession. This type of circumstance affects women more than men, since, traditionally, they have been conditioned by this role of caring for the home. Thus, the main characteristics of the obsession with cleanliness are the following:
1. The cleaning routine takes up more and more space in your life
Routine has a negative influence not only on the level of fatigue that the person accumulates, since professional commitments are added to the household tasks themselves. Furthermore, this fact also conditions one’s life social and free time.
2. Perfectionism
A person who observes reality through the filter of obsession with order experiences something insane, since he always observes points for improvement that mean that the work carried out in these tasks is always in progress. There is always something left to do or something to fix.
3. Conditioned well-being
The person may experience a certain level of well-being when they observe that the different rooms of the house are in the expected order, however, this well-being is increasingly brief.
Episodes of anger, frustration and disappointment weigh more because the person is totally subjected by this circumstancesince he is not able to relativize the disorder at a certain moment and feels that his happiness depends on this issue.
4. Family tensions
When a person experiences a fixation with order and this fact negatively affects coexistence with others, since he will always want to impose his criteria. Others feel immersed in constant examination. In turn, the person does not delegate responsibilities to others because he does not trust that they can do it well. If he delegates at first, then he reviews the task.
5. Exaggerated thoughts
The obsession with cleanliness conditions the life of the person affected so negatively that the person experiences recurring thoughts about how the disorder can affect them and can have undesirable consequences. They are thoughts that have a dramatic tone and that, in turn, generate incomprehension in the environment which tends to relativize this issue. In this article, we delve into .
What can a person who suffers from an obsession with cleanliness do to overcome this discomfort? Here we give you some good tips so you can overcome the obsession with cleaning:
- Seek professional help: The risk of this type of case is that sometimes the person normalizes the situation by considering the purpose of the cleaning to be positive. Therefore, it is highly recommended that the person affected by this issue decides to ask for therapeutic help.
- Involve those closest to you: To overcome the obsession with cleanliness, the people close to you must avoid feeding the force of their fears by constantly giving in to their requests, commands and suggestions. It often happens that, to avoid arguments, others prefer to delegate cleaning tasks to the person affected by this obsession. However, this only makes the situation worse.
- Identify the origin of the obsession: Recognize what type of thoughts come to your mind when you experience an episode of anxiety due to a cause associated with cleaning. You can put those ideas in writing. It is also recommended that you establish a household chore calendar, with a realistic time for each activity, and make a different decision when these ideas come to mind again.
- Ask your environment for help: Having an emotional support network can be very important for you. Think about who you would like to be your support people in crisis situations. You can contact that friend by phone at the moment when obsessive thoughts overwhelm you.
- Enrich leisure time: When the person has dedicated so much time of their life to cleaning, their free time takes a backseat. This is a good time to reconnect with old interests and discover new ones, that is, experience new reasons for satisfaction.
In case you are obsessed with cleanliness, we want to remind you of the importance of taking into account health and have trusted healthcare professionals to help you get over it. If you would like to have health insurance that helps you treat your obsession with cleanliness and maintain your quality of life, Aon Salud can help you find the one you need. You can have a personalized professional support throughout the entire process of advising on which company and when it is good to take out health insurance.