Cleaning Disease

Cleaning Disease

Cleaning disease is the name given to the person being obsessed with constant cleaning and being obsessed with everything about cleaning.

Symptoms of Cleaning Disease

Although cleaning disease is seen quite widely today, it can be said to be similar in the past. But it is a skipped situation where the people we previously called 'meticulous' were a hidden OCD patient. It is such a challenging discomfort for the person that cleaning disease is also known as 'mental cancer'.

Although he knows that the person is absurd, it includes thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that are not reflected in his head. There are two main sections, namely 'uncontrollable obsessive thoughts' which we call obsession, and 'behaviors that these obsessive thoughts want us to make or not to do'. For example, if the person has washed his hands with the idea that "his hands are dirty" and "still my hands have not been cleaned clean (obsessive thought)", we can say that the presence of cleaning disease is "if he washes his hands repeatedly (compulsive behavior)".

The main symptoms of cleaning disease are about cleaning hands, cleaning the house, cleaning the body. Every time he comes home, taking off the top of the door, entering the bathroom directly and having this procedure done to the individuals in the whole house, doing the corner cleaning almost every day, taking the bathroom hours more than 1 hour, the frequency of washing hands and the time it takes to be washed more than once. The list can be extended, such as purchasing, washing the clothes repeatedly, washing the dishes with bleach, cleaning every packaged product taken from the outside, washing the toys every day, etc.

While obsessive thought sometimes manifests as “not clean or dirty”, it can also be seen that bad things will happen to ourselves or our loved ones from time to time. For example, if I do not apply shampoo 3 times, my mother thinks that "something bad will happen to my mother" and she thinks that "using shampoo 3 times" has prevented the bad thing that could happen to her mother.

Causes of Cleaning Disease

Cleaning disease can be linked to many causes. It appears to be primarily due to changes in brain chemistry. In other words, it can be said that it is caused by impaired messages in some parts of the brain. It can reveal this ailment for psychological reasons rather than just physiological reasons. These are; The fact that the model, that is, the parent or caregiver has such a condition, feelings of guilt that may be felt due to some events, past traumatic experiences, conflicting - unhappy relationships, and loneliness are among the causes of cleaning disease.

In which gender is most likely to see?

Cleaning disease is seen to be more in women because more time is spent in the home. While it is seen that it is more common in men in early childhood, there is no significant difference in adulthood by gender.

Cleaning Disease Treatment

Cleaning disease is known to be minor at first, without disturbing the person. People, who we call meticulous, who are prone to order, symmetry, control, are more likely to experience cleaning disease. That is why they or their surroundings need to contact a specialist as soon as they start to feel uncomfortable with this situation. Unless cleaning disease is taken, the disease may manifest itself in another type and greater severity. For example, we know that people who have cleaned the house for 1 hour a day, do not leave the house and do cleaning at all times even sleep time unless they get treated.

It is seen that the patients who have not reached 6 months have been treated faster. However, the improvement of the discomfort for many years causes the treatment period to be extended. As a result of the psychiatric examination in treatment, drug treatment is started when needed, and this treatment is supported with psychotherapy, and it is tried to be quickly regained. Researches show that the benefit of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in cleaning disease is quite high. Cleaning disease is a treatable condition. The person suffering from cleaning disease can return to his normal life with therapy processes.