Obsessive cleaning disorder is one of several sub-categories of obsessive-compulsive disorder where the patient has an obsessive compulsion to clean or wash the house or specific objects.
What is an obsessive-compulsive disorder?
Most of us have little rituals we perform. They might be simple things such as checking the door to make sure you have locked it before leaving for work. Or running upstairs to check you have not left your hair irons switched on. But whilst these are perfectly normal things to do, a person suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder will feel compelled to perform ritualized behaviors and find their brain stuck in an endless reel of obsessive thoughts or urges. We might check the lock once, but an OCD person will check it fifty times and still go back for another look.
Obsessive cleaning disorder is one of the symptoms of the main disorder. Sufferers will compulsively spend every waking moment of their day cleaning. Very often the person is obsessed with a fear of contamination from germs and bacteria so they scrub surfaces and objects with cleaning agents over and over again. But instead of finding relief from undertaking their cleaning rituals, the anxiety soon returns and the cleaning ritual becomes even more complicated and time-consuming.
People suffering from the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder usually have obsessions or compulsions that interfere with their everyday life. The symptoms can worsen in times of stress, but disappear on other occasions. In the worst cases, obsessive-compulsive disorder can ruin people’s lives by negatively affecting relationships, jobs, and every aspect of a person’s waking moments.
What is the treatment for obsessive cleaning disorder?
One of the most effective treatments for someone suffering from any type of obsessive-compulsive disorder is cognitive behavioral therapy involving a two-pronged approach: cognitive therapy and exposure / response prevention.
Cognitive therapy can help the patient deal with the obsessive thoughts so that they are less likely to revert to compulsive behavioral patterns. Cognitive therapy enables them to understand where the obsessive thoughts and compulsions originate from so that they are able to work around them in time.
Exposure and response prevention involves repeatedly exposing the patient to the source of the obsession or compulsive behavior, so for somebody suffering from obsessive cleaning disorder, they might be exposed to a less than hygienic room until the anxiety goes away. Research has shown that by ‘retraining’ the brain, over time the incidence of obsessive-compulsive symptoms is gradually reduced.
Self-help techniques can also help people who think they might have obsessive cleaning disorder. Instead of giving in to the urge to clean up and disinfect every surface, they are told to sit back and wait until the anxiety fades. This type of exposure therapy forces the person to face the fear while at the same time preventing them from completing their obsessive cleaning rituals.
Medications such as antidepressants can also help people suffering from obsessive cleaning disorder, particularly if the problem is related to stress, depression or anxiety disorders. Research has shown that around six out of ten people see an improvement in their symptoms once they start a course of medication.
Jessica Gage says
Not only does my mother-in-law have an obsession to her home being cleaned over and over again throughout the day, she then steps outdoors and literally picks up the leaves by hand in her yard by carrying a bucket as she hates even one leaf, let alone a dozen or more in her yard. She has quite a few big mature trees that have constant falling leaves which makes her a nervous wreck just seeing them invade her yard. She complains and cries all the time about the leaves when we tell her, it’s going to happen since you have trees in your yard. She even mows her lawn in the wintertime, and you’ll see her outside on the coldest of days even in the rain retrieving the leaves by hand. If that isn’t enough, she’ll repeat herself indoors cleaning again when her home is spotless and she’s the only one who lives in it. My father-in-law is deceased and all her children grown and living out-of-state. She has no life and she refuses to move into a smaller home or retirement village, nor will she move closer to her children (there are 3) and one of her daughter’s is divorced having a big home where she could move in with her but she won’t. We just do not know what else to do. She is exposing some serious side affects where she doesn’t want any company, she refuses to get herself a life alert since she is prone to falling, her health is rapidly declining, and she is beginning to think strange things. She definitely needs help but is so mean and cantankerous that when talking to her on the phone or visiting her, she will make excuses to get off the phone so that she can go outdoors to get those darn leaves from out of her yard. If it’s a hard raining day, she will stand looking out the window for a break in the weather and then run out to pick them up. She definitely has this syndrome and other things in the making, as this is not normal.
Marlo says
I can relate my mother does this too with the leaves. She will go outside and start picking them up by hand and complain the neighbor’s leaves are in her yard and they should clean up their own leaves. My mother cleans all day long, every day and complains that nobody helps her, and she has all this work to do. She makes work that really pointless in my opinion. I used to mow her grass for her but every time I mowed, she gets the lawn mower back out and re mow the entire yard again. She was convinced that I missed a few blades of grass and needed to be done over. It was so embarrassing I can’t imagine was the neighbors all thought. I told then I am never mowing your yard again if you’re just going to go over the entire yard twice then I not doing it anymore. I watch her she goes over the yard like two or three times every time it’s insane. I can’t get her to do anything fun because she got all this housework to do, and nobody will help her. Nope, because it won’t be good enough and she will reclean whatever a person cleans. My mother acts like nothing matters in the world but a clean house. And then if someone coming over, she like oh I got clean what will they think of me my house is a mess. Umm, I look around can’t see what she is talking about, so I feel like going crazy. And according to my mother I’m a filthy pig. I asked my friend if they thought my place looked dirty and nobody thinks I’m a filthy pig but my mother. My mother says they won’t tell you the true because your friends a trash and liars. I just don’t know how to deal with her she gets worse every year she gets older.
Nora Nelly Gonzalez says
I think my mom has this. She spends 7-8 hours cleaning the house every day she has off from work. She vacuums then mops a room 3-4 times before she moves on to the next room.
Yesterday I bought a new bed to put in my room it took us an hour to set it up. She spent an extra 3 hours in my room cleaning the light switch of the bathroom, the cupboard next to the sink, the crown moldings on the floor in the bathroom, the vanity, dresser, nightstand, and vacuumed and mopped at least 7 times. And told me that I had to clean my sink, drawer, under the sink, tub, and toilet all up to her standard inspection or I’d have to do it again. I literally have to clean everything 3-5 times before she gives up telling me and does it herself.
Does anyone else think she has this?
Andrea says
I am ocd, also. I find who are incisive to our ways are bad mannered and disrespectful. I have become very aware of my ocd (which is cleaning, everything in place, being perfect.). I does drive me crazy, but I try very hard to stand back some. My family and friends have helped me. We laugh about my ocd. It has made stronger to have their live and support.
Steve says
LOL. I love my girlfriend and her daughters but I am wondering if this is an disorder. When I wash towels she does not want me to wash dish towels with bath towels.
Or If a water bottle is left on the table she gets so upset she wants to find out whose it is so that she can fuss at them and wonder why they left it on the table.
Or I wash the dishes with a clean wash cloth and she yelled stating that the dish towels are for dishes and the bath towels are for bathing.
Is she over reacting? Or am I just a nasty SOB…LOL PLEASE INFORM ME!
Enock says
You are being nasty to her, how can you mixe bath towel and dish towel ?
Marlo Hoyt says
I’m not OCD by any means but I also do not wash cleaning rags with bath towels that is gross. And I don’t use bath towels to dry dishes or cleaning rags to wash dishes. To me this just common sense. And according to my OCD mother I’m dirty pig and lazy.
Aaron Andruscavage says
People with O.C.D. are the most annoying people in the world.they know they have a problem but yet they refuse help because they think that their behavior is the norm while making others around them feel guilty or lazy in a way because we are not running around like a chicken with its head cut off cleaning everything in sight.
I have lived with these types of people and they need to be sedated heavily.
Kenny says
Yep. One of my freinds has this. I was in charge of Christmas dinner; he followed me around as I cooked telling me to be careful about cleanliness over 100 times. I finally told him I was not going to cook the turkey as it would make too much of a mess. And we would be better off chunking it in the trash right now. He told me to prep it just in case I changed my mind, and decide to cook it or not the next day. We cooked it; it was awesome. But he would literally follow me around if I got so much as a cookie to see if any crumbs fell. I’m not kidding. And complain if he found a crumb. It was absolutely bizarre to the point I am now refusing to eat at his house again
Herbert Meadows says
I have a cousin that I believe has a mental disorder about cleaning. He not only cleans and organizes constantly.if you don’t put the dish in the dish washer in the right place that he has designated, he will have a fit. Almost to violence. What is that?
Marlo Hoyt says
My mother does this with the dish washer and if she finds dish in the wrong spot will go off. Just seems insane to me.