obsessed with cleanliness?

[BradT]

Do atypicals have this obsession with keeping everything neat around them? I always keep my car clean and house, because I can't stand a little dirt being around me? I know it's good to be clean anyways, but can atypicals have an obsession with it?

 

[xudo]

Do atypicals have this obsession with keeping everything neat around them? I always keep my car clean and house, because I can't stand a little dirt being around me? I know it's good to be clean anyways, but can atypicals have an obsession with it?

Everyone is different, so I'd say yes. Some may be obsessed with cleanliness, some may not be bothered by disorder.

 

[Judge]

Yes, yes and yes.

But do I appreciate my OCD?

No.

 

[Gracey]

I'm with @Judge on this.

I'm in an odd place with this at the moment.
What once mattered was an overall attempt at control and perfection. In everything.
I appear to be narrowing my focus to specifics currently. Namely germs and contamination. So I'm letting other things go.

I am moving along and making progress in two specific phobias. Dentist and spiders. I didn't experience fear over those I experienced terror and shut down. Completely.
I've recently had some dental work done and can now handle using a container to move a spider outside. (Can't bring myself to squash it dead)

Phobias are different to a need for control but both involve fear to varying extents.

 

[Streetwise]

Do atypicals have this obsession with keeping everything neat around them? I always keep my car clean and house, because I can't stand a little dirt being around me? I know it's good to be clean anyways, but can atypicals have an obsession with it?

Yes especially people who have certain faiths , I think OCD can come from physical and or psychological abuse .

 

[bbc-bananasplit]

Yes especially people who have certain faiths , I think OCD can come from physical and or psychological abuse .

Indeed, and I am quite sure that with OCD and such things there is no difference between atypicals and typicals: It may affect anyone. Although by having an obsession it need not be implied that the cause is any psychological disturbance of the self. If so, however, then this disturbance [or input > which may be anything] is commonly found in childhood or adolescence. The mind - or self - can be viewed as a translating unit / or system of psychic forces, made up by:

1. input of force from the exterior
2. inner force translating and shifting
3. ouput of force towards the exterior

and the most important aim of the system is functional stability or a balance of power/ or force within the system, and there are many ways of achieving this - depending on the input/output throughout life and inner capabilities in force management

.> i.e. a child which received violence and hate [aggression] as an input, will likely show violent and aggressive ouput [if aggression is externally redirected at others] or self-hatred and self-hurting [if force is internally redirected at self], or if the person is very wise and able it may be able to translate the inner aggression -provided by an aggressive input - into extensive love for self and others throughout life.

.> However, while the effective output may be apparent in many ways a. often the cause is not, and b. the effective output is rarely consciously recognized as a translation of input. Therefore an constantly aggressive person is simply aggressive but possibly not conscious of the cause, which possibly [i.e.] may be early childhood neglect or abuse.

.> Obsessive desires/needs/behaviours etc. or a full obsessive-compulsive-disorder [which is a disorder then when any obsession with compulsive behaviour is a disturbance of/to oneself and one's life and/or to others and their lives] is also a form of force translation, yet it is generally quite difficult to tell by which input and which inner traslation/shift a certain output is generated > as these translations/shifts are mostly subconscious and often very complicated products, involving many hidden factors.

.> Yet, there are some hints. For example obsessive-compulsive behaviour often results from a need for control of inner forces, or from a need to release tension of force, or as a compensative measure for conflicting or self-disturbing forces within the system, that cannot be managed in their direct form. They may be too violent, too horrible, too frightening, too shameful, too much not allowed or not true... so as that they have to be translated into something on which one can act on. Or there is a need to steer away i.e. aggressive force away from bad parents, so as that they stay good parents, or an early terrible fear of abandonement becomes a compulsive need for constant company.

.> As for the cleanliness and order obsession as a form of output this appears a obsession with perfectionism - just rambling here - which often is a way of controlling some bad inner force [i.e. feeling wrong, dirty, shameful, not right the way you are, not loved how you are] by projecting this uncontrollable feared inner threat into controllable outer things - like cleaning things, making things neat and tidy, so as that anything disturbing this controllable projection automatically triggers the inner fear of the threat [like: if things are not tidy, I am wrong and bad] .> which is the fear of the threat of some invisible underlying bad force [like: onliving childhood rejection], which has to be controlled so as that one feels not threatened by it.

 

[Gracey]

Can't control the world outside (too chaotic to deal with) = a compulsion to control own immediate environment.

 

[OkRad]

For me it is science. Hospital aquired infections, cancer causing viruses, drs who wont wash hands......truly docs should hire people like me and we would save lives. "Dr., you just touched that pen. You are now CONTAMINATED!!!"

Of course health care in USA has nothing to do with saving money or lives . It is about money

 

[bbc-bananasplit]

> I've been in psycho therapy now for 3 years, and until recently I wasn't aware that I have had and have quite a few compulsive behaviours and obsessive-compulsive problems myself... And they are quite bizarre, partly. Though I was probably brutally and sexually abused as a 5-year-old.. or something like that. so it might explain. Plus, I have a dissociative identity disorder. Now, as I've read this topic I have done some research to see where I fit in - I never mentionend any of it to my therapist... but I can hardly ever recall anything important about myself anyway. Now, I have the following:

checking

• checking windows and doors repeatedly if shut and locked, and even getting out of bed again to do so although I have already done so before
• checking repeatedly if appliances are turned off
• checking repeatedly if a stranger ['a man'] is hiding inside the house when I am alone at home - or some gruesome monster [untill beginning of adulthood]
• checking closets and under bed if a stranger ['a man'] is hiding there - or some gruesome monster [untill adolescence]
• checking if I have become psychotic and checking mental health issues repeatedly
• checking if my wallet is still in my pocket
• checking if my keys are still in my pocket
• checking mail/letters/replies repeatedly for mistakes, shameful or offensive remarks, appropiate choice of words etc.
• checking work endlessly if it is without mistakes and rethinking it constantly untill I can't tell right from wrong anymore.

contamination

• touching public poles, bannisters, door handles
• using public toilets
• hospitals

obsessive-compulsive sexuality

• compulsive self-hurting
• compulsive self-abusing
• compulsive self-shaming
• obsessed with becoming someone else than me
• obsessed with hiding my face
• obsessed with being ugly
• and compulsive shaming of my sexuality and of doing this, so nobody must know, which again means more cumpulsions and obsessions in hiding this -and many other - disgusting and shameful traits of myself

ruminations

• lots and lots about tons of useless things and never anything that earns me money

violent intrusions

• fear of killing many people in brutal ways
• fear of killing my own family
• fear killing my self
• fear hurting myself
• fear hurting others
• fear of of liking violence

other intrusions

• fearing that I am evil
• fearing that I will become a murderer
• fearing that I will die soon
• fearing that I am mentally insane and that I am simply too insane to notice
• fearing that my father raped me, even if there is no sign he did
• fearing that nobody will ever believe anything I say, even if they tell me they do
• fearing that I cannot tell fiction from fact and must prove reality constantly
• fearing that I will forget something important and cause harm to myself or others
• fearing that I will make a wrong decision causing great harm to others
• fearing that I might misunderstand someone in his/her intended message and therefore will loose contact with the 'only true reality' and never find back

For me it is science. Hospital aquired infections, cancer causing viruses, drs who wont wash hands......truly docs should hire people like me and we would save lives. "Dr., you just touched that pen. You are now CONTAMINATED!!!"

Of course health care in USA has nothing to do with saving money or lives . It is about money

> Simply out of interest: What is healthcare like in the US and how is it organized? How much does it cost and does quality vary depending on how much you can afford [or not afford]. Also, I understand that health insurance is without obligation?

> While it is pricey and mandatory by law in Germany - ca. 30% of income, of which half is payed by employee and of which half is payed by employer, so you end up with 15% only; or if you are without income it will be payed for - but of good quality, and it thankfully makes the same quality of care accessible to all - no matter how much you earn, and no matter if you earn anything at all. Most people have this standard mandatory insurance provided by a dozen or so health insurance companies - However, for self-employed people they offer other types of insurance. Also, if you're willing and can afford there are various extras.

 

[OkRad]

Omg. To describe the chaos of American "healthcare" would take a year. It is supposed to be mandatory but no one is fined. Some are, i guess. It is the Wild West. If you work, you might get it thru work. But it costs employers so many refuse to hire the amount needed to have to buy it.then you must buy your own. It can be like $700 a month with a $5000 deductible!!

If you are old or disabled and worked, you get Medicare(there are extremely complex rules that no one knows so there are streams of Medicare lawyers. Medicare only pays 80 percent. Then u have to buy a Medigap plan, but u cant have them under age 65. So many are also on Medicaid.

Medicaid is for the poor but in some states you have to be poor AND have medical need to get it.

It sucks. To keep it, you are never allowed to have more than $2000 ever. You cant marry (unless they are re on it too) cant work (!!) cant own property and in reality, it is a LOAN because in the end, you have to give them any property you have. The Medicaid Estate Recovery Act.

If you get hurt and get a settlements on either medicare or medicaid, you have to set aside the money for them!! Medicare Set Aside.

Then if u have no insurance u just die.

Great place to live!! Yeah if u are right next to Johns Hopkins u will be fine. In Tenessee medical missionaries were going THERE instead of Uganda.

Nightmare.

Thank God i am Canadian.

 

[bbc-bananasplit]

Omg. To describe the chaos of American "healthcare" would take a year. It is supposed to be mandatory but no one is fined. Some are, i guess. It is the Wild West. If you work, you might get it thru work. But it costs employers so many refuse to hire the amount needed to have to buy it.then you must buy your own. It can be like $700 a month with a $5000 deductible!!

If you are old or disabled and worked, you get Medicare(there are extremely complex rules that no one knows so there are streams of Medicare lawyers. Medicare only pays 80 percent. Then u have to buy a Medigap plan, but u cant have them under age 65. So many are also on Medicaid.

Medicaid is for the poor but in some states you have to be poor AND have medical need to get it.

It sucks. To keep it, you are never allowed to have more than $2000 ever. You cant marry (unless they are re on it too) cant work (!!) cant own property and in reality, it is a LOAN because in the end, you have to give them any property you have. The Medicaid Estate Recovery Act.

If you get hurt and get a settlements on either medicare or medicaid, you have to set aside the money for them!! Medicare Set Aside.

Then if u have no insurance u just die.

Great place to live!! Yeah if u are right next to Johns Hopkins u will be fine. In Tenessee medical missionaries were going THERE instead of Uganda.

Nightmare.

Thank God i am Canadian.

"Thank God i am Canadian" <<

Well, I am glad (for once) that I am German...

 

[Sherlock77]

Everyone is different, so I'd say yes. Some may be obsessed with cleanliness, some may not be bothered by disorder.

Yup, I'm definitely more on the pack rat side of things, I just don't ever want to become a full scale hoarder, I almost think I could... I tend to collect paper products, by accident, I have large stacks of business cards people have given me at various times, most are useless to me... They do make good bookmarks though...

 

[Suzanne]

I am not obsessed with cleanliness, because I know that excess can do just as much harm as the opposite. But I HATE clutter and sadly, am married to a man who is a huge clutterer and have many meltdowns because of it. In fact, when he decides to clean up something, I walk away, because it looks a nightmare to me.

A tidy environment is a smoothing to my very being.

 

[Southern Discomfort]

I think people here are looking at this in a OCD perspective a bit too much. A need to be clean can happen in people with autism without it being an obsession in the sense of OCD.

There's people out there who like to organise tins of food in their cupboards by size because they like the sense of order, not because they're trying to escape the thought of their car being stolen for instance.

I personally don't worry too much about cleanliness and order. In fact my life can and has been an utter mess at times.

 

[Judge]

I think people here are looking at this in a OCD perspective a bit too much. A need to be clean can happen in people with autism without it being an obsession in the sense of OCD.

"A bit too much"? Uh....that's precisely why it's called obsessive-compulsive disorder !

From my own perspective, there's nothing subtle about my OCD. It's not only an intense and overpowering thing, but also something that manifests itself 24/7, whether I'm socially interacting with others or completely alone. I'm just grateful that few people pick up on it unless they are with me over time.

For many of us our OCD is indeed "a driving obsession" and nothing less. Perfectionism, a relentless and uncontrollable need for organization, symmetry, cleanliness and what often amounts to "superstition on steroids" are all manifestations of my OCD. Which can amount to an intense and exhausting thing for those of us who have it. In essence, I'm always going to default to my OCD over being on the spectrum in such matters. Always.

A "bit too much" ? You're damn right it is.

 

[RiverSong]

Do atypicals have this obsession with keeping everything neat around them? I always keep my car clean and house, because I can't stand a little dirt being around me? I know it's good to be clean anyways, but can atypicals have an obsession with it?

I can't speak for other people so I'll just talk about myself. In my case, I like to keep my desk, bedroom, and home nice and neat because I find order and organization relaxing. It's calming. Having things tidy and organized doesn't distract me. I know where everything is and why I put it there in that exact place so I can easily find it later.

But clutter distracts me. A lot. Clutter and disorganization annoys me so much that if I'm in a room that's a mess, I can't really concentrate or focus on other things until that room is cleaned up. Now, this is within reason. I mean, if I'm at work in an office that's cluttered where I have no control over the mess then I'll just power through and tune out the disorder. But I wouldn't be comfortable there. I just know that I function better in organization.

I've had people make comments about my overly-cleanliness at work or whatever. Some people thought I was weird for being too clean. But, hey, that's how I roll. I like to keep things so fresh and so clean.

EDIT: I also wanted to add that I don't consider my interest in cleanliness to be an obsession. I think of it more as a preference. I prefer organization over a lack thereof.

 

[sneaky snek]

I couldn't keep my place clean consistently to save my life. I'm a master at mild garbage parkour

 

[Progster]

My house is clean, just not particularly tidy.

 

[Nervous Rex]

Do atypicals have this obsession with keeping everything neat around them? I always keep my car clean and house, because I can't stand a little dirt being around me? I know it's good to be clean anyways, but can atypicals have an obsession with it?

Some places, yes. Others, no. I like a clean car - I'm constantly checking to see what trash my children have left in the back and removing it.

My desk at work and my desk at home are both always a big mess.