Many of us like to keep a clean and tidy home, but there can be a difference between this, and obsessively keeping a home clean.
If you have an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (or OCD) that revolves around cleaning your home, you doubtless recognize the fact but may not know how to help stop it. Here are a few tips and pointers that may help you to break the cycle of obsessive cleaning:
Try to relax before the compulsion to clean:
With any OCD, they thrive on anxiety and stress and when it takes over, the action involved is an attempt to pacify that stress. Relaxing is one of the best ways of dissipating the stress and anxiety that you’re feeling, instead of performing an action such as cleaning, but not everyone knows how to relax.
Try listening to a relaxation CD before you begin feeling the need to alleviate your stress and anxiety through cleaning, and even if you still feel compelled to clean after you’ve finished relaxing, you’ll probably find that the intensity will be less.
Break the obsessive routine:
While a cleaning habit is in no way the same as a drug habit, the two need to be challenged in a similar way. Stopping cold turkey can be too much to cope with, so try to break the habit gradually. This could begin by you starting to clean later than you normally would, and then changing the order in which you clean, and so on.
Look at your life as a whole:
It may be that your compulsion to clean is a symptom of some wider anxieties in your life, and it may be helpful to try and tackle those to help stop your obsessive cleaning cycle.
Ask yourself if you have an irrational fear of contamination:
A fear of contamination from germs, bacteria and dirt can take over a person’s life, and if you feel that this may be the case for you, then why not seek professional help from a solution-focused therapist who may use hypnotherapy to help you overcome your fixation.
What are you really afraid of?
Often, our obsessions are fuelled by fear, and if the thought of not cleaning makes you anxious, try focusing intensely on what might happen or how you might feel, if you didn’t clean for one day. Ask yourself what would realistically happen, and over time you should begin to realise that it’s your fear of not cleaning that is the driving force behind your obsession.
Ending an obsessive disorder won’t happen overnight, and for some, the process may take months and even years, but every process has a beginning and taking the first steps towards living without such a disorder, could be the beginning of the rest of your life without fear and anxiety ruling you. Failing an effective remedy, simply hand over the reins to a professional cleaning service and let them keep your home clean for you.
Getting over compulsive cleaning doesn’t happen overnight (although it can do, on occasion). But when you find the doorway out of the compulsion (which is closer than you think), you’ll always be pleased you did.