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Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

Hi, I have just joined. I have a few mental illnesses, but am especially interested in hearing if there are any diagnosed germophobes or people with hoarding disorder on these forums?

I don't know any germophobes in real life, and would be interested to know how any of you pre-Corona germophobes are doing. Can you find enough sanitiser? If not, what are you using instead? Has your germophobia gone sky-high in this pandemic? Do you find it less or more lonely now that nearly everyone is a self-confessed germophobe?

My germophobia is quite bad - I can't have anyone in my house, and need lots of sanitiser when I go out. E.g. I use it after leaving my house and before I get in the car; again before I touch the steering wheel, again after touching my purse, again before putting my seat belt on, etc. I am struggling to find enough sanitiser. If I run out, I was thinking about diluting some disinfectant and putting it into an old water bottle to take out with me. I had one really bad panic lasting 3 days that was debilitating, due to COVID-19, but after that thankfully my germophobia came back down to normal levels. I guess normal levels are not that great but at least I am used to them!

I am strangely finding it more lonely as a diagnosed germophobe now, and would really like to meet some other germophobes online and hear how you're going. At least I had a friend tell me that I was in a stronger position than him, during this health crisis, as he had trouble remembering to wash his hands, whereas I wash them a hundred times a day already!

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In response to: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

A couple of months - could be worse, could be better I guess @Dimity . A lot of pressure on you 😢

Thanks re S.A.D.

Good luck today with your health (pain levels) and the decluttering...

In response to: Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

Hello @NatureLover @Dimity @creative_writer @Shaz51 ,

How are you all going today?

Yes, Melb has been cold lately, but at least there's sunshine right now. Just gotta be grateful for small mercies, eh?

In response to: Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

Hi @tyme, I’m okay, a bit scatterminded right now, probably uni overload. How are you?

In response to: Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

@tyme yes I'm grateful for sunshine too.

@NatureLover I'm feeling a bit concerned for you re your box storage. I hope you'll get enough notice if your neighbour doesn't renew their lease.

I'm trying very hard to get back into decluttering but it's confronting as I'm re-engaging with past lives.that I'd compartmentalised and shut off. I'm mostly trying to deal with files at the moment - I have so many It's hard to see progress.

Good luck with your work tomorrow @NatureLover .

In response to: Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

@tyme and @Dimity - yes, very grateful for the sunshine! Makes everything look better and more hopeful.

In response to: Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

Hi @Dimity , I'm grateful for your kind thoughts. But please don't worry about my box storage...I'm trying not to think about it till I need to. You've reminded me though to check in with my neighbour as to her thoughts about possibly moving.

At the moment I'm just worrying about "maintaining" the house as neat. Am not getting ahead with any sorting or cleaning, but I figure that changing my habit of living in a messy house to living in a neat one would be a major victory.


@Dimity wrote:

I'm trying very hard to get back into decluttering but it's confronting as I'm re-engaging with past lives.that I'd compartmentalised and shut off.


Yes, this is a problem. I can relate. Unfortunately getting rid of things is not a matter of just throwing them out - I needed to process my thoughts regarding the item, plus its history and meaning. And when these were troublesome, it was a huge deal facing them. You have my empathy @Dimity 🫂

I feel for you as you are battling on so many fronts 😢

In response to: Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

@NatureLover I hope you had a good day.

I agree re a change of mindset to maintaining neatness. I don't buy much any more so it's mainly trying to put things away as I go and trying to keep up with chores. But I'm starting well behind the baseline and have a bad habit of unpacking stuff into living areas. And I know what you mean about processing stuff. It's why I do best when I'm working steadily a little each day rather than working in big bursts.

In response to: Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

It's funny, @Dimity - the same difficulty with processing items leads me to work in big bursts and you to work in small daily amounts! 🙂

I don't have the diacipline you do, plus I need to work up to what I call a "ruthless" feeling.

I had to leave work early yesterday as 2 people came in sick. It's not just my germophobia - it's also the fact I have severe asthma. It was stressful.

Good luck today with your decluttering...

In response to: Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

P.S. @Dimity Thank you for your brilliant idea of putting the new guidelines into 3 parts 🙂

In response to: Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

Re: Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

@NatureLover sorry to hear about yesterday. You definitely need to be careful. There are so many respiratory viruses around. There seem to be combined flu/covid/RSV tests now. A friend seems to use them quite often as she's very susceptible.

I had gp yesterday and vet today and haven't had the capacity to declutter as well. I'll try to get back to it tomorrow. I seem to have a lot of admin stuff to do as well.

Fingers crossed you didn't pick up an infection yesterday.

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