I’m wondering if it’s the stuff they have at hospitals and doctors’ offices. It’s a foam and it smells wonderful. When I was volunteering at a local hospital, we had to use it if we weren’t able to wash our hands, and I loved that stuff.
I have OCD, but I’ve never been a germaphobe. I’m of the wash my hands after I use the bathroom, sneeze, cough, clean out the litter box, etc. And I don’t eat food I find on the ground. (People do that?)
But one person’s germaphobe is always going to be another person’s slob.
I remember when I was in school and we were learning about mental disorders and the like, and a teacher told us about a student they had – he had to be watched so he wouldn’t be in the bathroom during recess, washing his pencils and crayons, etc. That’s sad. shrugs
Something that hasn’t been mentioned yet is a weird neurotic-type thing I have, where I just don’t want to touch/use some things after someone else has done it. It isn’t about germs, but about the other person’s essence (for lack of a better term) being on the item.
I think when we were little we called them cooties. I just have a weird desire to avoid that. Of course, it’s kind of insane, but harmless insane. I won’t freak out if I can’t avoid doing it.
NietyWt, you’ve reminded me of a customer that my sister who sells hand-made jewellery had - she asked my sister if she was thinking positive thoughts while she made the jewellery, because she didn’t want to buy any gemstone jewellery with negative energy in it. Um, okay.
While the two are obviously not the same thing, behavior that appears to be motivated by fears of microbes could simply be OCD, couldn’t it? I mean, I think of OCD as (often) irrational habitual actions that become necessary for a person to be at ease. Using hand sanitizer before every time I touch my car’s steering wheel–even though I’m the only one who drives the car–doesn’t necessarily have to do with any thought of germs at all. To others, it can pass as concern (whether reasonable or not) for hygiene, when that’s not really what’s happening. I just cannot touch the steering wheel until I use the hand sanitizer. It’s an entrenched habit.
I reckon it seems similar, but I don’t think I could detect negative thoughts or anything like that. And, cloth or other fuzzy things are worse than smooth, hard things. F’rinstance, a used bead bracelet would feel more “okay” than a second-hand cashmere sweater.
It is a preference though, not a requirement. That’s why I don’t dwell too much on it, just a quirk.
I’m a bit of a germophobe nowadays because wrestling mats and athletic equipment, as well as the guys I share them with, are always sweaty and occassionally bloodied and thus a potential Grand Central Station for MRSA.
No, the people who follow Qadgop’s guidelines are NOT mocked.
Go back and read Qadgop’s post in this thread - he spoke of proper hygene, not nonsense like disinfecting doorknobs and telephones (unless you’re a clinic). The people who follow the fallacy he mentions in his first sentence - those are the people who are mocked.
I wouldn’t describe myself as a germaphobe, but to those who mock certain precautions – the only way you learn is by getting really sick. For example, you might eat food that has sat out overnight, re-heating until is it warm and not hot, until you get unlucky with days of explosive diarrhea and vomiting. You might not worry about properly handling meats until you get salmonella or ecoli. You might not worry about catching someone’s flu until you happen to get one of the particularly bad strains. Etc. Etc. Some don’t ever get unlucky. Some do. When you do, you don’t have want to make that mistake again.
Yes. No. I’m not from here, though, and have only been here for three of all my years, the rest of which were spent in California, and I still think pre-warmed seats are flippin’ sweet.
This is similar to how I am. I wash my hands after going to the bathroom, use a paper towel to turn off the faucet and open the door, hate touching doorknobs and other peoples’ phones, remote controls, etc. And when it gets down to it, it’s not the germs so much as clammy human fluids that smell like sweaty skin crevices that grosses me out. If someone doesn’t wash their hands after going to the bathroom, their hands probably have some sort of sweaty crotch smell (no matter how faint it is) and I don’t want it on me or my stuff.
Of course, with certain people, that’s not an issue-- I have willingly put my hands and mouth directly on certain peoples’ sweaty… well suffice to say that intimacy plays a role in it. I don’t like chairs warmed by the body of a stranger, but if it’s the body heat of a lover, then it’s quite nice. I just don’t want to be one degree of separation away from most peoples’ assholes. It just seems like the courteous thing to do is to keep your germs and residues to yourself.
Oh, and I have no problem eating raw eggs or food that has been left out overnight.
I with the OP on this. We have this whole generation of people who think they’re supposed to be afraid to touch anything now. It is a social pathology. The way to not get sick is to build a strong immune system, not to go around using paper towels to turn doorknobs.
Hand sanitizer doesn’t do anything, by the way. Just FYI. It’s a total scam.
That’s my ex, an otherwise reasonable and sane woman. She’s a hand sanitizer fanatic, and I still give her a hard time about it. She regales in news stories about how how saliva, urine and feces is everywhere in the environment, how everyday household objects have more bacteria than toilet seats, and so on.
