anxiety over clean spaces

I thought i'd put this out their just to see what people's responses are,

I have a phobia when it comes to clean rooms/ areas.

when people ask me to explain better, I always say it's like OCD in reverse... OCD people need everything clean and tidy, yet that's the thing that makes me anxious.

I can't actually be in a room that's been cleaned with cleaning stuff, vacumed, or has everything put away. I find myself getting violent if i'm met with this sort of circumstance.

I wanted to put this out their to see what people think, and if anyone else has this?

(it seems weird to even me, and i'm the 1 that deals with it)

i should add that I do have anxiety around being clean myself, but then again a lot of that is down to body issues and how I hate myself

again, it's a little like OCD in reverse though.. I mean I can shower, but then I can't touch anything in case it gets infected with, well I don't know, something

Thats interesting. I feel very uncomfortable in such situations myself. As if i dont belong there.

This reminds me of a funny incident from the past. At work I tend to be OCDish, but not at home. Once, a coworker came to my house and when she walked in she heaved a loud sigh of relief and said "I was so afraid your house would be super clean, maybe even plastic on the furniture." But it wasn't, and she was comfortable....I had been a little nervous that she would think it messy...

someone just walked past wearing a perfume that smelled like clean bedding.

I want to gag. why would anyone choose to smell like that

Me too! I used to sweep the floor at beauty school, a couple of times the real cleaning people skipped washing the floor on our side because i swept it so thoroughly, they thought it had already been washed! The other students and teachers were like, wow your house must be really clean! Ha if they only knew.

(((Sanity))) maybe thats the new dryer sheets. Your clothes keep giving off smells. I dont think thats good for people, frankly.

I am uncomfortable around perfection. Does that count? I am afraid I am going to put something out of place, dirty it, or somehow mar what is a perfect state. It's like being at someone's perfectly clean house and helping myself to a drink of water. Oh gosh, now I'm left with not only a dirty glass but water puddles in what was a scoured out sink. What do I do? Do I find the dish detergent a cloth and wash the glass?l Do I leave the glass on the counter at the edge of the sink? Do I leave it in the sink? What do I do. I get so anxious that - even when I am desperate - I just don't ask for a glass of water.

I can relate to this. I spent my childhood and young adulthood being clean to a fault. That's how my childhood home was and how I was expected to be to get approval from my parents. As I've gotten older I have gone the opposite. I had to learn to let it go and let things be messy, and I am glad I did. It is so much less stress and has separated me mentally from the person I had to be as a child. When I am in a place that is so clean that it reminds me of my childhood, it makes me uncomfortable. I am happier in a messier state of things.

You are right there. I grew up in a perfectly clean house. Mom was always doing housework - when she wasn't entertaining the bridge club with port or sherry. She was fastidious. Every thing was gleaming. The bathrooms were scoured daily. The oven a fridge yanked out from the wall continuously. She did laundry everyday - starching and ironing even socks and underwear. We always got new underwear regularly so she could have the whitest laundry out to dry on the block. It was all about what would other people think.

I think i'd be too anxious to enter that house.

no, I know I would be

I am bumping this thread.

any other responses or ideas to make the anxiety lessen

Hi again. I am now wondering how this might relate to OCD? Obsessive compulsivity isn't just about the individual being a clean freak - it can be the opposite too. Again, I suggest that there is something more comforting about being in a space that is imperfect.

Perhaps you are in a position of putting something out of place. Even a book moved out of place or a remote control put askew might help? Have you tried more conventional anxiety coping mechanisms? I still rely on a worry stone or piece of fabric in my pocket. Perhaps scrutinize the room in order to find an imperfection and take solace that not everything is as it should be (a great place to focus is a floor board).