Ask Lemmy

As a German myself, not really.

reads title again

My personal experience spending time with people with germaphobia:

• They have no idea where germs actually are or how germs are transmitted. They just do specific things that they assume "clean", or avoid specific things that they assume "dirty"
• They share similarities with people with OCD

Phobias are by definition irrational.

Mysophobia as in constantly washing my hands and not being able to concentrate when I didn't shower. Camping and festivals were hell. This was in my teens, then I got drafted and three months of boot camp fixed it. Shock therapy works.

I had moderate mysophobia as a child to young adult. I wouldn't share food or drinks due to a fear of mouth bacteria (and would throw it away if someone else helped themselves to it), I'd excessively clean dishes and cooking surfaces, wash my hands multiple times if I touched something I considered contaminated, cooked meat until it was beyond well done, etc.

It got way better after I went to college for microbiology. Actually understanding microbes helped immensely. I'm still a little weird about other people's bodily fluids, especially saliva, but otherwise probably care less than many people about "germs". I uphold much higher standards for other people's food, but I'll (conditionally) eat food I dropped on the floor, cook my chicken to a bit less than 74°C and eat blue rare steak, ferment my own foods and brew my own alcohol, pull mold off my bread or cheese and eat the rest, and I now wash my hands an appropriate amount.

I can't say no fucks given, but instead a situationally appropriate amount of fucks given, with a lot of extra leeway due to uncommonly advanced knowledge.

(Obvious joke about Germans)

Not really, I was really weird about showering for a while, I have kind of accepted that I need to be somewhat clean to have a proper, productive, happy day. Although I believe that being used to it plays a huge role.

There was a small pandemic I think. That gave most folks Germaphobia

I waste a bit of time washing my hands and keeping rules like things that have been on the floor don't go onto the kitchen counters. But I very rarely get sick so maybe it's working.

Luvox/Fluvoxamine

Not as severe as the actual condition, however when one of my childhood cats was hit by a car, I tried to check her pulse and blood splurted from her ear onto my hand. For several years afterwards I would constantly wash my hands, moreso when I was stressed/anxious. I would wash them with soap, then wash them again. Sometimes I would dry them, and then go back to wash them again.
Psychedelics helped me realise the fear of 'always having her blood on my hands', in a very serious and confrontational manner to my trauma. It's difficult to explain the mental journey to rewire the habit away, though ultimately I began to understand an aspect of my plight as a source to the action.