Washing your hands every 10 minutes, every time you touch something or someone, showering several times a day out of sheer anxiety, or wiping your face when your nerves are pressing are some of the actions or compulsions that cause ablutomania. When a quirk or peculiarity becomes an obsession and is done compulsively, it is when we can speak of mania in psychological or psychiatric terms. And you have to seek treatment. We tell you everything about ablutomania or the chronic obsession with washing every so often in our dictionary of hobbies.
What is ablutomania
- Ablutomania is the chronic obsession with washing. The word is a combination of the Greek “manía”, which means madness, insanity or state of rage, and the Latin “abluere” in its meaning of washing. We are not talking about a strange, particular or eccentric behavior, which is the other definition of mania, but about a very dangerous anxiety disorder.
- People with ablutomania continually wash their hands or bathe many times a day. They do it obsessively and also compulsively, as in a kind of ritual that if they don’t comply, it will cause them serious damage. Some hobbies like this obsession with personal hygiene are closely related to phobias.
- If you have a phobia of dirt or what is known as mysophobia, it is possible that you develop, in addition to the phobic disorder, this habit of washing yourself continuously. We insist that we must not get carried away by the more popular term of mania and we must take it as a real problem that must be overcome.
The danger of ablutomania
- It might seem that this habit of washing constantly is nothing more than a healthy habit taken to the extreme. After all, cleaning is important, as is avoiding the danger of bacteria, but the key is obsession and compulsion. This brings ablutomania dangerously close to obsessive-compulsive disorder.
- The implications of this mania are alarming. Repetitive action, obsessive thoughts and compulsive behavior impose many limitations on the life of the person who suffers from it. And so, what at first may seem like a particular or extravagant habit begins to have a negative impact on the social, work, and personal spheres.
- Some hobbies have more negative consequences than others. Some manias manifest their devastating effects sooner than others. But all of them end up altering the mental state of that person. The anxiety component that accompanies any mania cannot be ignored and is one of the most important aspects when looking for the most appropriate therapy.
How to treat ablutomania
- Suffering from a mania is something that generates a lot of misunderstanding, which only aggravates the problem. As with phobias, anxiety problems or depression, the person who suffers from it finds himself facing a problem that others barely understand.
- That is why psychological help is necessary. You cannot overcome a mania on your own, with willpower or with self-help books. A professional will be able to find out the origin of this disorder and choose the most appropriate therapy in a personalized way.
- In general, cognitive behavioral therapy is the most used for both cases of mania and phobic disorders. Everything begins by transforming that first distorted thought that leads you to the need to continually wash yourself, to gauge the danger in its proper measure and to observe the situation from a more objective perspective.
- Once the obsession is understood and stripped of its need character, the compulsive behavior can be modified. Treatment for ablutomania takes a while. A time that you can take advantage of to learn some strategies such as relaxation techniques in order to reduce the level of anxiety.