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DaughterOfAule
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19 Jul 2016, 1:54 am

Is anyone here good at cleaning and being hygienic?

I have always taken showers when I needed to, washed my hair/face, brushed teeth, did laundry, etc. I actually don't like the smell of day old clothes (I can wear pants a few days though) and I can't sleep in my bed if I don't take a shower. One reason is that I feel so gross I can't fall asleep, the other is I feel like my bed gets dirty if I don't take a shower first. I'm atually quite protective of my bed in general, no one can't sit on it or anything. I am not like this with couches and other furniture. If I am tired enough, as in absolutely exhausted, I'll sleep in my bed without showering and wash the sheets the next day. I get all itchy if I don't shower and wash my hair every day. I also vacuum a lot and wear socks so crumbs and things don't stick to my feet. I organise almost everything into my own kind of system, it looks kind of cluttered but its clean, no trash, and everything is folded and stacked nicely. I find that if things are a mess it is chaos for my brain, there is no order, and I feel agitated. There a lot of other examples, but that is the gist of it.

I'm curious if anyone else doesn't fit the stereotype of someone with asd who has a hard time with hygiene and things related to cleanliness.


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Chichikov
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19 Jul 2016, 2:22 am

Sounds like possible OCD to me.



Redxk
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19 Jul 2016, 2:37 am

OCD, while a separate diagnosis, is frequently found in addition to the ASD. My HFA diagnosis includes a "with obsessive compulsive behaviors" (just shy of an OCD diagnosis). I am especially concerned about my hands and nails these days, and arrange my things in color spectrum order if possible. Once upon a time I couldn't stand for people to touch me, but the ability to moderate my "behaviors" is what keeps me from an actual OCD label.



kraftiekortie
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19 Jul 2016, 5:34 am

I'm moderately sucky at cleaning---but I keep myself clean.



Joe90
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19 Jul 2016, 6:08 am

I make sure I wash every day in a shower or bath, and I wear perfume. I hate being smelly and dirty.

I am not house-proud, dust and dirt doesn't really bother me, so when I do house-clean I sort of do it half-arsed. I must admit I do like the place looking clean after, but I'm the "only house-clean when I feel like it" type of person.


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kraftiekortie
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19 Jul 2016, 7:11 am

I'm not thrilled with dust---but I'm not thrilled with the process of getting rid of it LOL

It's a game of emphasis with me: do I want to watch the telly, or do I want to get rid of the dust? Most of the time, the telly wins.



Caz72
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19 Jul 2016, 12:29 pm

Im into beauty I love grooming myself every day and making sure I have a bath or shower every night, and I do make-up.

I am also quite strict with keeping my bungalow where I live clean and tidy. I hate mess and dirt. I am not one of those obsessive cleaners but I am borderline.



MadFialka
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19 Jul 2016, 1:20 pm

I'm very similar to the original poster. I shower everyday (often twice), I have the same sense of my bed being 'contaminated' - though I was a lot worse about this when I was in my teens and younger. Shoes are not allowed inside my apartment, and I even go so far as to change my clothes when I come home from work because I hate the idea of lounging around my house in the same clothes I wore out there because ew. (Also, comfort reasons.) I can't stand feeling sticky/sweaty/dusty, etc.

I hesitate to call this OCD, because it doesn't really have a detrimental impact on my life and I can temporarily overlook things in order to get through my day if needed. My boyfriend occasionally teases me about it, but he'll humor me even when he thinks I'm being silly.

I would love to have a pristinely clean house at all times, but the reality is, it's hard to motivate myself to clean. I get really anxious when it gets messy but my executive function issues sometimes prevent me from doing something about it. I do get to it eventually, and them I'm very thorough. Until I get overwhelmed and give up halfway... It's a vicious cycle :lol: And as for being organized - I'm great at organizing, enjoy doing it even, but... I'm terrible at maintaining it for long. Of course, having another person mess up whatever I organized is absolutely unacceptable :D



kraftiekortie
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19 Jul 2016, 1:53 pm

I don't want to spend more than a couple of hours at a time cleaning.

I dislike "projects" intensely.



sonicallysensitive
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19 Jul 2016, 4:36 pm

DaughterOfAule wrote:
Is anyone here good at cleaning and being hygienic?


Very much so.

Very tidy at home, very conscious of personal hygiene etc.

Very neat in all respects.



'...You have OCD!'

Oh be quiet! Ask anyone with OCD and they'll tell you OCD is certainly more than being neat & tidy - just as autism is more than lining things up.

Claims of OCD commonly made by messy buggers :)

(I joke - don't take the above seriously)



Chichikov
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19 Jul 2016, 5:14 pm

sonicallysensitive wrote:
Ask anyone with OCD and they'll tell you OCD is certainly more than being neat & tidy

I just re-read the thread and can't see where anyone said that being neat and tidy alluded to OCD?



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19 Jul 2016, 5:58 pm

I can't stand clutter and messes so I clean them up before they get any worse. I clean everyday to keep the place clean. it's not perfect because I am too lazy to keep it as a display in the magazine. I have to clean again in a few minutes. I am not extreme anymore as I used to be. I had to shower every night as a kid and teen or else I would feel dirty and have a hard time sleeping. I had to clean the house or else it would drive me crazy because I couldn't stand dishes in the sink or dirt on the door or any crumbs on the counter or spots on the floor. I would say me liking things so neat came to a point where it was OCD because I was imposing it on my family and getting upset if the house wasn't clean because they didn't pick up after themselves, and I would want to do other things but couldn't because I had to take care of the mess first before I relax. It all started with wanting my family to be like everyone else in our neighborhood because everyone had perfect homes so I wanted a perfect home too so we would be like everyone else instead of a strange family. But then we moved and no one had perfect homes but I still wanted a clean home. That obsession didn't stop. Now my mom gets on my back about the house not being clean sometimes and I say I am not OCD about it anymore. The thing is I liked having a clean house and I asked about it on a OCD form on Reddit and they said it it possible to like your compulsions. It's like you like jumping in the pool but you don't like to get wet. That is how compulsions work. I liked a clean house but I didn't like how it was messy and the fact it would take up my time because my family wouldn't keep it neat. They didn't want to keep the house looking like a palace for me so I can be all calm and anxiety free. If I lived on my own, then it wouldn't have been a problem. But then I wonder about autism because what happens when you interfere with an autistic person's routine and move their stuff around and stuff, I am sure they would get distressed too and not be able to move on until it's fixed and if they had to go on with their day without doing one thing in their routine, their day is off. I am still trying to figure out the difference here and what it means to me and how it fits and what they mean by OCD being part of Asperger's. Is it because I like it and it relaxes me but then again it also causes me distress so it's both? But then again mess up the autistic person's routine and see what happens. Is it OCD now? Linda in the movie Snow Cake reminded me a lot about me because of the way she had her house and she would also freak out with shoes on the floor and she freaked out when a dog peed on her rug like I would freak out when our puppy would pee in our house. I even wondered if she also had OCD that was associated with her autism because of the way she would react.


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DaughterOfAule
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19 Jul 2016, 6:06 pm

While I am sure I have ocd (not diagnosed, but I do things over and over to prevent things even though I know its illogical. Mainly has to do with the fact that I am emetophobic. ) I don't think I'm this way because of the ocd. I just don't like the feeling of being unclean, I feel itchy, sticky, and gross. Making my bed perfect kind of turned into an obsessive ritual, but I don't like other people touching my bed because they'll get perfume smell, cat hair, or other foreign things on my bed, these things bother my senses, its not really about the germs. Also, while I feel I have to have individual things turned at a certain angle (part of the ocd), I organize things because I like to have them that way, not because I feel I have to have them organised as a whole. I'm not a clean freak, but I like to feel clean, and clean a bit more than some people I know. If one of my cats coughs up a hairball, I'll clean it up but I don't freak out.

One reason I think it has more to do with senses is that my mother's living room always feels messy to me and I only recently thought it might be because there are so many textures and patterns in the room. I don't love the colors, the carpet, rug, walls, and couches are all matching, but different textures. It feels cluttered even though my room is a lot more cluttered than my mother's living room and I love my room.


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League_Girl
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19 Jul 2016, 6:17 pm

A hairball is different than urine. Hairball doesn't stick to the rug, with urine, it's smelly and it's gross and you have to clean it up using rags and stuff and then cleaning stuff and then dealing with the smell. I have picked up dog poo and cat poo without freaking out because it didn't stick to the rug.


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Daughter: NT, no diagnoses. Possibly OCD. Is very private about herself.


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19 Jul 2016, 6:38 pm

Yes I have a clean and tidy appartment. I have made routines, so I know what to do, when. If I didn't have the routines it would probably be total chaos, and I think I would feel more stress.

Sometimes I skip showering if I'm just going to stay home alone, and sometimes toothbrushing, but as rarely as possible I don't want to spend a lot of money on dentists.



DaughterOfAule
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20 Jul 2016, 2:57 am

League_Girl wrote:
A hairball is different than urine. Hairball doesn't stick to the rug, with urine, it's smelly and it's gross and you have to clean it up using rags and stuff and then cleaning stuff and then dealing with the smell. I have picked up dog poo and cat poo without freaking out because it didn't stick to the rug.

I understand and agree that urine is worse than a hairball. I was more using it as an example (since multiple cats mean hairballs are a common thing at our house) of me not being a clean freak, as in I don't freak out if everything is not perfectly clean.
I have one cat that if she gets mad she pees in the pantry or in a random corner of the house, which I do clean up pretty quick so the urine smell doesn't soak in.


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"I do not wish to evade the world
Yet I will forever build my own" - Tuomas Holopainen