Sanitary Compulsive Disorder

     Ever since amoebas evolved and contorted into species of the animal Kingdom, mouths (or a digestive organ resembling one) have been swallowing more than just a good meal in and of itself.  The further one looks back in time, the less likely it becomes, that proper dinner table etiquette was practiced by the human species. The body’s outer layer of skin has long been the first-line of defense against microorganisms, but a body has several orifices that give germs an easy route to the internal immunity defense system.

     In my workplace environment, as well as many others, there are differing sanitation habits when dealing with the handling of food brought in for a co-worker or co-workers.  Potlucks are a popular form of getting the whole office together for a favorite ritual: eating.  In the break room on a  long table lays a smorgasbord of edibles.  A compulsive disorder can be a nightmare for someone.  If the hand of someone else reaches into a bread bag to retrieve a slice of bread, or reaches for “finger foods” on a tray bare fingered, a sterile addict may scream bloody murder and embarrass this poor unsanitary soul.  When does being reasonably clean become compulsory?  Where is the line drawn?  A famous pop star icon had a compulsive cleaning disorder which no one would have paid any attention to if not for the air filtering mask he wore in front of all cameras to capture a snapshot.

     Germs and bacteria clash with a living being’s immune system not only through the intake of food and drink, but also through the air that they breathe.  A person with a compulsive cleaning disorder attempts to rid the interior of a house entirely of all viruses, germs and bacteria once and for all.  There is nothing wrong with the desire to keep a clean and tidy house according to ones aspiration and pride.  It becomes an addiction when a person imagines the house to be swarming with filthiness even after the house has been sanitized from top to bottom.  A compulsive cleaner does overkill and spend an exorbitant amount of time cleaning.

     A body’s immune system has been the hidden, lean, mean fighting machine that has been warding off germs, viruses, and bacteria for millions of years.  As millennia have come and gone, non-humans have fundamentally maintained the same hygienic habits as their ancestors.  Humans have not been so fortunate.  The more man evolves, the more man learns about germs, viruses and bacteria and how to sterilize direct or indirect links to the body.  The home will become cleaner and cleaner, and our immune systems will become lazier and unmotivated and increasingly docile.  Children especially, need exposure to bacteria in order for their immune systems to develop properly.  Children can become susceptible to asthma, allergies and additional more severe medical conditions, if not allowed to let their built-in defense mechanism to do its intended function.  Some microorganisms have become anti-biotic resistant or have arrived on the scene recently and have not been given the opportunity to be fought against.  Other bacteria have mutated into more deadly forms on their own.  Paranoid, uneducated people, who think there are deadly organisms ingested with every bite they take, inhaled with every breath they take or transferred to their body with every handshake or bathroom door touched, are actually defeating the purpose of the immune system.  To not let the immune system do its intended job is to cripple it.  “Use it or lose it” is a relative motto.

     The evolutionary process will continue to run its course as long as there are living things on earth.  I’m just fearful that too many people are giving germs more credit than they deserve and are trying too hard to assist the immune system in fighting off intruders.

     Treating a compulsive disorder as an addiction and affording the addict adequate counseling to come to a reasonable middle ground will turn back the clocks of time and allow the once mighty immune system to run its course and provide evolutionary protection against the invading enemy.  Our descendant’s lives may depend on it.