Germ Phobia

Germ phobia is prevalent in today’s society, and some might even say overarching. Just look at the myriad of advertisements touting cleaners that “kill germs,” or are “antibacterial.” Of course, we all want to live in a clean environment, but some might say that this focus has gone to obsession for society at large.

For actual sufferers of germ phobia, people are so afraid of germs that it limits their daily lives.

One of the most well known germ phobics was Howard Hughes, who became so obsessed with germs that he could not bathe, eat most foods, or drink most beverages, germs being literally everywhere he touched, and eventually, he became entirely confined to a single room on his hotel floor.

Germ phobia is very real and relatively common, and often goes hand-in-hand with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Germ phobia can range from relatively mild, where one might simply be afraid to use public toilets, for example, without some type of barrier, like a toilet seat cover or even a sheet of toilet paper, or it can be so severe as to be completely debilitating, in which individuals with germ phobia cannot leave their homes, and may themselves actually live in filth, as Howard Hughes did, because they cannot touch anything for fear of catching germs.

There is help, but like obsessive-compulsive disorder, germ phobia does not respond all that well to conventional treatment, which includes both immersion therapy and medication.

Oftentimes, sufferers must simply learn to live with its symptoms, but will still be somewhat uncomfortable. They are doing well if they can simply function and live a relatively normal life, but will still probably have some underlying anxiety that they must simply cope with.

The most common form of treatment for germ phobia is immersion therapy, which involves exposing the sufferer gradually over time to the situation that he or she fears most, germs.

It may start with something relatively simple, such as picking up a piece of paper off the floor and tossing it in the trashcan, and then not washing their hands. It can then progress to things like being able to use a public telephone without obsessively washing hands afterward.

Of course, “germ phobia,” as stated above, is actually becoming a societal problem at large. The myriad of antibacterial and germicidal products on the market may actually be contributing not only to germ phobia, but to illness.

This is because most products on the market do not kill 100% of bacteria (which should not occur, anyway); instead, they only kill the most susceptible bacteria, and leave the more virulent bacteria plenty of room to multiply.

Another problem with this approach is that as more and more bacteria are killed in our environment, we are not exposed to them and our immunities are not sufficiently challenged, so that we remain healthy in the face of regular exposure to illness.

In fact, this is optimal, because we need to be exposed to illness from other people on a regular basis just to keep our immune systems properly functioning.

However, with the current and supposedly societally prevalent germ phobia, we do not get this exposure as much, and therefore, we can become sicker not only because the germs we are exposed to can be more virulent, as explained above, but because we are not exposed to them often enough to maintain our immunities.

Therefore, it is also prudent that society at large not become germ phobic, and that those individuals with the existing phobia be treated so that they can function as normally as possible.