'Doctor, you must have heard that Diwali work is done at home, but have you ever seen Diwali work for twelve months? May my perfectionist wife Manaswi always be like that. She is so much a cleanliness lover that she might get a gold medal for cleanliness.' Ronakbhai started talking. 'Cleanliness is a good thing, what's the problem?' I asked. 'Hey, everyone likes to be clean, but isn't it too much to clean things that have been cleaned once?' Right now we are the only two people in our house. Our son studies in America. Now, when it is time for us to enjoy life, Manasvi is under so much stress that he does not ask. We have an in-house chef, round-the-clock maid and driver. There are also separate men for retail work. You will believe! All these get tired in no time. Shethani's sheer torture and crud is so intense that I have to find new staff every few months. Our ten-year-old daughter also lost her job in the last six months and quit her job. Arbitrarily scolds everyone for dirtiness. I also got caught up in that cleanliness drive. Suddenly he gets a wave in his mind that a certain thing or place is spoiled, then he cleans it by any means. Whatever may have gone wrong elsewhere, I am disturbed by these thoughts of a certain filth madam in a certain place.' 'So I am not enjoying all this either.' Interrupting Ronakbhai's talk, Manswibe began to tell her grief. 'Doctor, to be honest, I know this is all a bit too much, but I can't help it. Unless I clean the house myself, I don't get chained. I don't trust people these days. I feel like there must be garbage, dust or insects somewhere. And it is possible that someone in the house will get an infection due to this. Even if I don't want to, such thoughts forcefully enter my mind. I even get angry with myself sometimes. I cry alone. I know, Ronak loves me a lot. He has full support but there is a problem in my mind.' Mansavibehan is true. Intense recurring thoughts of such filth have only been for the past six months. This problem is known as 'obsessive compulsive disorder'. Only when the problem is limited to repetitive thoughts is it said to be at the 'obsessive' level. But, when those thoughts compel a person to perform a certain repetitive action, it is called the 'compulsive' level. Thus, two to three percent of the world's total population suffer from this. Sometimes this number is seen up to ten percent. It has various biological and psychological causes. An important detail came to light during Manswibehan's psychotherapy. When his son was in school, he used to go to that job due to financial difficulties at home. The son had to be left alone with a nanny. Then it happened that since the college was brilliant, he went to study abroad on a scholarship. After his departure, the feeling of loneliness and depression increased. Somewhere along the way, she began to feel guilty about not paying enough attention to herself while raising her son. It started to happen that everything went wrong because of me and I could not give full motherhood and care to my child. Gradually, the pressure of thinking that I have to completely organize my life increased from the unconscious mind to remove the old disorder. The idea of having everything organized and methodical came out as a mania for cleanliness. And then it was out of control. Dirty thoughts began to creep into the mind. So to get rid of it, the problem of organizing or cleaning everything was increasing. Psychiatry has improved this state of self-deprecation. The use of cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness has shown great improvement. SSRI type drugs are also useful for this problem if needed. Through psychotherapy, Mansvibehan's guilt and depression have started to decrease rapidly and the pressure of this cleanliness has now been removed from Ronakbhai as well. This Diwali, the cleanliness of the mind is more useful than the house. Winning stroke 'Umr bhar ghalib yahi khut raha raha raha raha raha, dhul chehere par thi inina raha raha.' – Mirza Ghalib
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
Manduristi: Are you in the grip of an 'extraordinary' cleanliness drive?
