Going Green with OCD

Okay, so I mentioned that I wanted to do some more serious topics and this is about as serious as I get. Few people know this about me, but I have OCD, or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. While that can manifest in many different ways, for me, it is an obsession with personal hygiene. You may be asking what that has to do with going green, but it actually has a lot to do with it for me.

For one, I already wash my hands a ridiculous amount of times in a day. Trying to go green means washing out and handling things that are typically considered trash. For me, that goes against my natural urges. It makes me feel dirty and when I feel dirty, I wash.

Since I've started being more environmentally friendly, my hand washing and cleaning habits have shot through the roof. The more I wash, the more water I use, of course.

Then there's the matter of paper towels. I have to clean certain things in my house with paper towels because once they touch certain things, they are contaminated in my mind. I wouldn't be able to use a cloth because I would have to throw that away. Washing the cloth wouldn't be enough for me. If I were to clean the toilet, for instance, with a rag and washed that rag, the rag would contaminate everything else in the wash.

I know it sounds crazy, but it's what makes sense to me. Perhaps even more bazaar is the fact that since I've had my son, I cannot drink tap water. Before I got pregnant, I was strongly against bottled water, but while pregnant, I could not stand the smell of tap water. I am normally very sensitive to smell anyway, but when I was pregnant, forget about it... it was ridiculous the things that made me physically sick. Well, while I would like to say that changed back when I had my son, it did not. I still cannot stand the smell of tap water and so, I'm ashamed to say, I drink bottled water.

I also cannot stand the smell of pillow cases and wash rags. That, coupled with the fact that I have to wash my blankets if someone else touches them, means a lot of laundry, which means more water and more energy.

Then there's the more obvious things like sanitary wipes and ridiculous things I use. The funny thing is that I don't think of myself as being afraid of germs. I know, it doesn't make sense. It's far more complicated than I can describe in a single post. This is all just a taste of how OCD hinders my becoming a better environmentalist. How's that for serious?