Obsessive, Compulsive cleaners ch 4 5/11/13

[salsmum]

Did anyone watch it??? does anyone else feel that the Mother & daughter team need a really good SLAP? I know they describe themselves as 'germaphobics' and do understand that they are extreme with their OCD but its the smug way in which they both look down upon anyone who doesn't think/act the same as them that makes my blood boil but I do find the programme addictive watching and quite like the idea that 2 people both at the extreme end of cleaning/not cleaning are brought together...especially last nights show with the 'goat lady'.

yes I watched it and I am struggling to warm to the mother and daughter pair if i'm honest. I understand they have MH illnesses but their personalities are not likeable.

I did have to laugh (sorry) when the girl was so mortified at the amount of germs in her shoe that she went and cried! and she said herself it wasn't the fact it was so dirty that made her cry, it was the fact that other people saw it. I do kind of get the impression that for those two the obsession might be a bit 'for show' rather than actually having issues with germs and clean lines. I thought the same last week when the daughter was sitting with her hands on the pavement and was touching the dirty tap with no gloves, drinking the water from the tap rather than having brought her own water.

I loved the goat lady and the woman who helped her. I thought they were very supportive of each other and neither took it personally when the other made comments about the filth/cleanliness. the goats' wendyhouse was brilliant!

I loved the goat lady and her swapee too.

Loved the goat lady and loved her goats but I'm not sure I really approve of this kind or programme, deep down.

The participants are mostly people with extreme mental illnesses, I can't honestly see that taking part has a lasting, profound effect on their mental health.

I imagine that Tuesday and her Mum have enough people in their rls who just cannot tolerate their illness. It won't do them much good to read about a whole load of other haterz on this forum.

I felt sorry for Tuesday as she was a carbon copy of her mother and her mum has totally messed her up with her ocd.

Luv this

I really did feel sorry for them. I think there's a huge difference between having diagnosed OCD and just being a bit of a clean freak and the programme didn't do enough to distinguish between the two. Tuesdays mum really does not help though. She seems to lack compassion but you would think she would understand exactly how her daughter feels.

Although I wish I could get as excited about cleaning as the woman who went to help the couple in Blackpool.

I loved how this finished with the woman saying at the end that the programme had taught her that she is in fact perfect!! She was ace!!! Hahhahaha
I thought the unclean ones got a rather good deal out of the programme - free cleaning from an OCD sufferer..?!? Plus the lady with the goats saying it was great the OCD sufferer could now clean without gloves etc - actually I don't think that is so great!! Her hands would end up raw!!

Just watched the third episode of this and Tuesday's mum (can't remember her name) did the original cat bum mouth when she ran a wipe over the cafe table. It was a perfect example of a cat bum mouth.

can't stand her particularly as she has made her dd like her. how unfair.

I think the hoarders get a better deal out of the programme than the people with OCD. The hoarders get a shiny new home but I think the ones with OCD are made worse. It said after the first episode that the man who ran the gym was cleaning even more than before. I think he was quite disturbed by the man's house with dog poo in it. Also i wondered after the second episode if the people with OCD would now become obsessed with cleaning the inside of their shoes as a result of the programme. The hospital germ detector doesn't really help them. We all know there are germs everywhere, but a lot of the time they are not doing us any harm.

I agree alex. I know when i spend any length of time thinking about the germs around in daily life i start getting quite antsy and start thinking through how i can avoid them, of course i am not ill and can quickly reign my thoughts back with logical statements about how alive i still am despite all the germs so i can see how this programme could easily be a trigger for exacerbating an existing condition. Either for viewers or participants.

Oh wow! Just watching tonights episode. How sad for the children that arent allowed to stay over at their dad's!

It makes me wanna clean lol

Nothing is really resolved for them. The hoarders temporarily have a clean home and the woman could have her grandchildren to stay, but her hoarding disorder hasn't been treated in any way, so presumably she will go back to hoarding and not being able to have er grandchildren to stay. The people with OCD haven't even been helped temporarily, so it didn't end with the guy having his children to stay over even for a short while. It would be better if over a few weeks we saw them being helped. I saw a similar programme about hoarders, but a therapist worked with them and found that all of the hoarders had experienced loss and feelings of insecurity in childhood. The hoarded stuff was like security objects.

Yea alex i saw that. " the hoarder next door" was a much longer process and the therapist set them targets specific to the individual and their illness. However, i did not like the woman with the short hair who came to help with the clearouts. I dont think she understood enough about hoarding to be the best person to help them.

I often wonder if the 'germaphobes get any less ill etc...from avoiding germs as the rest of us? I think we all need some exposure to germs to build up our immune systems.

I think the program makers ought to shoulder some responsibility for making the ocd sufferers worse.
Tuesday and her mother being the prime example. They should not be put in a situation where a gadget shows them how many germs are on whatever surface.

The mother and daughter pair seem to have real issues that seem worse as the series continues. They need help not exploitation.

Actually gaggia the more i watch the more i am convinced tuesday doesnt have OCD and is just doing it to please/win favour with her mum. There is an odd dynamic between those two and i have noticed tuesday always checking with her mum with eye contact when she says anything. I also noticed how relaxed and satisfied she looked when she had eaten the pudding in the restaurant. Which she did without any difficulty and didnt even flinch when the other girl read out the germ reading from the plate.

yes Tuesday needs to get away from her mum. surely she is an adult. her mum appears to be very controlling but perhaps it is editing

That's a fair point billy Tuesday did eat her pudding with no problems. I totally agree her mam has made her that way. If I had such issues I really wouldn't want to pass them on to my DD.

I wonder how on earth Tuesday's mum managed things like weaning, nappy changing, runny noses/dribbling, sickness and potty training. Probably not very well, hence her dd's problems.

I wonder if it's unhealthy for the germaphobes to breath in the amount of bleach and cleaning products that they must do.

Alex for a few years i was using vinegar, tea tree oil, lavender oil and zoflora to clean my home. Last year i decided i wanted to go back to commercial products and was using flash kitchen spray and bathroom spray plus bleach, within 3 days the inner lining of my nose became very inflamed and raw and started bleeding. It carried on for a few weeks until i made the connection and cut out the comercial stuff. Nose healed completely within a week. Not sure which product caused it but it actually really worried me what my dcs had been breathing in after that.

That's bad! I use the Method spray for the kitchen which i think is a bit better than some others. I do use bleach down the loo, although not as much as the people on the programme! Also use cream cleaner, although not every day.

Seeing all the clutter and mess really stresses me out!

I feel sad too for the OCD cleaners (as IMO, the hoarders also have OCD), as they miss out on so much and can never really relax .