Not as severe as the actual condition, however when one of my childhood cats was hit by a car, I tried to check her pulse and blood splurted from her ear onto my hand. For several years afterwards I would constantly wash my hands, moreso when I was stressed/anxious. I would wash them with soap, then wash them again. Sometimes I would dry them, and then go back to wash them again.
Psychedelics helped me realise the fear of ‘always having her blood on my hands’, in a very serious and confrontational manner to my trauma. It’s difficult to explain the mental journey to rewire the habit away, though ultimately I began to understand an aspect of my plight as a source to the action.

Luvox/Fluvoxamine

As a German myself, not really.

reads title again

I waste a bit of time washing my hands and keeping rules like things that have been on the floor don’t go onto the kitchen counters. But I very rarely get sick so maybe it’s working.

My personal experience spending time with people with germaphobia:

• They have no idea where germs actually are or how germs are transmitted. They just do specific things that they assume “clean”, or avoid specific things that they assume “dirty”
• They share similarities with people with OCD

Phobias are by definition irrational.

Mysophobia as in constantly washing my hands and not being able to concentrate when I didn’t shower. Camping and festivals were hell. This was in my teens, then I got drafted and three months of boot camp fixed it. Shock therapy works.

There was a small pandemic I think. That gave most folks Germaphobia

(Obvious joke about Germans)

Not really, I was really weird about showering for a while, I have kind of accepted that I need to be somewhat clean to have a proper, productive, happy day. Although I believe that being used to it plays a huge role.