General Have you or your sufferer ever felt more disgusted than you should?

[Never_falter2]

We all know that people with ptsd feel more fear and sometimes more anger than other people but have you or your sufferer ever felt more disgust than the normal person = have felt disgusted by thinks that actually aren’t disgusting?
My vet for example feels disgusted by the handles of shopping cards because everybody touched them with their dirty hands, by doorknobs, people who smell like sweat, including himself when he smells like sweat, by not being able to change his underpants and undershirt at least twice a day, by forgetting his toothbrush, by forgetting take Kleenex with him, by not being able to shower or take a bath whenever he pleases, by people who use a Kleenex twice, by our trash and by thousand other things.

And he is far more disgusted by this then the normal person ever would be disgusted (and he knows that and it makes him sad) and it is interfering with his life for example he loves hiking but hates the fact that nature has no hygienic showers, he loves working out but hates the fact it makes you smell like sweat. He does those things nevertheless but sometimes he has a feeling of disgust coming over him really bad and cannot fight it of.

He likes to have a hot bath. It helps against this as well as it helps him against feeling depressed or fearful.

edit: Have met another Vet who was so disgusted by his “unclean hands“ (perceived unclean by him) that he couldn’t stop washing them over and over... and spend a lot of time with that. It became a habit so time consuming and expensive for him that he was worrying about his water bills -apart from the fact it ruined the skin on his hands. Like my vet this man knows excactly it was silly. He is better now.
A problem my vet also sometimes has and he always needs to wash them the right way, as opposed too the wrong way. But apart from that I am not sure if it is really common.

 

[Madmaninabox]

Everyone response to trauma in different ways.
I'm just guessing here And I I'm not in anyone elses head but it could be about control. When you go through something traumatic you loose control and if you can find something you can control like how clean you are it can be something to cling onto.
Another idea is that people can feel "morally dirty" a thought like I did something I'm ashamed of with my hands and they can never feel clean. My go through someones head making them feel the need to wash there hands.
Also it could be a distraction like I don't have to think about what I went through I can think about things being clean.

There is a lot of things it could be these are just a few. But really I think it makes alot of sense that trauma would affect how you feel about cleanliness.

 

[Rollercoaster4]

Agree with prior response. I have seen this similar tendencies in vet sufferers but it was more anxiety driven/OCD-ish. My own personal experience at one point my anxiety was out of control and the repetitive showering helped my anxiety (grounding) but also made me feel clean because what I had gone through, untreated at that time, made me feel dirty and in my somewhat anxious illogical mind at the time I kept thinking I could wash the feeling and "dirtiness" away. Those tendencies came and went for a couple years and worse at other times especially when I felt out of control or overly stressed. My sufferer, I pick up on those tendencies you described when he is overwhelmed or anxiety is full blown too much to manage.