Initially, people with germaphobia impulsively clean themselves and their surroundings to avoid any possible germs in the vicinity. They spend long hours cleaning and sanitizing themselves and their belongings. This results in wasting time, energy, and resources for excessive cleansing. If you spot a few symptoms like the below, it might symbolize germaphobia manifestation… Excess tooth brushing, frequent unnecessary showers or hand-cleaning, forced symmetry in cleaning rituals, timing any cleaning process, washing for a long time after visiting the restroom, and avoiding any public place, situation, or object. A germaphobe’s life quality drastically degrades because of their restlessness about contamination and sickness leading to distraction from daily life. Germaphobes might have red, swollen, cracked hands with visible skin irritations. Skin infections like eczema or dermatitis from repetitive washing are some other visible symptoms. Some symptoms in social situations are avoiding human contact, repetitive unnecessary hand sanitization, touching public objects (handrails) with a barrier like plastic, or just wearing gloves all the time. Germaphobes behave aggressively in public places even when others are not a possible threat. Sometimes, they understand their attitude and want to change it but their anxiety activates in social circumstances.