We all live our lives on different edges that bring us either to the brink of realization or keep us from getting there. We all deal with our fears and anxieties in diverse ways, but we all have them and unless we address them, they will never go away.
The problem is that avoidance, which seems like an easy course of action, only gives power to that which is holding us emotionally hostage, and in the end, like a cork shoved into a leaking dyke, can never really be suppressed.
Many people are afraid to use public bathrooms or even the bathrooms of people they may know. This is due to anxiety about the invisible pathogens that may lurk beneath their feet, on their hands and their clothing. This can be crippling, but it can be professionally treated and eradicated.
Bathroom germs and dirt require hygienic treatment as well and there is no better bathroom hygienic provider than our teams at Enviro-Master Pittsburgh.
What Is The Difference Between A Fear And A Phobia?
Having the courage to let go of a fear by facing it head on immediately ruptures its emotional hold. This, like most things in life, is easier said than done. A phobia is an extreme and irrational fear of either an object or situation. A fear is often more general and is accompanied by less anxiety.
A phobia is an anxiety disorder and it is much more intrusive than an unspecified fear. It always entails avoidance behavior that can and often does affect the quality of life. A phobia is always a reaction that is not proportional to the actual threat.
Agoraphobia, for example, (a fear of the marketplace or leaving home) can emotionally cripple a sufferer into fearing everything that lies outside the threshold of their home. Imagine never feeling the warmth of the sun on your face or a fragrant summer breeze wafting through a meadow!
Bathroom Phobias
While simple phobias are usually directed at things (cats, heights, dogs, snakes, spiders, blood, etc), there are several more complex social anxiety phobias that concern being out in public and/or the use of both private and public restrooms.
Shy Bladder Syndrome or Paruresis concerns a fear of urinating in public bathrooms. This is thought to be the most common type of social phobias, ranking second to fear of public speaking. It affects both men and women and is believed to originate in early school experiences.
Mysophobia also known as germophobia, and bacillophobia, is the unreasonable fear of germs, bacteria, dirt, contamination, and infection. This phobia manifests itself by a compulsion to excessively wash one’s hands.
Sufferers from this phobia struggle to evaluate which situations are dangerous and even question their own judgment. They are known to take excessive measures to avoid contamination of their own bodies or the space they inhabit. This often interferes and damages daily life routines and relationships between family and friends.
Hygiene Help Is On The Way
In addition to working with a certified therapist who can relieve the emotional hell these phobias can cause with effective treatment techniques such as graduated exposure, there are other pro-active measures that require reaching out to restroom hygiene specialists.
This is vitally important, as even though phobias are exaggerated fears, there is real reason to fear the bathroom pathogens that thrive in the floor drains of public restrooms.
Studies and Statistics About Restroom Bacteria
During the 1960s, industrial scientists developed a brand new field of research concerning bathroom bacteria. Resulting studies were disturbing, revealing facts such as the failure to close the toilet lid while flushing can cause bacteria to travel up to six feet through the air and even onto a toothbrush. Findings also indicated that every single spot in a public bathroom is laden with many diverse kinds of bacteria, depending on wet or dry environments.
Gilberto Flores, his mentor, Noah Fierer and colleagues, post doctorates Scott Bates and Christian Lauber from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science, University of Colorado, conducted another important bacterial study. They studied twelve bathrooms and discovered that the numbers of diverse bacteria were in so many thousands that their quantities surpassed the total number of bird species in North America!
The Importance of Clean Floor Drains
Bathroom surfaces and toilets in public restrooms are often more of a cleaning priority than the floor drain, and this is a grave error on the part of commercial space owners and managers. A multitude of germs, pathogens and creepy crawlies lurk out of sight below the drain just waiting for an unsuspecting human to star in their most unpleasant microbial show.
Show time is the moment these unpleasant critters come in contact with human skin. If there were a way for bathroom users to view the activity below the floor drain, it would freak them out and turn them off from public bathroom use forever, no matter how intense the need to relieve oneself!
Insects develop their own eco-systems and breeding grounds, and via floor drains, either crawl or fly their way up the piping and into the open air. There can be no elimination of floor drains, as public restrooms cannot exist without them. They draw away excess moisture but when they are dirty, they cannot do this successfully. This is because they become clogged and subsequent traps for bacteria that spread disease and create foul odors.
The stench can be absolutely nauseating, and the culprit is often methane gas arising from decomposing organic matter. It is the stinky elephant in the room, and losing one’s last meal is a possibility when one realizes that fecal material gathering en masse is the source of the disgusting odor.
Public restroom floor drains require expert maintenance. Clog-free floor drains make cleaning a restroom much easier because their flow permits surfaces to be easily washed and rinsed as the water drains from the bathroom.
A floor drain clog carries filthy, smelly waste-water up to the surface, providing a suitable setting for the next horror movie to come to your neighborhood public restroom. In addition, standing water can stain and damage flooring and create a very unsanitary appearance.
Enviro-Master Pittsburgh To The Rescue
The only maintenance solution is frequent, professional cleaning provided by our bathroom hygiene experts at Enviro-Master Pittsburgh.
Regular scheduled cleanings prevent the build up of foul odors, and floor drains serve as a means to wash them away. Maintenance is preventive in other ways as well. A clean floor drain can handle a sudden excess of water that can occur in a flooding emergency. There is no underestimating the enormity of this task and it is too much for a limited custodial staff to handle without professional outside help. Hygiene specialists should be called upon to deal with faulty floor drains and other serious bathroom-related issues.
Enviro-Master has been on call since 1983 and our mission is as it has always been: Building a healthier world, one restroom at a time.
Enviro-Master is the world’s leading provider of hygiene services for public restrooms and their enduring appeal has evolved from their superior cost-effective products and customer service. We focus on going that extra mile when it comes to restroom cleaning, as we can handle disease and odor prevention in ways that a company custodial staff cannot do on their own.
We are a franchised business, which not only provides lucrative avenues for hard-working entrepreneurs, but also helps to spread both Enviro-Master products and their reputation all over the country.
Our strategies and solutions are cost-effective, as the sale of low cost soaps, paper and cleaning products often offset the price of our cleaning services. We are focused in our direction and determined to provide and promote restroom hygiene, one bathroom and one floor drain at a time.
The Complete Hygiene Facility Program
Enviro-Master as well as pest control and pest management strategies supplied by Pestco Professional Services and environmental odor and air freshening solutions provided by Air-Scent International are now available to commercial enterprises under the umbrella of bundled services known as Pestco’s Complete Facility Care Program.
Route service businesses run by successful franchises make it possible for this highly successful business initiative to operate almost anywhere in the United States. This array of services is the most affordable and efficient collection of business hygiene, air freshening and pest-control related services on the market today.
The treating of bathroom-related phobias is effective and best left to the care of professional therapists. The elimination of bathroom germs and pathogens fall under the purview of our specialists and our never-ending quest to quell bathroom phobias one hygienic bathroom at a time.
Contact our team today!
Final thoughts about phobias: I suffer from peroxide phobia. Every time I’ve gotten near a blond woman, something of mine has disappeared. Jobs, boyfriends… one time an angora sweater leaped right off my body. ~ Rita Rudner