You Know You Have OCD When...

I don't know about your family, but in ours we have several people, if not all, that deal with certain levels of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). One of the odd things about it is that we all have different triggers. We have some who will go bonkers at seeing a cabinet door open, or drawer pulled out and left un-attended, some of us HATE waterspots on sinks and faucets, some must adjust crooked mini-blinds, some have to eat at specific times or DIE, and all of us have different issues about our clothes. We often joke and laugh about it, as none of us live in a state of being unable to function...that is, unless we see one of our "problems" lurking about. We love the T.V. show Monk because we can relate to his OCD so well. We aren't quite as bad as he is as we are able to function in society and we don't have to clean our hands after shaking someone else's, but we do relate on many counts. Lately we have noticed that we will see things that a person with OCD, or more specifically with his "problems" wouldn't do, or things that drive us crazy that he's missing. Today Lindsay was reading one of the "blogs" from Monk and found a post that fit us really well...kinda scary, huh? It has to do with books; I must confess, Lindsay, Hannah, and I are rather obsessive about our books. We believe if you are going to put books on the shelf, you should do so correctly. By correctly we mean: Arranged by subject with non-fiction being organized along the lines of the Dewey Decimal System and fiction books being arranged alphabetically by author. This usually doesn't cause much of a problem, but one day, after re-arranging the books, Lindsay and I walked in the family room to find Gene re-arranging our biographies. You see, he didn't like that all the same type of books weren't together, and we couldn't handle them not being sorted by person... but we came to an agreement...and two people with the same OCD "problem" over-rule the one. In other words, the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few. The books are safe and sound now, and in their proper place.

My thought was to see if you would share your OCD "problems" with me. I am curious as to how many of these "issues" are similar in others. It has surprised me, when sharing my experiences with others, how many have similar "issues". We also find it interesting how different we can be in our compulsions. Spots drive me crazy, but the people who hate open cabinets don't seem to see them. Why is that? I guess it's something you might not notice if you lived in a small family, but with all these different people here, it's similar to an ongoing socialogical experiment.

If you are unsure if someone you love has OCD, this simple test may help you. Have them stand in the center of the kitchen with their eyes closed, open all the cabinets and drawers (making sure to open them to different degrees for maximum effect) and have them open their eyes and stand in that spot without moving for 1 minute. If you see them begin to break out in a sweat, they may have OCD mildly, but if at the end of one minute they are pulling their hair out and crying...you might want to seek help.