Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Or Obsessive compulsive
disorder. Or obsessive compulsive disorder.
I know that this is what some people would consider a
disease. Obsessive compulsive disorder
(OCD) is where someone constantly does some habit over and over again in an
attempt to maintain control of the world around them. While that is not the
standard definition, that is my layman’s take on it. I believe that we all are
a little OCD about things in our lives. Some have OCD more than others. I believe it becomes an issue or something
that is considered wrong with the person when the world notices and becomes
bothered by the behavior or the mere doing of the said behavior becomes so
exhausting for the person doing it that they are unable to live a normal
life. For my dear readers that know how
I love to have my nose stuck in a book, you can expect a story reference in
this rant. You can pretty much bet it is also from a King novel. “Ayup” as King’s characters often say. You nailed it.
This one story in Just After Sunset was so obsessed
with counting, touching, and placing things, that it became exhausting to even
breathe. Every step was counted and it
had to be even numbers, every color, lines and circles of objects meant to ward
off evil, checking and quadruple checking every lock in the house to ensure
they were all locked. Not THAT was
exhausting just writing about it. There
is true OCD. Textbook even. Still there
are others that have it and can be noticed by those around them or have become
so accustomed to the behavior that they can actually live and not let it
overcome their entire being.
Psychiatrists would say they have a control on the OCD behavior. Maybe it is something like washing their hands
all the time or lining up a pile of something that is randomly sitting there (a
pile of buttons, for example.) Even so much as to not walk on painted pavement
or step over the cracks in the sidewalk.
Those are not so bad. Not so crippling. Maybe hurtful every now and
again when the cracks are to infinite to step over or around or the whole damn
parking lot is painted over…solid. That
could certainly lead to a bad day. I understand that.
However, there are even others who KNOW they have an OCD
behavior but are not so overcome by the event that it is catastrophic if it is
not done properly. They do try to exude
the same behavior whenever the need arises, but they are not stressed out by
the fact that it did not go according to plan. Let me explain this one because
I can partially relate. Let’s say, for
example, you have a bag of m&m’s.
There are five colors in said bag. (I know these are not the exact
colors, this is just an example folks.) These colors are red, yellow, blue,
green, and brown. While sitting in a
meeting, everyone has a bag of these chocolate covered bits of heaven to keep
them occupied and awake during the most boring meeting of the day. Now, most
people would either pour them into their hand out of the bag, pluck them out
with pincher fingers one by one, or dump them on the table and randomly eat
them. Not you, no way. There is a method to your madness. You have to dump them out and either separate
them into piles by color or line them up in straight lines by color. You always
eat the browns first (your least favorite color.) Then proceed to yellow, red,
green and the blues are always last.
Yes, because green and blue are your favorite, even though all the
candies taste the same, you do this with every bag of m&m’s you have ever eaten.
They are just better that way.
Of course, the people around you notice what you are doing.
But, it is not so bothersome that they stop what they are doing to gawk at you.
Afterall, you are only eating your m&m’s and you are not too noisy about
it. Maybe even the person to your left will lean over and say “OCD much?” That is not going to bother you. You may even
accidentally eat a blue one first. That is ok so long as there are still blues
left for the very last. This is not
wholly life consuming, nor is it tiresome behavior. It is just something that makes you happy for
the moment and it is not taking over your life. Besides, next time, you will
NOT eat a blue one by mistake before all the other colors are gone. It didn’t
kill you.
Even further down the spectrum, there are ones who have some
sort of OCD thing going on in their life and it may be so ingrained into them
or such a valid part of their personality that nobody notices it. Even the
person with the behavior does not notice it either. This is not as simple as
putting your seatbelt on every single time you get in the car to go somewhere. It is something like ensuring that your pen
is sitting on your desk in the perfect spot while you are talking on the phone
at work. It can even be that when you put your shoes on, it is always the right
and then the left. It is not a skipped
heartbeat if it is not that way, just makes you feel better is all.
My query here is this:
What happens to people that makes them surge from the minor end of the
spectrum that I just described to the other end where it takes over their
entire being and they become so stressed about it that it simply wears them
out? It has to be some sort of
experience that triggers the behavior for that to occur. I can pinpoint what happened in my life that
has me so off about mildew in the shower or anything but a pristine
toilet. But what horrible thing can
possibly cause someone to believe that they have to have that sort of control
on the world around them. So manic to the point that they have to continuously
control everything. It makes me tired
just to think about it. I can certainly
feel for those people because living life to its fullest and keeping up with
normal stuff can be tiring. Not to mention it also depends on how busy you
are. I think I am going to look into
this further because I find the topic fascinating.
Am I sounding like a nerd?
Well, of course because (secretly) I am!
Off to the people that know about this stuff! I am definitely going to
rant more about this topic.
What do YOU think?
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