01 March 2011

A Therapeutic Experiment

Amidst the past few months of my first vacation in 17 years (aka unemployment), I have amazed myself with a multitude of personal discoveries. If we do not grow and progress, then how stagnant and uninteresting we would be, right?

My most recent self-discovery: there is such a thing as having too much time to think. We all need a therapeutic outlet to release our inner insanity. So, instead of using my "vacation" to organize every room in the house, including the garage and every closet, or clean the cracks between the refrigerator (I wanted to just move the fridge out of the wall, but that seemed a little crazy even for me?) or spend 2 hours changing the centerpiece on the dining room table (I still can't decide between orchids or succulents or fruit, so my table is currently void of anything) or color-code the clothes in the closet, I should be embracing the insanity, feeling it, creating from it and learning how to let it go . . . even if that means meditating on it 3 times in 3 different places for 3 hours until finally, the process is complete.

Does this sound familiar? If so, then welcome, fellow "OCDite." I know there is a world of you out there. For those of you who can't quite grasp the compulsion to obsess about everything that surrounds your life and being, then watch an episode of My Strange Addiction on TLC. We're fascinating!

In an effort to nourish our bizarre personalities, I intend to publicize what will be free therapy for me (thank you Blogger and blog readers) and create a forum for other OCDites to share ideas that will help us grow and adapt and feel comfortable while making our friends who love us try to understand the depth of this disorder. Thank you, friends, who encourage me to acknowledge my idiosyncrasies, so we can laugh about them later.

Earlier this week, I welcomed a favorable diversion into my life, which generated the topic for my first blog post: House Guests

A friend of mine is experiencing a somewhat similar life transition and needed a place to stay and store some of her stuff for an indeterminate length of time. I have plenty of space and could certainly use something to focus on other than the compulsive plotting in my head, so I opened my home to her. Two heads are better than one, right?

Tip #1 for Remaining calm while your guest appears to haphazardly throw their life into yours: Unobtrusively correct the issues that produce that gnawing feeling in your stomach immediately. Later, communicate the necessity of your actions to your guest before they think you've gone crazy.

Although I knew my world wasn't going to end if she emptied a multitude of leftover bottles of hot sauce and a jar of Smuckers strawberry jelly that was already 99% empty into my fridge, I really truly thought I might explode at the sight of it. Beyond the mere discovery of the items, they were thrown onto the middle shelf instead of the door shelves which are clearly constructed for condiments! The milk and the OJ were no longer in a perfect line, one in front of the other, and I couldn't even get to the soda. My desire to move the invasive items was so strong that I paced around the house uncomfortably until I finally decided to solve the problem myself; then, spent an hour rearranging the contents of the entire fridge. It helped. The world made sense again.

For those of you who may think this sounds like crazy behavior to stem from such a minor situation, you may consider following my blog regularly. One in 50 adults is affected by daily compulsions like these, so you're bound to be close to or know someone who lives with this affliction. Our imbalance also has the ability to produce the best dinner parties you've ever attended - we are perfectionists after all. (but we'll save that for a future blog topic!)

So friends and friends of other OCDites, I look forward to sharing regular tips on generally alluring topics, and hearing your comments, ideas and other peculiar stories. Sharing here can be free therapy for you, too!

And a special thank you, current house guest, for providing me with weeks of material. Please remember, take off your shoes and always use a coaster!

5 comments:

  1. Love it! What a wonderful window into a world that I do not understand. I am a OCDite supporter and have learned to love the "crazy" behaviors, i.e. extreme organization and order, that accompany this disorder. I also know that as I write this you are likely editing and correcting my poor sentence structure and grammar. :) Anyway, I think this is a wonderful idea and will be a useful resource for me to reference pre and post visits to my OCDite's house! Breate... you can do it!

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  2. KD, great insight into the world of your people; it made me want to straighten up my silverware drawer and realign my water bottles. It also helped to remind me why I don’t have a roommate.

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  3. Great 1st post! I like the layout too :)

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  4. Kristal - Hello, my beautiful cousin and apparently fellow OCDite - this must run in the family! You'd never know it by looking at my house, unless you looked at my fridge or cupboards - I call them my little "pockets of perfection!" Unfortunately the rest of it looks like an explosion because if I'm not sure of the perfect place to put it, or whether I should throw it away, so it goes nowhere and those items build up. I need an OCDite friend who can't stand to have things lying around to come help me... Too bad you're so far away!

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  5. So I'm contemplating breaking up with my boyfriend because he is a slob and does not follow through on what he says he is going to do. I just can't seem to take the first step because my OCD causes me to process and re process and I end up chickening out. Any good advice on how to tackle this issue?

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