Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Obsessive - Compulsive: A Real Struggle

A lot of people joke about being obsessive-compulsive (OC) or having OC tendencies. These are funny and all but do they truly understand what it feels like? Do they have any idea how much of a struggle it is?

For example, do they know the feeling of having sleepless nights just because two pillows have a different pillowcase or their pillows are not arranged in a certain order?


It may seem ridiculous or downright crazy, but that's the reality of it all. Not all of us can function normally knowing that our phones have scratches on them or that one sock isn't symmetrical with the other.

For other's, it's something so trivial and they look at us like we're freaks of nature but honestly, we're not. We're just wired differently. We look at the world in a different perspective. We appreciate things that strike balance and anything that disrupts that balance sets us off.

Imagine, having a preference for the color of your gadgets and then one of them is different. It's not hating on the color or the gadget, it's just that it doesn't look even.


One of the biggest problems I have is with books. If I could buy hardbound books only, I would. But I cant. Some are not available here. When I started reading the Harry Potter books, the first 2 were paperback. The rest were hardbound.


Can you imagine how annoyed I get when I look at them? They're not balanced. They're not equal. A book is a book... to someone who isn't OC. But for someone who is, this is sacrilege.

It's not easy dealing with it and we try our best to keep our urges at bay, but it's hard. It's like an itch in our brains that we can't scratch. We all have different forms or quirks of being OC. Some have it easy and they can easily brush it off. For some, it's worse.

Having to go down at night just to make sure that you locked the front door and then going back down again to make sure that you didn't unlock it by mistake when you were checking if it was locked. Yeah, that happens. I've experienced it. I still do.

How about arranging your clothes by color and size with the corresponding hangers to indicate which are regular shirts, dress shirts, polo-shirts, pants, and jackets?

How about not being able to eat when using a different plate or mug because your brain was wired to only appreciate food served on specific plate and drink from a specific mug.

I could keep going on. I could keep rambling, but I'll just sound crazy to people who don't understand what it feels like.

So ease up on the jokes. Being obsessive-compulsive isn't that fun.