Get over it
You wouldn't say to someone with depression "Just cheer up!". It's a bit on the tasteless side and it's not going to work anyway. It's not just being upset, it's a lot deeper than that.

And I do understand that a lot of OCD behaviour is like that. And getting rid of it is neither easy nor quick. But am I alone in that every time I hear about some OCD quirk like "I have to have the volume on an even number" or "If there's two different coloured foods on my plate touching I can't eat it" I have the same mental reaction

"Just grow the fuck up and get over it!"

I can't help it. You do not *have* to have the volume on an even number. Try setting it to three. And then put up with it. If you were hungry enough you'd bloody well eat the food, even if a prime numbered set of peas were directly adjacent to a piece of fish that wasn't at 90 degrees to the setting sun in Tunisia. You might prefer that the books are lined up in alphabetical order but YOU DO NOT NEED THEM THAT WAY. WANT. NOT NEED.

Please tell me I'm not the only person to have that instinctive reaction even if it's wrong.
(calamarain just invented dehydrated water, Sat 3 Jul 2010, 14:37, 10 replies)

no you're not
and I do feel bad about it and try to overcome it, but yeah.
I remember watching a documentary a few years back about a woman with terrible OCD weeping because she couldn't hug her children. She could have, of course. It irked me.
(jennymnemonic, Sat 3 Jul 2010, 15:11, closed)

How many people,
have nothing, live in a shack and have to scrounge for food?
Have you ever heard of anybody like this with OCD?
No, me neither.

It's a product of our sheltered lives and ability to adjust our surroundings.

Hell- this is the first click from me this week. (Almost)
( Blind Meach Cautiously optimistic, Sat 3 Jul 2010, 15:42, closed)

How many people who have nothing, live in shacks and have to scrounge for food do you know very well?
Well enough for you to be familiar with their medical history?
( Dr Preference AjcuiVd289, Sat 3 Jul 2010, 16:22, closed)

Fair point-
I've only known a few. So yes, there's an element of assumption there. Perhaps you could enlighten me?

For that matter, how many people actually admit to being OCD? I mean REAL OCD, not "I like to turn the lightbulb round the right way"?
( Blind Meach Cautiously optimistic, Sat 3 Jul 2010, 16:56, closed)

Well,
apparently, a fairly common form of OCD is obsessive hand-cleaning. Personally, I've not seen that many generally dirty tramps with beautifully clean hands.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Sat 3 Jul 2010, 23:21, closed)

How many people,
have nothing, live in a shack and have to scrounge for food?

... and then post stories on the internet?

Of course, such people might well have OCD's and/or odd habits. Perhaps they'll only go scrounging after turning three times clockwise, or clap their hands seven times once they've eaten that scavenged morsel of dead rat.

But I agree that if they're hungry enough, they most likely _will_ eat the dead rat (if only on a strictly tail-first basis).
(haberman is singing in the changes, Sat 3 Jul 2010, 17:54, closed)

Well from what I've heard, that's what treatment of OCD consists of: making the person with the disorder do the things they feel they mustn't. I recall obsessive hand-washers having to keep sticky foods on their hands for hours, and people who count everything being made to encounter their "bad" numbers.

It's infuriating to hear someone talk about their OCD habits because they seem completely pointless to a normal person, but to them it feels like they "need" it.
(AlfishKK, Sat 3 Jul 2010, 16:42, closed)

No Vagabond...?

(Falstaff's Spiritual Successor, Sat 3 Jul 2010, 18:20, closed)

OCD
Very little here sounds like clinical OCD; maybe its a mild annoyance etc but I think, if it was a REAL problem people could just MTFU.

It's an expression of anxiety ("I just need to reassure myself that the door is locked") in a physical way, and SERIOUS OCD is hard to cure; however it can be made manageable with thereapy and, to a lessre degree, medication.
(kitescreech still here, Sun 4 Jul 2010, 17:01, closed)

You're not the only one
Have you ever lived with someone like this? Someone who has to perform their stupid fucking little rituals day? Every time you go out for a drive with them it's like *salute* "Good morning Mr. Magpie!" *salute* "Good morning Mr. Magpie!" *salute* "Good morning Mr. Magpie!" *salute* "Good morning Mr. Magpie!" *salute* "Good morning Mr. Magpie!" *salute* "Good morning Mr. Magpie!" *salute* "Good morning Mr. Magpie!" *salute* "Good morning Mr. Magpie!" *salute* "Good morning Mr. Magpie!" *salute* "Good morning Mr. Magpie!"

Eventually even the calmest and most tolerant person in the world (which I am not, by a long stretch) would turn around and scream "SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU ANNOYING MOTHERFUCKER!"

Having read this week's replies I get the feeling I'd want to kill half the board if I ever met them.
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Mon 5 Jul 2010, 12:07, closed)