Tuesday, 01 December 2009
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There's A Chance, You Might Have OCD.....
Have you ever joked or even wondered a bit about whether you have what is known as “OCD (Obsessive-compulsive disorder)”? For instance, you’re out having dinner with your friends and suddenly you start to wonder if you remembered to turn off the bathroom lights on the way out of your apartment, or you organize your books and files by size and color (I actually tend to do this). Well, turns out, maybe you do. But don’t get freaked out. According to Jon Abramowitz, PhD, director of the Anxiety and Stress Disorders Clinic at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “millions more people have a little bit of OCD" (Source from Cosmo magazine).
The “non-clinical (low-level) OCD” can be easily distinguished from the “real” OCD. According to Dr. Abramowitz, “to receive a diagnosis of full-blown OCD, you have to feel that you lose more than an hour a day to fretting, obsessing, and/or compulsive rituals,” and if it feels like “these behaviors are interfering with your life.”
However, the good news is that non-clinical OCD can actually help your career and even keep you healthy. Experts say that “paying attention to detail and being almost obsessively caught up in a project, for instance, can be a plus on the job, and thinking you’ll get sick if you don’t wash your hands a lot, and then doing so, can keep you healthy.”
Do you have certain behaviors that could be classified as "non-clinical OCD"? What are they?
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About the Author
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- From: kimjh125
- Name: Joo
- About Me: I'm a runner and a health fanatic. I currently live in NYC.
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Comments (63)
idk about OCD, but i have slight hoarding issues >.<
I always have to close all cupboards and drawers in a room. It really annoys me if any are open, especially in the kitchen.
for me, everything has to be in color order. cups in a cabinet, clothes, etc ... i even eat Skittles and M&Ms by color. :]
Yep, I have a small amount of OCD.
When I load the dishwasher I have a certain system (it's the most efficient and fastest) and if someone else loads it I have to completely reorganize it.
Things like that.
I get sort of iffy/annoyed if I see something totally unorganized. Or dirty. Or messy to a certain extent. I guess it really depends. And I organize things a certain way too. Like on my computer, I super organized my files by relation to each other, and then when I made them if they are like word documents and ect.....
= w=;;;
ugh... i have OCD
i wash my hands way too much.
I definitely have some that could be considered as non-clinical OCD.
I can't think of all of them off the top of my head, I usually just catch myself doing it.One would be always fixing the strings in hoodies, if they aren't even it really bugs me. I also can't stand when pictures are a teensy bit crooked, and when things are sitting certain ways. Theres just a whole list of little things like that, that i notice bug me.Ordering things by color (books, clothes, movies, things in the fridge), constantly checking for the time even when I don't have a watch or cellphone on me, but I think the weirdest is having to physically touch the door if I go through it. Even if someone opens the door for me I have to touch the door myself.
As someone who has OCD, and whose life has been severely affected by it, I have mixed feelings about this post.
I have never liked it when people describe themselves as 'OCD' when they haven't been diagnosed as such. I mean, everyone has intrusive thoughts, and everyone has weird quirks and worries, but OCD is hell. It really is. It can be completely devastating. My life has been compromised in so many ways by it. And it's kind of like ... when people say, 'I'm a little OCD about this', I feel really frustrated, because it seems such an off-handed comment really doesn't encompass the suffering of OCD, and I feel a bit like I'm being mocked, or my problems trivialised.
I'm really weird about the process in which I shower. I do things in a certain order for certain reasons. I usually end up almost having a panic attack when my boyfriend showers with me because it throws off the process so much and slows down the process, and I hate it because shower buddies are supposed to be fun! I have a manner in which I clean the house and get pretty upset when I'm interrupted. And it's usually my friends who come over unexpectedly and drag us somewhere for dinner. I'm pretty crabby the entire night when this happens.
The unnecessary comma in the title aggravates my clinically diagnosed OCD.
I don't give credit to any of my compulsions, because I don't like to think of myself as having anything like OCD.
Thats not OCD! If you can't leave your house because you make 30 loops through the house to make sure that the lights are off,.. thats OCD. If you just think about it at dinner for a minute or two,.. thats just a prudent and cautious person. Arranging folders in a very particular way,.. thats an extremely organized person,.. I personally do that and there is just some artysness to my thinking and I make odd rationales why "this" has to be "here" and so on that other people would not even get because it has nothing to do with practicality. But thats not OCD. Waking up in the middle of the night and checking that your folders are still in the same order,.. now thats OCD. And most OCD people struggle with their disorder because its a compulsion and gets in the way of their lives. I on the other hand,.. enjoy my odd behavior,.. I could stop,.. but why?
BTW: I just hate when people walk around listing their 10 million psyciatric disorders as if its the new fashion!
@hildemollerknag@xanga - I completely agree! Sorta like people walking around seriously stating that they are "a little bipolar". There is no such thing!
where ever i am i straitin things to make the series correct. Like i put packs of gum going the same way and other stupid things like that. Even numbers satisfy me like say i was turning up the volume on the television and it stops on an even number. I preceive that as good luck. If i have a pack of M&Ms i like having the same amount in each color Ex. 4 blues,4 reds,so on. I dont eat off of certain utensils or plates or cups because they'll make me naushous ex.i HATE styrofoam cups and the thought of any food being inside of it kills my stomach,i like plastic forks but not spoons,and metal and glass dishes are the best. I'll clean the house until it feels sanitized and i often dream about getting a steam vac to calm my nerves about germs. If theres a can of lysol in the house i've sprayed every surface people can touch or breath on. Clorox wipes..They're my favorite.. I just sound like a crazy person but i'm just being honest. I never tell anyone about this. All of my friends houses just feel so filthy i wanna pull my shirt over my mouth but ofcourse i dont. I just wanna clean everyones house so i can feel comfortable..
@mashroob@xanga - reply to myself and others who wanna whine about how people arent severe cases of ocd..i'm not claiming i have that..i just need to get out all the random shitt i do cause if i cant say it on here its never coming out
I already know that I have OCD. My mother has it, and my maternal grandmother had it, too.
lol i think everybody has it, just that whether it is serious or not. that's just what i think :)
I have to have doors closed. If someone leaves a door open I have to go and shut it. I'm very organised when it comes to cds and dvds too. I've freaked out before because a friend messed the order of my cds.
@hildemollerknag@xanga - I agree.
i question myself about having OCD all the time. just little things make me wonder. for example when i'm at work, i constantly have to wipe the counters and line everything up and organize everything. it just makes me more comfortable. i bleach everything. i have these phases where eat the same thing for weeks sometimes. i won't eat unless i have the same dish over and over for lunch. it's weird.
when grocery shopping, i line up the items on the shelf if theyre messy and face the labels forward.
I have a problem with remembering if I locked a door or unplugged my straightener and things like that. I'll be out having fun with my friends when all of a sudden I don't remember if I unplugged my straightener or not. It makes me so paranoid I can't have a good time. I started taking a picture of it after I unplug it to remind myself and it helps a lot.
@iusemycerebellum@xanga - That's not a psych disorder, that's a sign that you've worked in retail and had to "front and face" the stock! lol
@hildemollerknag@xanga - I'm with you. I don't suffer from OCD, thankfully, but it also bothers me when people trivialize true disorders/conditions. I also hate when people say they're "addicted" to a zillion different things. Addiction is a disease. Liking a certain type of crackers and eating the whole box of them does not mean you're addicted to them.