The fine line between being anal and OCD
Strange creatures we are. We’ll probably find any excuse to suggest that we’re not freaks. But I got thinking this past week about some of our habits that others would think freakish.
I have this habit for example, of washing my hands with soap and water every time I get into the house. There’s this voice in my head that tells me that nothing outside my house is cleaner than what I have inside. Maybe even thinking that outside is just outright filthy. I won’t touch anything in the house until I scrub my hands. I also won’t sit on my bed (whether it has covers or not) without changing the clothes I wore while outside – maybe it’s that thought of all the public places I sat on or the dirt I accumulate at work or wherever.
This past week, a friend and I took the wives and kids bowling and while waiting our turn, we decided to have something to eat at the bowling alley. ‘ER indoors always carries sanitized wet wipes because my son has octopus hands – you can never know what he’s been touching. So whenever we’re out and need to eat, they come in quite handy where soap and water is not an option.
My friend’s wife was also equipped at the bowling alley with a purse sized sanitizer that pretty much illustrated to me that we all seem to have these crazy rituals that we may not necessarily acknowledge or even tell people about. Her kids were not even going to touch the plate without a ritualistic clean with the sanitizer. I didn’t even realise they were sold as fashion accessories, or that literally half the population wanted to carry them lest they get infected by something.
At what point do these habits become an obsessive compulsive disorder or at what point are we just being anal. My wife for example, is anal about having a clean house. Leaving dirty dishes and pots in and around the sink might as well be a class A felony punishable by 2 nights in the dog house and a dressing down. “I’ll do them later” doesn’t cut the mustard in the Stone household any more.
I’ve heard of people who won’t even touch door knobs with their bare hands or sit down on a bus or subway if they’re wearing a mini-skirt. There’s a guy who recently died in Germany from inhaling dettol. This dude had dettol everywhere in his house – buckets and bucket loads of dettol in the bathroom, kitchen and probably under his bed.
There’s this former neighbour of ours (thank God she moved) who had this crazy habit of walking into our kitchen and the first thing she always did was open our fridge and appraise its contents. It didn’t matter what time of day or night or whether she was on her cell phone when she rang the door bell and we opened the door. She would head straight for the kitchen as she started her gossip of the day or continued her phone call, and go straight for the fridge. I tried to convince my wife that this was not a Kenyan thing (long story)…but truth be told, this girl really pissed me off too.
One day when ‘er indoors told me the neighbour was on her way, I quickly emptied the fridge and put the contents in the nearby cupboards. The picture of her face when she opened the door of an empty fridge was so priceless, MasterCard would have a problem selling it.
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October 4th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
I always wash my hands as soon as I get back indoors. The dirt we collect…
You only can pull a stunt like that! You emptied the fridge? I hope she never opened it again. I had this friend who would go straight to my wadrobe to check out any new stuff I’d bought…arrrggghhh
October 5th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
I totally understand the washing hands thing and the wet wipes. And yee the hygienic wet wipes are now a fashion accessory infact superdrug now even does SWINE FLU wipes (go figure).The wipes come in flavours as well……….I am just sharing my knowledge.And by the way they have the gels too, which you could actually clip onto your clothes (like nurses on hospital wards). Again, I am just saying that all the above things might be resident in my handbag.
I think we all have OCD whether we deny it or accept. Not sitting on public toilets, not using straws that were not wrapped in what looked like the manufacturer’s packaging (this stuff of picking a straw from one big glass- hapana!), touching door handles gives me high blood pressure especially in the winter (people wipe noses and stuff with their hands more in the winter- have you noticed?). I have a list but unless you promise to cure my OCD, I will save this from becoming a post.
Okay one final one- I went to a boarding school for my secondary years all 6 of them- in Uganda. Shared a bathroom- wait they called them shower cubicles but no water ever came out of them so you walked in with your basin of water. Six showers- to 30 girls!!!!!!!!!!1 NOW, I CAN NOT use a shower after someone has been in it. Yes, I have to be the first one to use it in the morning and the first one to use it in the night. If I see water on the walls of the shower or anywhere in the bath tub- THAT IS IT. I can’t use it. DO NOT ASK………..you do not have enough time to listen to my explanation!!!!!!!!! Thank God for en suite bedrooms, that is all I am saying. Yes, when I say I do- the bedroomed is coming with his and hers showers.Otherwise he better make me sign a pre-nup coz I wont be there long! (I am joking!)
October 5th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
I guess I just have serious OCD issues- that is one heck of a comment up there. Pole.
October 6th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Welcoming self back to blogosphere. Death by Dettol fumes. Lol.
I’ll be back.
October 8th, 2009 at 8:43 am
mmmhhh… I hear you. I don’t have OCD tendencies, but believe my germs are healthier than everyone else’s, so very few people use my laptop, will wipe my hands and keyboard with wet wipes after I greet those ‘hand shakers’ in the office, I’ve never sat on a public toilet. And shudder at the people who touch escalator railings!
Will wash my hands just like you when I first get home. I had a few germ concerns after I got a kitty, but have been slowly getting to believe that her germs just like mine are healthy. When preparing food, I wash my hands everytime I touch a different ingredient, no wonder finger nail polish just isn’t for me.
October 10th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Heheheh I do the fridge thing too, every time i walk into my house or a ‘homely’ home [read relatives who won't kill me for snooping in their fridge]. In unhomely homes, I usually wait till the host’s back is turned, or find some plausible excuse to be alone in their kitchen; like, i don’t know, clearing the table? I’ve no idea why i do it, it’s just fun looking in people’s fridges. voyeuristic in a sense
Lol @ the priceless mastercard line. witty
October 16th, 2009 at 8:04 am
I guess everyone has their own version of OCD.I can always tell when someone has been to my shelf, or my wardrobe. I like everything in its place and if someone removes something and puts it back, I’ll know. And I don’t like the handshakers with wet sweaty hands. Also, sitting down at a public toilet is something I cannot begin to imagine doing…
October 18th, 2009 at 9:57 am
I wash my hands with soap as often as I can. Kellie, thanks for I now understand my nail polish failings. Lol at your healthy germs.
My desk is always a mess at work but I always say there is order in the madness as I know where avarything is. I really get irritated when anyone adds or removes anything in my absence as that just undoes the whole order and I have to start from scratch (carefully looking at each item, placing it near related items and carefully laying them out to give a disorganised efffect …)
October 21st, 2009 at 7:18 am
We all have these peculiar trends which we don’t even remember when and where we picked them from… but we all know when they become OCD. When it consumes you up whole and takes control of your life. Come on, you have a disorder if you ask me. Me, I don’t know about words like ‘never’. I may do this now and that then, I just go with the flow.
Liking your blog though, nice.