escape to insanity

Spurred by Philip’s post inquiring as to whether he has OCD, I clicked through to the OCD Assessment survey.

A few quick radio buttons later, I had my survey completed and clicked the ‘calculate score’ button. Philip said he scored a 41, and had mentioned how he routinely physically checked his car windows to make sure they were secure, stacked his child’s school books in tidy piles, and cleaned his keyboard daily. With only a 41 to show for that (which falls under the category of “you’re probably alright”), I figured I had to be sitting somewhere under that number. Maybe somewhere in the high thirties?

Nope.

I got myself a shiny new score of 60. Yep. 60.

Your Score: 60
51 - 100 It is possible you have OCD and that it is affecting your life. We recommend that you carry out a full assessment (you could try our full version) or seek diagnosis from a mental health professional.

Well. That’s fun. I’ma go arrange something in descending order of width and color. And then wash my hands for an hour.

I'm pretty sure I have some form of OCD. Maybe not the full-blown type, but still. There are just some things that bug me. Not pet peeves, really, just stuff that I have to have a particular way or risk losing my mind.

Orientation of paper money. Whenever I get paper bills from a cashier or bank teller, for some reason it just bugs me if all the bills aren't facing the same way. I'll have to stop and take the time to make sure they're all facing the same direction, and all right side up. I can't let them be upside-down, or back-to-back — all the Presidents need to be facing forward.

Stacked notepads. On my desk at work, I have two square Post-it notepads, in different colors. One is sitting on the other, at an angle. A 45 degree angle, that is. If you looked at it from above, it would make a perfect 8-point star. If I accidentally bump them while reaching for something, or if someone else stops by my desk while I'm away and moves them, I have to adjust them so they line up again either in the 8-point star or so they're a perfect square, one on top the other. They can't just be tossed about willy-nilly.

Jewelry at odd angles. Now, while I hesitate to call it “jewelry,” I suppose that's what it is. I typically wear two pieces of what you could conceivably call “jewelry:” a silver-ish ring on my right hand with some sort of tribal markings, and a beaded necklace — I've got a few, so I just pick whichever one looks like it clashes the least with whatever else I'm wearing that day. My ring fits snugly enough that it doesn't really rotate much (my finger has fattened up just enough since I got the ring in high school). If I notice that my ring has twisted on my finger and the patterns aren't in the right positions on my finger, I'll stop and twist it back into place — basically just involves using my middle and pinkie fingers to adjust the ring. The same goes for my necklace — if I notice that the clasp on the back has slid sideways around my neck, I have to pull it back to dead-center, which I determine by just finding my spine and making sure the clasp is sitting there.

I know I've done more, but these were the more common ones. At one point at the house I lived in during my senior year of college, I'd lined up the cereal boxes in the pantry in order of descending height and thickness. My CDs and DVDs are all oriented as vertically as possible in their cases (so that the title is sitting perfectly for when you open the case).

Anyone else do these, or am I just way out there?