1 EAGLETON NOTES: SID 53. Obsessive Compulsion

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Sunday 10 May 2020

SID 53. Obsessive Compulsion

This one is for Rhymes With Plague and, of course, everyone else who wishes to read it.

I like order. I dislike disorder.

I like decisions. I dislike procrastination.

I like reasoned argument. I dislike blind adherence to an unreasoned point of view.

I like compliments. I dislike flattery.

I suspect that there is a degree of the obsessive compulsive (OCD) in me.

The problem is that the missing percentage is sometimes 51%.

For example, I cannot cope with people who fill dishwashers at random or don't put things back in their 'proper' place. My reasoning is simple. I do not like losing things nor wasting time trying to find things. So this first picture demonstrates a Good Thing (with apologies to Sellars and Yeatman):


CDs (Bad)


OCDs (Good)


62 comments:

  1. This was quite an unusual and interesting post. I suspect I also have a touch of OCD as I like to stack things in orders, whether in the dishwasher or CDs.

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    1. Beatrice, I used to just take it for granted that this was normal because my Mum and Dad always had a place for everything and everything in its place. Life has taught me differently.

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  2. I feel the same way. I often feel an urge to move things into the "right" position or place. It drives my husband quite mad.

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    1. I would look at it the other way around, JayCee. Your husband's lack of order is disagreeable to you.

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  3. Count me definitely an OCDer. By-the-way, that is quite a collection of CDs. You could start your own radio station. I'm impressed

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    1. Jill, you are a Volvo owner, so obviously you are a tidy person. I like my music and do have quite a lot of works that are not often heard. However nowadays I get most of my music from BBC Radio 3 and the Apple streaming service. It's all so much easier.

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    2. I am chuckling over the Volvo reference which explains a lot about me.

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  4. I do honestly favor things in their proper place. It is easier than being a slob about it.

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  5. With you on this. Reorganize the dishwasher if my DH loads it. Don't leave dishes in the sink. Make the bed first thing in the morning. Close closet/cupboard doors and drawers. And--mostly--keep my mouth shut about doing/fixing these things that bother him not one bit. And...avoid his 'black hole of Calcutta' manspace so as to maintain my sanity.

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    1. Mary, I have lived on my own for 20 years so I no longer have to hunt for things put in random drawers or search for things which I knew that I'd left in such and such a place. I couldn't live with anyone now and I would not expect anyone to live with me either.

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  6. Good order just makes good sense.

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    1. Jules, I just knew that you would would have a sensible approach. PS I have not been able to get strong flour or yeast yet.

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  7. I get so frustrated and annoyed when I lose things. It is much easier to have things in their right place, looking neat and tidy - perhaps I'm with you on the OCD thing? LOL.

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    1. Margaret, losong things is so annoying and, usually, so unnecessary. The worst thing I can do is change the 'proper' place for something without telling myself.

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  8. There is a TV show from years ago. It is called "Monk". You might not have seen it, it is American. It's very funny, it is a detective who has OCD. Now, when we first watched it and were laughing at it, I also said to my husband, "Does he remind you a bit of me?" And then, we laughed even more since it was so true!
    I have tried to ease up and not be so picky about things...my husband might not agree! :-)

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    1. As you assumed, Kay, I've not seen "Monk". I'm glad to hear that you are another of the elite band.

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  9. Having read the comments as well as the post, I find the statistics suggesting that most bloggers seem to have OCD. Including me! 😉 I don't have a dishwasher, but I do prefer to keep things organized. (It happens now and then that I reorganize and thereby cause trouble for myself, though...)

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    1. Monica, a social psychologist would have a field day. I think, if truth be told, the population is probably fairy evenly split between tidy and untidy people. Of course the tidy people will be frustrated by the untidy. You and I both have the advantage that there is no one to frustrate us.

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  10. Oh! A good collection of CDs there, though!

    I try to organise my two furry mates, but fail miserably! They won't even wash up their own dinner bowls, let alone put them in the sink!

    Take good care, Graham...Stay true to yourself...to who you are...you're doing a pretty good job at it. :)

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    1. Thank you, Lee. I like music as you will have guessed.

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    2. I, too, as I think you've already guessed, love music, Graham...and I have a wide and varied collection...CDs, cassettes, and, yes...records! :)

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  11. I have a series of possible "homes" for most things. I rarely lose anything but I might need to explore a couple of possibilities.
    I'm not one of "the elite"but I might have other good qualities

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    1. Kylie, we are all a melange of traits both good and bad and what is bad to one may be good to another.

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    2. Tidyness is universally agreed on as the way to be!

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  12. I don't think I have much OCD going on. I just like things to be in the right place so I can find them. When you grow up with lots of messy brothers who were forever losing stuff, (missing footy boots could bring the home to a standstill) you learn it's easier to be tidy.

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    1. Pauline, you are always the voice of reason and common sense. I was brought up in a home which had a place for everything and everything in its place so it just came naturally to me.

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  13. I like your list, and your CD shelving. It looks purpose built?

    I have a foot in both camps. CDs are arranged alphabetically; books by genre but not alphabetical; labels front in fridge and pantry etc; clothes by colour ... but, I can tolerate a goodly amount of disorder before things get put in their proper place. I joke that Mr P and I are yin and yang on these things. He's OCD on the outside but chaotic on the inside and I'm the reverse. He can't stand to have things lying around but will just shove them in a cupboard willy-nilly where I can't stand things to be put away unless they present like some glossy catalogue! ... On the vexatious subject of the dishwasher, in these neo-plague times, as entertaining is off the agenda and the culinary arts have taken leave, the dishwasher has been mothballed and old-fashioned Washing Up has taken centre stage as a leisure pastime.

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    1. Pipistrello, there is no contest in my household. The dishwasher reigns. I dislike dishwashing. My CDs are organised in the case shown by a combination of genre (religious vocal, instrumental, operatic - popular are housed elsewhere) and then they are in alphabetical order.

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  14. OCD has many other symptoms as well.It's not funny.

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    1. Red, you are quite correct and I have, I admit, treated it with a lack of seriousness which could be regarded as insensitivity by anyone who has serious OCD. To such people who may read this I apologise. However for those of us who may be regarded as having a very mild sign of it I think it is easier to cope with it if one treats it lightly.

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    2. Graham never apologise to nutters. They will get to think they are normal and never get better.

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  15. I wish my husband had it.

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    1. Diane, husbands are notoriously bad when it comes to being orderly and tidy. On the other hand having at one stage lived with a lady who never had a place for anything but, annoyingly, always knew where everything was I would defend 'a place for everything and everything in its place' if you live with someone.

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  16. I'm afraid we're both beyond help in this house. Chaos rules!

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    1. So long as you are both like that and both happy, Cro, that is all that matters.

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  17. The obsession is one thing, the compulsion is quite another; the unshakeable belief that bad things will happen if the obsessions are not strictly adhered to (and checked, and rechecked....). We can solve your dishwasher stacking dilemma - get rid of it and wash the dishes in the sink, and get all ZEN about the process rather than focusing only on the end result.

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    1. Tigger, I agree (see my response to Red above). However, I do not have a dishwasher dilemma. I can stack my dishwasher exactly as I like it and be perfectly happy. I detest dishwashing and see no need to do it. I live alone and my many visitors (in non-lockdown times) are very happy to leave the stacking of the dishwasher to me.

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  18. I am totally disorganised and live in chaos. I occasionally work with a chap who can be very annoying. We were erecting a henhouse kit and before we started he reads the instructions and then goes through the manifest ticking all the bits off down to the last nut, bolt and washer. Nice bloke but completely barking mad.

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    1. Adrian, it will not surprise you that I check the manifest too (having once been ages trying to cope with an IKEA kit with a missing piece) but even I don't read instructions (except as a matter of last resort) and have, occasionally been caught out.

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  19. Having moved and downsized twice in the last year, my memory of where things are in a drawer or packing box has been strained to the limits. I know that I have seen the little packet of plastic tie wraps and would not have thrown them out but.. where? Still if thats all that I have to worry about things can't be too bad. Lesley

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    1. Lesley, I have that problem when I try and get rid of 'stuff' and put things up in the loft. I know its there (it often isn't because I threw it out) but in which box? The other thing is when I re-organise things and they get re-located. Unfortunately often to a place never to be founds again when I need them. As you say, though, if that's all we have to worry about....

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  20. Is that your CD rack Graham? What an amazing collection. Are they all in alphabetical order?

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    1. It is, indeed, YP. My CDs are organised in the case shown by a combination of genre (religious vocal, instrumental, operatic - popular are housed elsewhere) and then they are in alphabetical order by composer and by sub-genre within each composer.

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    2. Which section are your Gilbert O'Sullivan CD's in? What about your Little Mix albums?

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    3. YP, my G & S are on the bottom shelf with 'opera, operetta and musicals'. I'm afraid you have me with Little Mix. I've not heard of them but I assume they are modern pop so they would be in the cases, each holding 120 discs, with all the folk, pop and 'other' CDs and music DVDs. My tastes are very wide from Conscious Roots to Madeline Perroux to The Cowboy Junkies and the Liverpool Spinners (whose Folk Club was originally in the upstairs room of a pub in Walton Breck Road).

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    4. Ah, The Spinners...that takes me back. Remember those jumpers they used to wear? They made lovely harmonies. By the way, I was not referring to Gilbert AND Sullivan but Gilbert O'Sullivan! To visit the Little Mix website go here:- https://www.little-mix.com/

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  21. As usual, I am late to the party. You surprised me with making this post for me. I don't think I'm obsessive-compulsive (although one of my sons recently said about me that I was one of the nicest controlling perfectionists you could ever want to meet, so there is that). Maybe your list-making of like/dislike opposites at the beginning. I do like to make lists. Whatever the reason, thank you for the mention and the link!

    Ever the editor, I think you meant to contrast decisions with procrastination, not prevarication. Just a guess.

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    1. Bob, thank you for your comment and your 'edit'. You are, of course, correct in that what I actually meant was procrastination and not prevarication. I'm not sure why I got my words in a tangle but I have now amended my error.

      The reason I thought of you was nothing to do with the thought that you might be OCD but simply because some of your recent posts have been on quite unusual topics and this was a pretty unusual topic for my blog. It might be setting a future trend though.

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  22. I am even later to the party (with the excuse that I have had limited blog access for 1 1/2 weeks and have come back home only last night).
    You won't be surprised to read that my dishwasher has to be stacked just so, and in no other way. Also, the three remote controls on my coffee table (for the telly itself, the receiver and the bluray player) are lined up at a perfect right angle to the table's edge, and sorted by size. My sister loves pushing them around so that they get to be at odd angles when I leave the room to fetch a cup of tea.

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    1. It's good to see you back, Meike. My four remotes (TV, bluray player/recorder, CD player and amplifier) live next to each other in a specific order but I recently changed my TV and the remote is a totally different shape and lives upright instead of flat so I have had to alter everything. The difference between us is that my order is usually upset by the fact that my living room space where I sit in the evenings has my books, drawing and painting stuff in it which tends to ruin my ordered preferences. Lockdown has meant that they don't get put away and tidied up.

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    2. I have five remotes in my living room and they tend to spread out over the table while I'm using them - but they "live" in a basket/tray on that table, and I usually tuck them all back in there at the end of the day... I find baskets and trays for various small things very handy because it makes it easy to clear the table quickly when needed (and still know where to find the things).

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  23. Our dishwasher is set out a bit different but I'm like you, I like things in places where I can find things again. I have 2 grown up children and even their standards aren't the same as mine lol.

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    1. Amy, our younger son was the untidiest person and his bedroom and living room as a teenager were middens. Now he lives in a splendid house that he designed and every single detail has to be just so. Mind you, like me, he strives for perfect order but lives with imperfection.

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