03 April 2007

Back.... (In Black) to politics and my OCD

In no particular order, let's get to the political things I wanted to talk about yesterday and then on to the Tuesday Brain Dump.

First, the British sailors in Iran. Is anyone else reminded of the neighborhood bully taking all his toys and going home in this case? No, that's just me? OK. But really, I think the Iranians are being a weee little bitty bit ridiculous over this whole thing. Ask the Brits to apologize for 'invading their territorial waters' or whatever, but do we need to make this an international crisis? I don't think so. Let those kids go home already.

Next, David Hicks. This is the Australian citizen who has been held at Guantanamo Bay by US forces since 2002 and was christened the "Australian Taliban" by the media. I don't really want to rant today about the completely illegal detention center in Cuba, nor the totally unconstitutional tribunals they're holding there, or about the people that they're holding. Those are all things for another day, when I can annoy my family by talking about how "W" is the devil incarnate. No, I'm lying there. I do want to rant about how the military is holding people who probably have very little connection to Osama, or to the Taliban, or to terrorism at all. It is my personal opinion, perhaps naively so, that most of the people being held at Gitmo were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I'm going to avoid going on and on about it today.

I think that the plea deal that was brokered for David Hicks is bunk. He's got a gag order from talking to the media (and I for one would like very much to hear what he's got to say) and he had to sign something that says that he was never mistreated while in US custody, which I'm sure is not just bunk, but bullshit. Complete bullshit, as he's stated previously that he felt his life was being threatened if he didn't agree to whatever his captors wanted.

What else was on my mind yesterday? Oh, yes, Nancy Pelosi traveling and W's threats to veto anything that comes across his desk that is a 'no' vote for the war. Let's wait on both of those issues for another day and get on with my usual Tuesday stuff, shall we?

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD, is a disorder that has a myriad of definitions. Used to be when I thought of someone with OCD, I thought of Jack Nicholson's Melvin Udall in "As Good As It Gets", where his character washes his hands over and over, and carries his own silverware around. But then, someone close to me was diagnosed with the disorder, and the things that are the symptoms for this person are radically different. He gets upset when things are changed...which means that if you re-arrange your living room furniture, it bothers him. Changing the way a particular dish is made, or where each person sits at the dinner table also bothers him. There are other manifestations, such as obsessive organization of DVDs, music, spices...

I've never formally been diagnosed with OCD, but I've got my own share of symptoms. Like what?

Alphabetizing my CDs and DVDs is one. I really alphabetize things that don't need it, all sorts of things. An embarrassing amount of things. Spices in the spice rack, shoes...books.

Listening to a song over and over and over is another. I'll get 'into' a particular song, and need, NEED I tell you, to hear it. And listen to it until everyone around me is sick unto death of it.

The television show and the cute actor I'm into is a third. (Regular readers are groaning and covering their eyes, so I'll stop now. Or right after this. Hee.)

Counting things is a fourth. I count stairs, I count cars, I count keystrokes on the computer, I count strides on the treadmill.

Finally, I'm a list-maker. I make lists for EVERYTHING. What to pack when I go out of town. Grocery lists. List of things to do at work, with priorities attached to each one. Lists of words that I like. Lists of Bands I like. Lists, lists, lists, lists. Once upon a time, an NPR program was doing this fun little thing where people would send in alternative definitions for words, and they were all hilarious, but the only one I remember is "listless-verb. To be without a list. Lost." That makes me laugh every time I think about it. List-less. Without a list. Oh, the horror! I need my lists!

I'm adding a list in the sidebar today, giving in to my obsessive list-making, and allowing an outlet for it. I'm going to list the songs in my iPod's Top 25 Most Played, but I'll update it and change it as I see fit, making other lists to share as the whim strikes me.

There is treatment for OCD, but mostly I'm not interested in it. I tend to view these manifestations of mine as personality quirks, rather than hardcore insanity. And while one or two of these things may slip over the line from time to time, mostly, they're harmless. At least, I keep telling myself that.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

And I thought OCD stood for Online Constantly Disorder. Learn something new every day, huh?

~mm

Lucy Arin said...

umm, me? Online all the time? Surely, you jest. :-D

Guess I left that out of my list of symptoms.....spending an unreasonable about of time on the fan boards and blogging...

Anonymous said...

I have started a support group. It's a web forum, of course...

~mm

Lucy Arin said...

*snerk*

Good thing I've given up coffee, or it would have been sprayed over the keyboard. Thanks for the chuckle.

Of course, you, as the mod, will allow me to post all of the swoon-y fangirl pics I'd like, right?