WHATS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OCD AND BEING A NEAT FREAK?
OCD is an illness of excessive orderliness, yes, but one of its most prevalent features is the person’s belief that he never quite gets things right. When someone with true OCD needs to keep his closets neat, he must take down and restack his sweaters four or five times because he doesn’t feel he’s done it well enough each time. Then, when he’s all done, he’ll go to bed asking himself, “Did I stack the sweaters right?” only to get back up and start the whole process over again. In addition to orderliness, people with OCD may worry about germs (leading to excessive handwashing), catastrophes (leading to checking the gas on the stove) or other potential bad experiences. WHAT’S THE TREATMENT FOR OCD? OCD often needs to be treated with medication (particularly the SSRIs, such as Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil or Lexapro) in combination with cognitive-behavioral therapy. SO I’M JUST A NEAT FREAK? Jamil, it sounds like you’re able to put things in their place the first time around, and, rather than b
