One catastrophe at a time

I need to do fewer things better. My sister Marilyn says the crises just have to line up, then she can handle them.

WHAT NEXT. The urgent question.

People with OCD, that wd be me, spend a lot of time thinking about SEQUENCE, what is the proper order to do things. I so get why people with more severe OCD, mine is mild, why they go into these routines of whatever, handwashing, necessity to touch or do things in a particular order, it makes them feel calm and in control at last. The poor angels!

What next can be a terrifying question. If you choose wrong, there could be terrible consequences. This is not only in families with alcoholic or rage-aholic people, yet it is understandable that where there are such people, it is painful for their family members. They are in anguish. They lash out, sometimes in ways that hurt other people. The vicious cycle continues. Hurt people hurt other people. Some of us, me included, spend an enormous amount of energy trying not to hurt other people. Turning the other cheek is giving me whiplash. Dear God I hope they get the meds right soon.

For people with OCD, they find whatever answers they can. Even if it looks abnormal from the outside.

I raise a toast to my fellow people with OCD. Maybe we're Presbyterians in spirit---"decently and in order" or Germans, who understand instinctively that there IS one optimal solution to a problem and one MUST do it that way. I'm half Presbyterian and half German. Doomed.

I see that this tendency leads to tenacity when it is important. I also observe in myself and others how it can go so wrong.

The world needs us, and our persistence and focus, but reviles those of us who have this trait in spades. Unfair.