Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Living in the World

Sometimes living in a little cocoon is so inviting. If I stay in my house, the germs can't get me, right? It gets boring pretty fast, though, even with books and gardens and internet. Even introverts like me need a little human contact, plus, you know, groceries!

I guess I'll have to live out there in the germy world after all.

Currently my neighbor's house has a toilet in the driveway. It rained about an inch today, so I assume it's a toilet with a couple inches of water in it, just waiting to incubate some toilet germs.

My instinct is to avoid avoid avoid. But a good thing happened. The plumbers parked in front of my house. Which means they spent all day walking back and forth across my driveway and sidewalk. No point in avoiding, right, when the germs are there already?

Since contaminating everything beyond redemption is key to ERP for germ issues, it's perfect. I can't say I'm thrilled, but I like getting this push. OCD's been winning too often these days.

9 comments:

  1. Interesting how OCD manifests in such diverse ways. Don't have. Germ OCD, but religious OCD? Got that big time. I just subscribed here. Thanks for posting.

    -Amir
    www.educatedanxiety.com

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  2. Oh, my, I would have a problem with a toilet in a nearby driveway, too. That would definitely set off alarms in me. Good for you for thinking "ERP."

    When I worked in a nearby city, I used to drive by a house everyday that had a toilet being used as a planter in the front yard. Never liked to look at it.

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    1. I'm all for interesting garden art, but I don't think I'd go there!

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  3. I will say, Ann, you sure seem to have some interesting neighbors! They are always leaving stuff out that is OCD difficult! I guess that's a good thing though. And I think it's really great that you recognize that. I did not for a really, really long time. I used to really resent that kind of stuff, but my doc kept telling me over and over again that it was just the world's way of "helping me out."

    Oh, I did the whole living in a cocoon thing for a little while. It just made my OCD worse, really quickly. It was a terrible downward spiral. Never again.

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    1. ha, yes. Actually, the neighbors just moved out, so now the landlord is having a bunch of work done. Including lots of plumbing apparently. Got my fingers crossed for better neighbors than the last ones.

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    2. oh and I can imagine that an OCD cocoon would lead in a bad direction pretty quickly.

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  4. I had the same thought as Sunny.......no boring neighbors for you! I just love how you so easily recognize when you are avoiding and how quickly it can make you spiral downward. Certainly happened to my son. Glad you are out and about amidst all the dirty toilets of the world :)!

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  5. A toilet in the front yard, to funny, or ironic maybe. Good blog.

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