Please stop making a joke out of my disorder. It’s not funny to experience crippling anxiety over things you know full well do not deserve it, nor to experience extreme, sometimes violent or disturbing, thoughts and images that you have no control over.
My mental faculties are similarly compromised, but I am a firm believer that nothing is off limits to humour and levity. It is completely possible to respect the complexity and severity of a problem even while making light of it, and it may even be beneficial to poke fun on occasion.
In fact, research shows that sadness often stifles action and attention, and that people try to push such things from their minds. Insisting that people remain solemn about our conditions may prevent them from caring about and respecting us as much as they otherwise would.
Umm, use of repetitive personal rituals to manage intrusive thoughts is basically the definition of OCD.
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) is the one where everything must be ordered according to the patient’s expectations. I blame the names for people confusing one for the other so frequently.
If one is managing the thoughts through rituals, then by definition one has some control over them. Not necessarily enough control, but even a slight wisp of control is far better than none at all, which I can also say from personal experience.
In regards to strangers identifying and understanding disorders, I’ve found it’s well worth being extremely forgiving about such things, as it is unreasonable and unfair to expect people to know things which society makes no effort to formally teach.
On top of that, the definitions of all mental disorders have been and will continue to be tweaked frequently, and even among professionals, terminology can vary based on when they were trained, which version of the DSM they’ve spent the most time using, and how much attention they pay to errata and current research.
Given all those limitations, I find it is folly to hope that the general populace will correctly use the technical terms of every profession even in the most ideal circumstances, and downright unkind to expect such when people would need to relearn the vernacular every decade to keep up, and cannot trust their elders to know the current terminology.
When most people don’t even know what the word ‘quantum’ means, despite it being used constantly and consistently in an extremely popular field of science for nearly a century now, expecting those same people to know the differences between any two specific mental diagnoses, no matter how well-named or defined, is neither fair nor reasonable.
If Sweetheart does go on a mad spree she’ll probably get unplugged from the drone. Might be awkward having to go back to paws and mouth to finnish whatever she starts.
It’s good that they’re listening in, because she _really_ needs to be talked down. (Of course, Tip is probably off on a date, leaving the job to the mad scientist, the antique robot, the post-flesh social misfit, and the cheerfully psychotic zombie.)
That last line should get some attention, if they ever pick up the phone. Odds are good that the phone system was designed in-house to maximize the maddening effect.
Didn’t we learn a while ago that the Institute has a special division for driving mads even more insane so that they’ll use their powers for evil? Maybe this is how it happens.
In the continued regrettable absence of edduard: from “A Bicycle Built for Two,” Hal 9000.
Sweetheart, Sweetheart, how does your madness grow?
Pens and office supplies begin to run very low.
You’re getting the bureaucrat snap rage,
So go out on a stylish rampage.
And you and Ao will rule the day-o
If you just take your blueprints and go!
All this is doing wonders for her cover, mind. Outside the door, the staff are listening and smiling.
(Apropos of nothing but Shaenon’s back catalogue: apparently, 80s “Doctor Who” villain The Rani was kicked out by the Time Lords for releasing a plague of “giant mice” from her Mad Science Lab. I have my own suspicions as to her true identity.)
Sweetheart is in OCD hell, isn’t she? That can’t all be coincidence. Everything from the poster to the rules are designed to drive her mad, mad I tell you!
Wait, she can pick up the (retro) phone and order pens from, not just a mental hospital, but a black-ops mental hospital? I wonder how many pizzas they get delivered each day?
I’m a bit bemused to see people describing this as OCD, because this sort of recursive chain of tasks seems to happen nearly every day in my not-particularly-OCD life. “Got to build the client’s software library. Tries. Doesn’t work on OS X? Well, they said they built it on Linux. Try that. Needs POCL, okay, build that. Oh, that needs Clang, apt-get that. Oh, apt-get doesn’t install the headers I need? Install latest Clang from source repo. Nope, that’s too new for POCL. Install older version of Clang.” And suddenly a task that seemed going in like it might take ten minutes has literally taken days…
And that boys & girls is how you drive someone with OCD mad
Please stop making a joke out of my disorder. It’s not funny to experience crippling anxiety over things you know full well do not deserve it, nor to experience extreme, sometimes violent or disturbing, thoughts and images that you have no control over.
That latter part is not OCD, it’s something else.
My mental faculties are similarly compromised, but I am a firm believer that nothing is off limits to humour and levity. It is completely possible to respect the complexity and severity of a problem even while making light of it, and it may even be beneficial to poke fun on occasion.
In fact, research shows that sadness often stifles action and attention, and that people try to push such things from their minds. Insisting that people remain solemn about our conditions may prevent them from caring about and respecting us as much as they otherwise would.
Reality resists simplicity.
Umm, use of repetitive personal rituals to manage intrusive thoughts is basically the definition of OCD.
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) is the one where everything must be ordered according to the patient’s expectations. I blame the names for people confusing one for the other so frequently.
If one is managing the thoughts through rituals, then by definition one has some control over them. Not necessarily enough control, but even a slight wisp of control is far better than none at all, which I can also say from personal experience.
In regards to strangers identifying and understanding disorders, I’ve found it’s well worth being extremely forgiving about such things, as it is unreasonable and unfair to expect people to know things which society makes no effort to formally teach.
On top of that, the definitions of all mental disorders have been and will continue to be tweaked frequently, and even among professionals, terminology can vary based on when they were trained, which version of the DSM they’ve spent the most time using, and how much attention they pay to errata and current research.
Given all those limitations, I find it is folly to hope that the general populace will correctly use the technical terms of every profession even in the most ideal circumstances, and downright unkind to expect such when people would need to relearn the vernacular every decade to keep up, and cannot trust their elders to know the current terminology.
When most people don’t even know what the word ‘quantum’ means, despite it being used constantly and consistently in an extremely popular field of science for nearly a century now, expecting those same people to know the differences between any two specific mental diagnoses, no matter how well-named or defined, is neither fair nor reasonable.
If Sweetheart does go on a mad spree she’ll probably get unplugged from the drone. Might be awkward having to go back to paws and mouth to finnish whatever she starts.
Sweetheart has come a ways since the coffee rampage..
Sweetheart, do remember you can just ask nick to give you the number again 😉
And let her know all this anxiety was for nothing? That would be sure to make her snap.
It’s like she’s in a giant psychological testing chamber. Oh, wait…
…Ok, or they just need a better office manager. Hey, Sweetheart are you busy?
Sweetheart is approaching Hannelore levels of adorable ocd mania.
Oh dear god, yes!
It’s good that they’re listening in, because she _really_ needs to be talked down. (Of course, Tip is probably off on a date, leaving the job to the mad scientist, the antique robot, the post-flesh social misfit, and the cheerfully psychotic zombie.)
The antique robot is in a duel to the death
The Internet Police politely remind you not to post when sleepy.
That was of course a general population “you” and not a retort to your post. Damn, even sleepier. Better get to bed.
That last line should get some attention, if they ever pick up the phone. Odds are good that the phone system was designed in-house to maximize the maddening effect.
Didn’t we learn a while ago that the Institute has a special division for driving mads even more insane so that they’ll use their powers for evil? Maybe this is how it happens.
“‘Stop me before I kill. Married, probably.” —Detective Sgt. Phil Fish, “Barney Miller.”
In the continued regrettable absence of edduard: from “A Bicycle Built for Two,” Hal 9000.
Sweetheart, Sweetheart, how does your madness grow?
Pens and office supplies begin to run very low.
You’re getting the bureaucrat snap rage,
So go out on a stylish rampage.
And you and Ao will rule the day-o
If you just take your blueprints and go!
All this is doing wonders for her cover, mind. Outside the door, the staff are listening and smiling.
(Apropos of nothing but Shaenon’s back catalogue: apparently, 80s “Doctor Who” villain The Rani was kicked out by the Time Lords for releasing a plague of “giant mice” from her Mad Science Lab. I have my own suspicions as to her true identity.)
Well, Dave DID invent a time machine. Wait, Dave is Rassilon?
Dave doesn’t have the style sense to be Rassilon. 😉
Sweetheart is in OCD hell, isn’t she? That can’t all be coincidence. Everything from the poster to the rules are designed to drive her mad, mad I tell you!
Wait, she can pick up the (retro) phone and order pens from, not just a mental hospital, but a black-ops mental hospital? I wonder how many pizzas they get delivered each day?
Regrettably, this storyline grows increasingly autobiographical with every passing day.
I’m a bit bemused to see people describing this as OCD, because this sort of recursive chain of tasks seems to happen nearly every day in my not-particularly-OCD life. “Got to build the client’s software library. Tries. Doesn’t work on OS X? Well, they said they built it on Linux. Try that. Needs POCL, okay, build that. Oh, that needs Clang, apt-get that. Oh, apt-get doesn’t install the headers I need? Install latest Clang from source repo. Nope, that’s too new for POCL. Install older version of Clang.” And suddenly a task that seemed going in like it might take ten minutes has literally taken days…
Its not the chain of tasks. Its that she’s describing herself as ‘literally Hitler’ for calling to get pens for non worm related purposes.
Well, then, keep up the good living and remember to write it down…
I see this as a sort of programming/preprogramming on her part. The “good doggie” taken to extremes…a safeguard?
Doubtful, when we saw the rest of her pack they didn’t seem like her.
I do believe that was the point.
She gets twitchy over mis-use of “its” and “it’s,” but she blatantly mis-uses “literally”? Argh, Sweetheart, say it ain’t so!
If she’s mad enough at this point to start a world war, i guess it’s not that unwarranted
She may have meant it literally.
I’m guessing you say that every time.
Sweetheart, poor Sweetheart…
You needed those pens for work anyway.