Saturday, January 24, 2009

confessions of a neat freak!

Some say, people who are neat are helpless to be otherwise, they’re prisoners of it. I couldn’t agree more with this statement as I myself is a neatness lover, or more precisely, a neat freak. I’m not just particular about immaculate neatness, exactness, perfect order and faultless arrangement of things but I’m actually obsessed with it..

As well as liking my room to be permanently clean, as a neat freak, i like to have every element of my life tidy and in order. For instance, all my clothes, scarves, gloves, socks etc will have to be neatly folded and stacked up and organized by categories. And from time to time, I do classify and sub-classify things, in complex ways. I just can’t help it!

Of course, unlike people with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), which is a true disease, i don’t repetitively and obsessively clean things but I can also get upset when something is out of order because for me, order equals control, and hence security.

To be honest, I do drive myself crazy because of my perfectionism and fastidiousness. Sometimes I just want to take a break from the constant pressure of cleanliness and sit down to relax.. It’s not easy though..

John Ratey, professor of psychiatry at Harvard University, says that hyper-concern about order could be a "shadow syndrome" of OCD, a mild and indistinct, perhaps even undetectable expression of the more severe disorder. OCD has to be at a level where it interferes with a person's functioning, while neat freaks can often function well.

Perhaps, you know people who develop over-the-top anxiety to things that don’t deserve it, like knickknacks on a shelf, and even when sick or exhausted with fatigue would get out of bed if they see a speck of dirt on their television. I admit, unclean, dusty or out-of-place objects do cause disquietude for me, but I haven’t gone that far into the pathological side. In fact I’m learning to tolerate the anxiety that arises from the obsession of cleanliness and the result is the obsession has gradually loosened its grip, which is a relief for me.. ^.^


By the way, I was quite surprised to find out that there’s such an article about how to be a neat freak on wikiHow. Check this out if you’re interested.. ^.^

2 comments:

  1. Hehe,Me too,cant wait to go thr,my dream land!hehe, but wat to do,hv to wait for me to pass my exam 1st.Btw,Happy Chinee New Year ya, With Love...

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  2. hehe, it's okay.. happy chinese new year ♥♥♥

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