I don’t like odd numbers. It freaks me out when I have an odd number of Twitter followers. The TV volume always needs to be on a round number. And I hate when my iPhone battery hits 99% before I even leave the house.
So this gallery really makes my skin crawl.
OCD
Gallery originally from Buzzfeed here.
Comments
70 Comments so far
The galleries on the site don’t seem to be working normally for me at the moment. I can’t hit the right/left arrows to flick through them, and when I click the thumbnails it opens the image in a new tab instead of in the gallery.
Not sure if it is just me, or something others are experiencing too.
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But you have 19 pics in your gallery!!! What’s up with that?
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I liked this article just to even up the number of likes
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The even-number-thing that so many people seem to have… I must one in a million, because I like odd numbers.
I like to see a group of 3 or 5 candles of vases together… that kind of thing. I see the odd number balancing things out. The odd numbered object being the center of a group of things. Without the odd number, there is no center!
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I’m exactly the same with the odd numbers! Prefer them and the pattern that they make
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Cant handle!
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This article made me feel more OCD than I realized I was.
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Every single picture got to me.
I cannot stand volume being anything but even numbers or a multiplication of “5″. Why 5 is OK but 1,3,7,9 aren’t is beyond. Yet 11 is my favourite number…. go figure.
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I love that the writer hates having an odd number of followers and there are currently 271 Facebook likes on this post. Haha
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No one likes to see mental illness being trivialized, but this article is not specifically aimed at people with OCD! I think a lot of you need to remember that mild OCD symptoms are naturally occurring in most people’s psychology. You can be a perfectionist without having a full blown mental illness. I think THAT is what this piece is poking fun at – people’s common little perfectionist idiosyncrasies, the annoying feeling you get when something looks out of place, etc.
Do you think that the character Homer Simpson makes fun of people with a low IQ? He could perhaps be seen as offensive to alcoholics? (love of beer, can’t resist getting drunk, portrayed in a humorous light). My point is, you can find offense in a lot of innocent things if you look hard enough. (Maybe you do find the Simpsons really offensive and in that case I will have done little to convince you of the things I am saying!)
In any event, I appreciate that OCD can be a life altering problem which is not a laughing matter, but I think viewing this article as making light of mental illness is really being hypersensitive.
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Having OCD written under the gallery indicates that the article is intended to be about OCD. I am not hypersensitive but sick of the trend of people using the term OCD in the wrong context.
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OMFG who opens a chip packet upside down?
It’s not so much odd numbers I don’t like, but prime numbers! 23? Ewwww!
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The aircraft tray picture!
It’s driving me crazy!!
Could someone please straighten that bloody latch!
OCD me? I don’t think so.
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I love the road markings on top of the utility hatches, loved them mismatched.
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Oh please people lighten up! My sister suffers from OCD and the best way to make her feel better is to sometimes have a laugh about it! Some of you are just looking for something to whinge about, stop grilling Mamamia for no reason, this article is supposed to be funny and uplifting.
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It’s great you can help your sister cope through laughing! But, as a long time sufferer of OCD, who has no symptoms related to order and tidiness this is just another piece undermining the seriousness of an illness which at times has destroyed my life. I am all for a joke, but I don’t find trivializing OCD in the media amusing. It is not acceptable to laugh at people with physical disabilities but it is still fine to joke about mental illnesses and that’s not ok with me.
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I think this is a massive waste of a post.
And I totally agree with others who said this gallery and article trivialises a serious mental health condition. Please MM, you’re better than this…
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ALL of this bothered me. It also bugs me (thanks mum, for instilling this in me!) when someone leaves a powerpoint turned on and nothing is plugged into it!!!
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I go around uni turning them off!
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This actually made me incredibly uncomfortable. Am not going to tidy my desk drawers. ICK!
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I have been hospitalised twice for OCD. It isn’t about being ‘anal’ or anything like that. It is a serious illness and the jokes just make it even harder for me to explain to people about my OCD. Please Mamamia, try and write an educated piece about OCD instead of just trivializing a condition which is debilitating and ruins peoples lives. If you want to joke about having funny habits, and being particular about things…well fine, but leave my illness out of it. It is anything but funny, believe me!
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Then maybe there does need to be a disclaimer, or similar so to not offend. Thanks for sharing your experience and pushing the MM community understand other perspectives a little better. Could you write a piece about your condition?
Also, I’m no expert, but can there be varying degrees of OCD? I wouldn’t think such things are cut and dried?
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Absolutely there are varying degrees! From people like me who have OC tendencies (not OCD) where it only affects me sometimes, to people who can barely leave the house because they’re so affected.
Melissa I would love to read an article from you.
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I actually do have a 1/2 finished article I have been working on and am glad I have at least one person who would like to read it! Hahaha!
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Each individual sufferer of OCD has different obsessions and compulsions which makes it a difficult disorder to define and understand. I am not a neat, organised person and wish I were tidier! Am really glad oh, that you are interested to learn more about OCD. Gives me hope that there are people out there willing to try and understand.
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I don’t mind these pictures – they are funny. But looking through them, I did realise that I do mind when people leave time on the microwave, when they fold towels with a fold inside a fold (instead of in a Z-fold) and when the towels aren’t lined up nicely in the bathroom (even bottoms, folds on the same sides…). These things do actually irk me. And I hadn’t really realised that that’s odd – and that other people really aren’t weird for not realising the simplicity of doing these nice orderly things.
But, then again, I don’t mind messy hair, messy clothes, mismatched socks, stuff on the floor, a pile of dirty dishes, or whatever. And I like the Japanese philosophy that a slight imperfection actually makes an artwork, a carpet, a flower arrangement, (or even a person?) that much more perfect. So it’s partial.
The big thing about OCD is the compulsion part. As well as the obsession part. The torture is in knowing how ridiculous it is to have to go and line the pencils up again perfectly or check the oven again, but still having to go and do it, over and over again in case something bad happens (even though you know it probably won’t).
I think if you’re going to run a story on this, and lighthearted things are fine, that you should put an advise contact number at the bottom. Just in case.
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I laughed at all of these images, a maniacal and nervous laugh. I wanted to turn the manhole, remove all the sharpened pencils and retile the bathrooms. I wanted to shout out “who opened the chips upside down!”, and, I mean really, “WHO TOOK THE TABLET FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE PACKET?”. Who does things like that?
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I do! Couldn’t care less.
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My husband!!!!!
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I noticed all of them but not one of them bothered me. The house I grew up in had one bathroom tile upside down, which I noticed every single day of my childhood and adolescence. In the same house in my parent’s en suite the basin taps had been plumbed the wrong way around. ie: hot where cold should be and vice versa.
The best boss I ever had hid his OCD well until you looked in his desk drawers. Even his paperclips all faced the same way. No, I’m not kidding.
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My Grandparents have taps like this in their house too!
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OMG, the pencil one really bothers me!!! Make it stop!!
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Although I did find this funny and in the level of humor it was aimed at but it did make me sad that people were playing the condition up as just a personality nuance instead of the serious disease OCD actually can be. I’ve spent time with people suffering it when being treated with a different disorder and it was horrifying how these poor people’s minds worked.
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I was thinking the same thing. Although I joke about my “OCD” with close friends, I’m really just anal and a bit of a control freak. I would think a public post like this would make people who really do suffer the living hell of OCD feel trivialised.
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This article is such a simplistic view of OCD. Perhaps a reading of the DSM is in order. OCD isn’t about order and cleanliness, it’s just one of many forms it can take. Gah. This is pop-psychology at its worst. Laughable.
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If having OCD makes order and hygiene in relation to the domestic environment a non-negotiable, I WISH I had it! The house would be a hell of a lot cleaner & presentable! But surely it’s a little more complex than one’s approach to order and cleanliness.
I have a friend diagnosed as having OCD and his house isn’t the picture of order.
If anyone’s interested, he wrote a book about it – Exposure: A Journey by Joel Magarey. http://www.joelmagarey.com/Reviews.html
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Not only that, what this person (that wrote the article) is describing is more similar to a phobia than OCD. Even then, I’m guessing it doesn’t interfere with their everyday life
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I am not OCD but Some of those pictures gave me the creeps, especially the bad tiling.
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I actually thought I was a smidge on the OCD side but after looking at the gallery not one thing bothered me. Can someone enlighten me as to why the chip packet would be disturbing – don’t get that one!!!
Am feeling quite happy
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Opened at the bottom of the bag
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Haha didn’t even see that!!! There you go, am OCD free!
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Could not even look at the rest of the gallery. Just looked at those and frowned and thought, why would someone do that?? What possesses them?? I have a pattern on my kitchen tiles – one of which is asymmetrical. Drives me mad….
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I have OCD – only I spell it CDO – alphabetised – THE WAY IT SHOULD BE
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I have anxiety with obsessive compulsive tendencies (specifically, the more anxious, the more OC I become) and this gallery was just upsetting. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!
I laughed at the microwave one. That really upsets me at work.
Just wanted to add, for anyone who doesn’t know, that to be diagnosed as having OCD it needs affect you for at least an hour every day (i.e. take up an hour of time every day). Which is why I am not diagnosed with OCD, just the tendencies
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The microwave got to me too and all the floors, it’s hard to put tiles in order. I’m also the person in retail shops hanging and folding clothes properly after fellow customers have ‘messed’ them up.
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I may or may not have been asked to stop alphabetising the JB Hi Fi bargain bins…
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I have to say that I would absolutely pick up on most of these, but seeing them doesn’t disturb me. Whilst I am fairly obsessive about the way I do things and organise much of my household I have learned to live with others doing things differently, without stressing out or having to (always) change stuff around. My husband & I joke about it, but that’s just between us as we recognise the seriousness of true compulsiveness.
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The Peeps is just pretty. The rest of them gives me a pain in my chest lol
And #12: that’s just bad planning. I would sue that bastard! lol
}:)
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Wow, I’m more normal than I thought I was, lol!!
I kinda shrugged at most of those, although I have to admit the pencils and tiles did make me feel a little ill
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I think most people have a touch of Obsessive/compulsive behaviour, but most are fortunate enough to not suffer anxiety as a result. That said, the tiles would p*^s me off. If I’m honest, most of the pictures annoy me to varying degrees. When I hand out medication at work, it drives me crazy to see what my colleagues have done to pill packets, so I try to “fix them up” by evenly distributing how the packet is emptied out. Let’s not get started on how I am about hanging clothes out and folding them up.
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That’s like saying because you are sad after seeing a sad thing you suffer from depression. We are creatures who like order & logic. Naturally these things can irk. But OCD is a serious disorder that can take over lives & ruin them. It’s unfortunate people arent as sensitive with OCD references as they are about other illnesses.
These types of articles perpetuate ignorance and hurt those who actually SUFFER from such stresses & obsessions.
Just thought I’d pass along my view, while I suffer quite a lot from it. I tell you all while I respect this publication immensely & believe this insight could help you be more aware of such often misunderstood disorders.
Thank you.
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Hi A, that’s a very valid view and one that we are actually going to run a post about quite soon – so be sure to keep an eye out for it! Thank you for your comment.
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That’s lovely to hear! Of course, I just wanted to share a side often left unspoken. Especially while I know most don’t know how it can feel, & because most mean no harm.
I felt your publication would appreciate and respect the insight, I wouldn’t have wasted my time expressing it, otherwise. ; )
Best,
A
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True, however I had a hard childhood with an OCD dad and I still found this a lighthearted introduction to it.
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I only eat Tic Tacs in even numbers. By the way, how good are the new strawberry ones!!!
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Love the new strawberry ones! They are like nerds with cream!!
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see, I only eat them in 3′s
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i feel icky now
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Oh my goodness… this article is bothering me more than I ever thought it would. Time to schedule an appointment with my shrink I think!
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…but at least the fluoxetine is in a pattern (pic 18)
My Mum always insisted on order and neatness. When I left home I had some quirks but I took a deep breath and weaned myself and I can now say that the only pics which annoyed me were the tiles – because I can imagine the argument I would have with the tiler about fixing them if they were in my house
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It’s not though! One of the pills are the wrong way round!
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Oh, but it is! There is one odd row of pills but they are both yellow in…admittedly it would look much prettier if it was yellow in, out, in, out, in
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Ohhh, the pain of the volume being on an odd number. I can’t stand it!!!
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It would be nice if maybe if Mamamia could use more sensitive and respectful language in their articles. While I wouldn’t go as far as saying its offensive, as someone who works with people with a mental illness some of the phrases in this article didn’t sit well with me. Just thought I’d highlight it as reducing stigma is important to me.
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Agreed. The language has been changed. Thank you
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This gallery MAY freak you out??? Arrghh… the tiles! The chip packet!
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I have serious OCD – I didn’t realise how bad it was until I looked at those pictures! They all drive me CRAZY!!! Especially the ones of the tiles! Waaaa!!!!!!
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I never knew I had OCD until I saw those photos!
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Haha I know how you feel! Those pics were hard to look at :s
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Eeeekkkk, terrible photos! Can totally relate to your odd number thing. No way I could live in an odd numbered house.
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