just a neat freak...or OCD? - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Message Board

hugeworrywart · 09-14-2007, 10:26 PM

i cannot sleep if there is anything on the floor of my apartment. i constantly pick stuff up off the floor... lint, cat fur, human hair...anything that ISN'T carpet. if someone comes over and throws something on the floor (let's say a jacket..) i immediately pick it up and hang it on the coat rack. i am not weird about anything else except for floors. i cannot stand seeing anything on them. it's okay when i am at other people's houses, but when i am at home, i get extremely freaked out if any objects are on the floor. is this abnormal behavior???

seriousperson · 09-14-2007, 11:28 PM

I'm kind of that way about floors. Windex and a paper towel are my friends.

If it doesn't bother you or anyone else, then you can just be a "neat freak."

But if you are actually losing sleep over it, cannot stop it, are tortured by the existence of stuff on the floor, then it could probably be classified as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. But even so, it's certainly not the worst O/C a person could have (speaking as someone who likes clean floors).
Your screen name (hugeworrywart) implies that it does disturb you.

By the way, my mom is into clean floors too. Is yours?

Kathrin74 · 09-15-2007, 01:41 PM

I agree, the important question is: Does it bother you, does it cause distress?

Kathrin

seaturtle · 09-15-2007, 10:48 PM

Yes, if it interferes with your functioning and/or causes you great distress, takes up a lot of your time, especially if you have to clean the same area over and over (once is never enough), then sounds like a difficulty.
f not, maybe just a quirk

purplegirl1 · 09-16-2007, 12:42 AM

I agree with all of you, if it doesn't interfere with your every day life then it is just that, "You like clean floors"...and really that doesn't harm anything, lol.

I am a neat freak too, have OCD but my cleaning is not really OCD cleaning, just more of a neat freak. I do feel guilty if I haven't cleaned in a week, (but I am constantly straightening up and cleaning during the week) but if I don't do a "full" cleaning of my apt. I feel guilty- that is OCD... so if I clean b/c I feel guilty not b/c i need to, that is OCD.. does that help you?