In order? Mostly, though I’m not… OCD about it. All facing the same way? Nope.
Isn’t having so much cash that it takes you 20 minutes to sort through it a First World Problem? 
Years ago when I moved in with my gf we were discussing how to split up the utility bills. Starting with the electric bill, she suggested seeing how much I caused the monthly bill to increase.
The thing is, I’m a light-turner-offer like the OP. My gf is the polar opposite, she turns on a light and that light stays on.
So, we looked at the electric bill each month and it turns out it came down a bit. Next we did the same with the gas bill. Again, I’m cost conscious, so when I leave the house to go to work I turn the heat down. She had always left it where it was. Again, we saw a small but definite monthly decrease in the gas bill.
Now I discover I’m OCD.
Having OCD has acquired a weird status of sorts, it seems. People like to claim having the disorder because it’s convenient to explain some of their behaviors. Most people don’t even use the term correctly, saying “I’m OCD” rather than “I have OCD”. The DSM-IV addresses specific symptoms of the disorder, none of which seem to apply to the OP, nor to 99% of the people who claim to suffer from it.
I doubt it.
I’m going on a decades old first year psychology course here, so this is not expert advice. The professor said that OCD has two components, the obsession and the compulsion. The compulsion is the behavior that we can observe. The obsession is something you are trying not to think about, and you don’t do that when performing compulsive rituals. The obsession and compulsion might not have any obvious link to each other. For instance, we saw a video of a young father who would “shake his leg” vigorously to avoid getting worried about not making enough money to support his newborn child. That obviously would not solve the problem, but it’s a better “strategy” than (for instance) drinking heavily to blot out the worry. An observer may have noticed the leg-shaking, and may have thought it was odd, but would not have known the obsession behind it. (The class also featured some much more involved compulsions.)
You mentioned something that could appear to be a “compulsion” to an observer but there doesn’t seem to be any obsession at all. Furthermore these behaviors (I would not actually call them compulsions or rituals) are harmless.
You don’t sound OCD. Maybe someone’s PAW? Or just FMC?
People say I’m TFN, and I sometimes have to agree.
I’ll put the bigger bills in the back, but I don’t really worry about perfect sorting. It’s mostly just small bills -> larger bills -> largest bill (in the back). And the way it is facing will only be flipped if I had to move the bill for other reasons.
Also, I may cram it in or just slip the change in my pocket if there is anyone waiting behind me, and then not remember to take the time to re-sort it before I use it again. And, these days, I only get out what I need, and thus usually only have either a small number of large bills, or small bills from change.
Thanks, everyone. Whew! I don’t need to schedule an appointment with a psychiatrist (yet). I have a few other “quirks”, but they aren’t repetitive and don’t really impact my life. I like things in their place, so I can find them later. It helps since my memory is not what it used to be. My wife often doesn’t put things back which drives me crazy, but I don’t have to make sure everything is in its place before I can leave the house. I just make a mental note when I leave so that I remember to put it away when I get back.
Senegoid, I used to train dolphins, orcas and sea lions when I was in college and I got the nickname “dolphinboy” because I would spend so much time working with, hanging out with, and swimming with the bottlenose dolphins…
Maybe you are a Perfect Person.
By CDO you mean Collateralized Debt Obligation, right? If not, WHY THE FUCK DIDN’T YOU JUST SAY WHAT THE EVER LOVING FUCK YOU MEANT?!!?
WHY DO YOU THINK IT’S CUTE TO MAKE OTHER PEOPLE GUESS WHAT YOU MEAN. JESUS FUCKCUNTS. WHATY the FUCK?!??!?!??!
I was going a bit crazy when I wrote this post. I do really, really dislike it when people just throw up initials and expect that everybody knows what it means. But I needn’t have emphasized it so.
Sorry for the crazed, all-caps, profanity spewing.
My dad’s cousin was diagnosed with OCD more than 15 years ago. She would wash her hands until they were raw, among other compulsory behaviors. Prozac has done wonders for her, and she’s able to get out of the house within a reasonable time.
I am quite annoyed by my sister-in-law’s assertion that she has OCD because she likes to have the table set just so. It’s not the same. And the OP may have some OCD tendencies, but until they start to interfere with daily life, they are just tendencies.
Stereotypically, people with OCD feel compelled to put things in order, and OCD is not in alphabetical order. Hence CDO. (It’s a joke.)
This thread has reminded me that it was my 6th grade teacher, Mr. Hollins, the first male teacher I ever had, who explained to us that he always put bills in his wallet in order, so when I started regularly using a wallet, years later, I did that too.
WRT the OP, I also turn off lights whenever possible, and I have a semi-routine in the morning, but since I work from home it’s not particularly rigid. I also like to put dishes in the dishwasher in a specific arrangement, and will move things that other people have put in the “wrong” place.
I don’t have OCD.
Several jobs ago, I worked with a technical writer. I wrote some documentation, and sent it to her for proof reading. She sent it back with a whole bunch of what I considered petty corrections. I emailed her telling her “don’t be so anal retentive”.
She emailed back “anal-retentive should always be hyphenated”.
That’s not being O.C.D. That’s being W.E.D.
I am not naming any names, but someone that i have been living with for the last 37 years complains that I am not OCD enough. Because I don’t put **my **sunglasses back where **she **can find them. And her response to “why don’t you put your sunglasses where you can find them” is generally “because yours are easier to find”.
So I keep my last pair in the glove box in my car. If she ever figures that out, I am doomed to snow blindness.
Regards,
Shodan
Turning off lights doesn’t really save money by the way (if you use LED bulbs, which is about all you can buy these days).
Lets take an example. Lets say you turned off 5 lights every day that would have run for an hour, but didn’t. How much would you save?
An average light bulb (60 watt equivalent) draws about 9 watts. So you saved 9x5 = 40 Whs every day. Yay!
The average electricity prices in the US are about 11 cents per KWhour. So we have to divide our 40 by 1000 to get it into KWhs, then multiply by 11 cents to see how much money you saved. The answer is 0.44 cents. Thats right, not even half of a cent. So, about 13 cents per monthly bill.
You can turn off lights if you want to, but don’t say it is to save money.
CDO is like OCD but you can’t stand things that aren’t in alphabetical order.
Something is off in your calculation, but I can’t quite figure out what. The bolded part is where I can’t follow. I’ve tried to make a similar calculation in my head when I first read the thread (although with halogen lamps I still use which draw more current than LEDs). So I’ll try again with your numbers:
If you have 5 unused room with LEDs switched on which each draw 9W, by turning them off you’ll save the energy of 9 x 5 x 24 x 365 Wh = 394.2 kWh per year. With your 11 cents for a kWh, that makes $43.4 per year and $3.16 per month. Not a fortune, but for me money is tight, and it makes a difference. I also try to avoid wasting resources as best as possible, so that’s another motivation to switch the lights off.
Too late to edit: My bad; I overread the bolded statement. With that caveat, your numbers are absolutely correct. My apologies.
That’s actually really funny, but I didn’t get it. Sorry for my rant.
Do I have OCD?
No you don’t. Check back in 3 minutes in case the answer has changed.