# Why treat mental illnesses that you don't suffer from?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-treat-mental-illnesses-that-you-dont-suffer-from/609347>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 12, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-treat-mental-illnesses-that-you-dont-suffer-from/609347 "2012-01-12T23:29:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-treat-mental-illnesses-that-you-dont-suffer-from/609347/21 "2012-05-09T14:35:14Z")

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> [@CrazyCatLady](#):
>
> And indeed, that’s one of the metrics mental health professionals use to determine the difference between having xyz characteristics and having xyz disorder, whether or not something is interfering with your relationships.

Sooo glad to read that! I, too, have a few OCD like ‘habits’ which I’ve never seriously considered getting treated for, but I’ve sometimes wondered if not doing so is something I’ll regret later on.

But I truly believe (like the OP) that my quirks don’t harm anyone else, and have only little impacts even on me. FTR, my quirks are all counting behaviors. For example, when I unload the dishwasher I do it by category (I’ll take out all the plates, then mugs, then bowls, and so forth) and as I remove them I count how many of each category there are: how many bowls, how many plates, how many regular spoons, how many serving spoons. As best I can tell, this probably adds a minute or so to the time compared with how long it would take to simply grab whatever my hand falls on first. So…who cares?

OTOH, I had a friend who also had some quirks, and who didn’t feel it was enough of a problem to bother about, but I know for sure it had led to the loss of several friendships and finally got her fired. She was a hand-washer. She had to wash her hands three times (the whole cycle from getting her hands wet, using soap, rinsing, drying) each time. Before and after eating (including things like drinking a cup of coffee), and if she touched certain things like telephones, railings, the backs of chairs, oh, a whole slew of things.

It might seem like a small thing, but spending any time with her involved frequent gaps of ten or more minutes while she vanished into a bathroom, and was especially aggravating if you were trying to do something in a public place or needed to get some task done by a certain time.

And I know she too said her ‘problem’ wasn’t a big enough deal to treat. :rolleyes:

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