Tia Juana will cheerfully provide advice for anyone that asks. Just mail your questions to “Ask Tia Juana” at PO Box 8, Van Horn, Texas 79855. All questions will remain anonymous unless there is a chance for extortion. Disclaimer: Tia Juana is not a licensed counselor or therapist and none of the advice should be considered professional.
Dear Tia,
I have lived with a woman who has OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder. To see her, she looks perfectly normal until she starts straightening out the pictures on the walls of friends AND strangers! She will clean up after eating at restaurants; align silverware and bottles, cans, etc, until they are perfectly lined up. After spending the night in a motel, the room looks better than when we checked in! The most infuriating part of being with an OCD’er, is having to return to the house after leaving for an out of town trip to make sure the heater is off, or the iron is off, and more commonly—that the doors are locked! How can I learn to live with someone with this behavior?
Going crazy
Dear Crazy,
This type of behavior is quite common, and is one of the more harmless “quirks” that people have to deal with. Imagine if you had to live with someone with a more harmful phobia or behavioral issue such as any of the following:
Autodysomophobia: fear of a bad or “vile” odor
Nomophobia: fear of losing cell phone contact.
Ecclesiophobia: fear of church and going to church
Zemmiphobia: the fear of “the great mole rat.”
Asymmetriphobia: fear of mismatched socks or asymmetrical objects
Aulophobia: fear of flutes.
Arithmophobia: fear of numbers generally, but can also refer to the fear of math, numerals, certain numbers, calculations, and/or calculus.
Ablutophobia: fear of washing or bathing.
Ergophobia: fear of work and/or functioning.
Porphyrophobia: fear of the color purple
Arachibutyrophobia: fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth
Coprastasophobia: fear of becoming constipated.
Didaskaleinophobia: fear of going to school.
Phobophobia: a rare disorder and refers to the fear of having a phobia.
See? Now don’t you feel better?
