I cannot imagine living with OCD

Tweet

I truly can't. I know for some people it is just "normal". For others it can be debilitating. Some people are in denial about it. The guy I share a classroom with has a raging case of OCD. I used to share with him 5-7 years ago and I don't remember him being like this. He is at work at 6:15am every morning eating his 5 scrambled egg whites. He goes to the bathroom at the same times every day and has specific bathrooms that he uses throughout the day. I know after 2nd period he goes to the one in A-wing, 4th period he uses one of the ones in B-wing, and and 7th period he goes to the other one in B-wing. It isn't like he uses a different one because a preferred one is in use. Nah they are all available. He eats the same thing for lunch and a snack every day. He makes himself a mug of lemon ginger tea at the same time. He lines up the markers like little soldiers in a military formation on the ledge of the board. If I use one and just leave it where I wrote it is back into formation the next time I am in the room. I can't leave a pen on the desk or notes on the lab bench. It is insane the amount of stress it causes me to try to have everything perfect for him so he doesn't get pissed off. The whole thing is so weird. Like a student of mine asked if he could leave his jacket in the back of the room until the end of the day. He hedged and kept saying he wasn't in the room all day so he couldn't keep an eye on it. HE IS IN THE ROOM FOR THE REST OF THE DAY! He wasn't worried about someone stealing it--he just didn't want to look at it. A student came out of his lunch detention as I was locking up the bathrooms. She was holding a half-filled bottle of Gatorade. She asked if she could just run into the bathroom to dump it down the sink. I pointed to the water fountains and said "just dump it there". HE HAS THREE SINKS IN THE ROOM! He made her go pour it in the bathroom because. . . hell I have no idea. I could go on and on but you get the idea. I cannot imagine living with that kind of rigid mindset. That has got to make life harder than it already is.