Reply #31: "Collecting OCD" IS a terrible thing.

[greiner3]

I'm a "counter."

I guess the worst is the "washer." I've known a few. One sticks in my mind; female, teen who needed to be supervised EVERY time she went to the bathroom. It was common to wash her hands so many times she had to be taken to the emergency room because she had washed so much skin off of her hands she required them bandaged for weeks afterward.

Think of the movie with Jack Nicholson, 'As Good as it Gets.' He had the phobia, albeit a mild form. His shtick was to use a fresh bar of soap every time he entered the bathroom. The woman I cite had a ritual also although hers required her to count the number of times she washer her hands. That number can be 10 or in the hundreds. She was not a 'cutter' nor a masochist, just mentally ill.