National Epidemic Reported By Tamzin A. Rosenwasser, M.D.

[Demeter]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_tamzin_a_080421_national_epidemic_re.htm



Events compel me to sound a public alarm about a disease that has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, and that threatens the stability of the nation. I speak of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and springing, as I do, from a long line of hand-washers, list-makers, and stove checkers, I consider myself eminently qualified to make the diagnosis—despite my lack of Board Certification in Psychiatry, Participation in Recognized Psychiatric Quality Improvement Activities, Demonstrations of Continued Competence in Psychiatry, Letters of Recommendation from Peers in the psychiatric field, a satisfactory score on a Certifying Examination in Psychiatric Diagnosis, completion of Physician Self-evaluations or Practice Assessments, or documentation of Psychiatric Patient Satisfaction Surveys.

After all, I do make up for it in Home Study.

Indeed, I began the study of this fascinating but insidiously deadly disorder as a child, when I observed male members of the immediate and extended family not only compiling lists of people’s birthdays—harmless enough, even useful—but also dates on which light bulbs had been changed, and other small mechanical tasks completed. On two occasions, female members of the family perceived a deficit in their stove-checking, and insisted, once by phone from 12 miles out at sea, on having the fire department check. A friend of mine who is a former administrative law judge informs me that the obsessive-compulsive characteristic of saving newspapers is the most common problem cited by people who put their relatives into institutions. Currently, our national obsessive-compulsive neurosis takes the form of an urgent quest for total cleanliness, absolute safety, and complete uniformity and conformity, usually to government directives that seek to force people to “comply” with rules and regulations covering ever more minute areas of life.

Recently, upon encountering efforts to make us “safer” in the United States, I have pondered such things as this warning on a child’s Halloween “Batman” costume: “Warning: Cape does not enable user to fly.” On a college campus, “Warning: Unpaved pathways may contain ruts, obstacles or ice.” Multiple warnings on ladders. All these, I suppose, are from the sage, widely respected luminaries in Congress to the idiots who populate the remainder of the nation. True, it is also an obsessive retreat from militaristic lawyers; but I note that it is a retreat, rather than a defense.

On the other side of the coin, I read in the that some place in Germany performed an experiment to cut down on road sign clutter; they eliminated all road signs, and found that the number of accidents went down. I theorize that this occurred because it made drivers rely more on being watchful themselves, Wall Street Journal than rather counting on road signs to substitute for their own senses and judgment, and that the sheer number of commands on the signs distracted drivers. I would cite the article, but with all the newspapers around here, I cannot find it.



Tamzin A. Rosenwasser, M.D., is board certified in internal medicine and dermatology and now practices dermatology. She serves as president of AAPS http://www.aapsonline.org/ ) Contact: [email protected].[br />
REFERENCES
1 Dante Alighieri. Divine Comedy
2 Alexis de Tocqueville. Democracy in America Mansfield HC,Winthrop D.,
ed., trans. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press; 2002:663

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