Monday, September 24, 2012

Beware the invisible monster....

I started blogging in 2002 on another site.  In doing so...I met people who are still some of my closest friends today.  One of them is my friend  Jo.  I met her in spring of 2003.  She is super funny and amazing and wonderful and oh.  I love her so much.  Last year she shared the existence of her bumbumgerms blog with many people but I guess I just didn't feel like I was someone she wanted reading that blog.

I have issues.  shut up.

We luff each other and are good pals.  She was around when I made the decision to have my weight loss surgery in 2004.  She is someone I want to be friends with until the end of time.

So last year I found out that Jo has OCD.  I don't mean the kind of OCD we joke about because someone wants things to be EXACTLY SO.  Jo is a germaphobe.  She doesn't WANT Things a certain way...she NEEDS them a certain way.

I didn't realize how severe her OCD is until I read her entire blog Poop on a Hot Tin Slide.   I stopped and sobbed and sobbed for her as I read some of her posts.  She posted about last Halloween about how her anxiety was in full force as she went to trick or treat with her kids at her husbands work.  How she had dressed them all cutesey and gets there and how she is freaking out and worrying how she is going to sanitize each piece of candy.  How she was upset about her kids decorating pumpkins and touching glitter glue and felt pens and such that OTHER CHILDREN HAD TOUCHED.  It made me so sad for her.  I know she doesn't want to be this way.  Lord knows I have my own quirks.  Jo knows that this stuff should not be this huge of a deal to her but it is! She can't help it.  I have known her since 2003 and I did not know until this past week that THIS was the secret life she was living.  That is 9 years ya'll. NINE.  Nigh on a decade.  We had babies together. We were pregnant together, we used to write long arduous e-letters to each other whilest we were preggers.

I consider us to be pretty close.  And I didn't know.  Granted it's not like I am at her house every day.  But think about that.  Absorb it. Allow it to marinate and then listen to me.

There are people in your life who suffer from invisible monsters that you can't see and may not be aware are there.  Be sure not to judge people based on what you perceive to be the truth because YOUR perceptions may not be accurate.

There are plenty of invisible monsters:
Narcolepsy, fibromyalgia, MS, Bipolar disorder, Borderline personality disorder, anxiety disorders, depression, CFS.... etc.

If you aren't part of the solution then you are part of the problem.  don't cause problems for people with invisible monsters.  If you know someone in your life has OCD and they become upset when you don't wash your hands then even if you are a filthy pig elsewhere then AT LEAST when you are in their home or they are in yours....act like you care about them and WASH YO DAMN HANDS!!!

My sweet friend Jo whom I love more than anything in a world....she has a sign on the back of her bathroom door that says "WASH YOUR HANDS"  She also has an industrial automated Purell dispenser attached TO HER FREAKIN WALL.  I always wash my hands after going potty. (and before eating or preparing food etc)  but I promise - if I showed up at Jo's house I would show up in my cleanest clothing, wearing brand new shoes & socks and upon entering her home I would ask to be shown to the bathroom wherein I would proceed to lather up and surgeon scrub my hands and arms while she looked on.  then i would slather on purell before we sat to talk.  Because she suffers enough.  Why the hell would i cause her extra anxiety?

Jojo I am sorry that you battle this and please know I love you so hard!! and PS I am positive many of my FB pictures creep you out LOL. Thank you for loving me anyway :) I love you !!

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