I have had symptoms of OCD my entire life. When I was a baby, I had to have two pacifiers (called 'em Nookies) on each hand (Yes, you read that right) and one in my mouth.
At all times. I had a stockpile of them of sorts. So if I dropped one or was forced to let one be cleaned, I could crawl over to the thing, open it up, and get another one. Even before I could speak, I remember feeling proud of my stockpile.
When I finally stopped wanting them (If I remember correctly, that was a hard battle of me vs. parents), I moved on to other things: toys. If they were small, I wanted one for each hand. You have no idea how many toys we have three of (one for my sister, of course).
Time went on. I became obsessed with doing well in school enough that my parents stopped paying me for good grades because they knew I'd do it anyway. (Yep, that was elementary school.)
Middle school: We had notebooks that stayed in the classroom for a particular class. I organized all four of those shelves before leaving. Every day. (Also, this class was technology-related, so I had it for a semester every year. So, every day for half of each school year for three years, I did this.) And that was when I only had 5 minutes between classes. Every academic or rule-related thing in middle school was a big deal. I also had a thing about even numbers and scratching both arms if only one itched (for example) for quite a while. And hand-washing = big deal. (I would go in further detail on that, but I think this post is making me look weird enough as is.)
It was sometime in middle school (when I got more obsessive about the notebooks) that I first heard of OCD. After that, I've taken notice of other things that I've done through life that indicate it. In high school, I began to try and control it, and I have really battled it hard since entering college.
But at no point has it
severely affected my life. Yeah, it's caused
some quite a few inconveniences (like running back to my dorm room to make sure it's locked), but I've come to embrace it, especially now that I've developed ways to keep myself from obsessing over things (such as intentionally putting a stack in a mess because it's supposed to be that way, not straight--totally intended to be crooked).
I know that's probably too much information about my life, but I'm on pain meds right now and don't really care. What I'm getting at is that it's okay to embrace your brain, even if it has problems, as long as you are living life in a way that makes you happy.
What I'm getting at in regards to the shirt: I would like the shirt because it would be a fun way to show my pride of my strangeness that has gotten me a job as a copy editor for my college newspaper and will continue to get me jobs where I can spot and fix other people's grammar and spelling and such. (Everybody needs a good editor for their books!) Just like Hanners, my OCD became a benefit when I realized I could use it to help people!
I don't want an official diagnosis. I don't want a medication for it. I can't imagine living without it because it
enhances my life. Anyone can be OCDelightful if they can find the way(s) for it to help them, too.
(Sorry for the verbal spew, but it's really hard to talk right now because of the wisdom teeth removal I had today, so I think that frustration is leaking over into needing to type even more than I normally do.)
OCD really can be a problem for some people. But realizing you're overcoming it is the best part. I understand the concern of making light of it, but those of us with these problems... We really want--or maybe even need--to make light of it. The best way to feel better about frustrating things is to laugh about them. If you can't do something about something, then you might as well make the best of it. And that's the spirit I see in the shirt.
If anyone does make the shirt, then please, please let me know. I would really love to have one.
(Edit: I realized I wanted to say something else after I posted this. I tried to resist, but I kept feeling the itch saying I needed to go back. Darn perfectionism/OCD. >_> Anyway, I just wanted to add that the things I mentioned are
not the only symptoms I've demonstrated. They're just some of the over-arching trends that show that OCD has been around my whole life. Everything gets replaced by a new obsessive-compulsion. I can only assume that's what happens when you mature and need something to take the place of the old one. The having-two-toys thing lasted a fair amount of years, but it came to a fairly abrupt halt when everyone started pushing me to be as mature and smart and interesting as my sister who is three years older than me. WHY CAN'T I SHUT UP?)
(Last addition, for realz this time... I noticed that people were talking about things that looked like OCD but were more of childhood quirks. I think that was where I was planning on going in the other edit but forgot. The stuff I did in my childhood weren't just quirks. It was definite obsessive-compulsion. These things had to be done, or ... something bad would happen. I know a lot of people with OCD have a specific reason why they have a compulsion, but the rational side of my brain never allowed for that--it just said I
had to do it, because then the anxiety or itch would go away. The first time I realized the notebooks were all a mess and that no one was going to fix them, I felt uneasy the rest of the day. I was unable to go back to the classroom and thought about it all night, because I was battling insomnia, too. >_< The next day, I couldn't wait to get to the class so I could fix them. I was going to fix the notebooks we weren't using before class started, but the O-C for being in my seat as soon as I got to class won over because a lot of my teachers were strict about being in the seat when the bell rang. They didn't care if you'd been in the classroom five minutes before class started--if you weren't in your seat, then you were late. As if it wasn't bad enough that I had these O-Cs on my own... GAH, sorry for the long post and long additions. I always feel like I have to add as much as possible for clarification so people won't read it the wrong way. :/ Still working on that one. Sorry again about the long life story and such, but I'm hoping it will help the case for the shirt. I ... just realized I don't know why I think that. But here's hoping anyway. Stupid surgery.)