What mental disorder EXACTLY do I have??

I'm a perfectionist.  I always have been.  Ask my mom.  I was not a typical teenager that had a messy room.  (Okay I hated making my bed but that was it!)  My shelves were always very organized and my closet, or should I say, MY HALF of the closet was always the same.  I like things in their place.  I like order.  Of my friends, I was always the 'Monica'.  I could whip up a pie or lasagna on a moments notice, and my place was always neat.  And I would always drive my roomates nuts about the "cleaning schedule".  (Sorry guys!  Love you!)

Now if you ask me, I don't REALLY think I'm a perfectionist.  Things should just be put away.  I mean when you go to look at a model home, the counters are not sprinkled with flour, toys are not strewn about and the beds do not boast the 'tossled' look.  A home stager never comes over and says to you, "well you've got a nice place here, but let's mess it up a bit and make it look more lived in".  Why is that?  We KNOW people live in the houses we look at. 

Because it LOOKS GOOD.  We're not all perfectionists - it just looks good.  It looks right. 

I have let go A LOT of these perfectionist ways since having kids.  Before kids, the house would have to be clean and floors vacuumed before I went out.  And if someone was going to come over - well then a once over was definately in order.  Well, any of you who know me now, know FULL well that on any given day you can find a tumbleweed of dog hair, an innumerable amount of toys showered over the house, and dirty dishes akin to the leaning tower of Pisa.

It still DRIVES ME MENTAL.  So many of my friends tease my OCD ways.  So in a joking manner I posted something on facebook today about my OCD, and one of my girlfriends in response said it sounds more like I've got schizophrenia.  Well that got me thinking.  Do I even know the definition of any of those terms?  Perfectionism?  Obsessive compulsive disorder?  Schizophrenia?

So here's where reading my blog makes you smarter!  In a coles notes kind of a way:

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a condition characterized by persistent thoughts, images or impulses, known as "obsessions," that intrude into a person's mind and persist or get stuck.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that makes it difficult to tell the difference between real and unreal experiences, to think logically, to have normal emotional responses, and to behave normally in social situations

Perfectionism:  Hamachek describes two types of perfectionism. Normal perfectionists "derive a very real sense of pleasure from the labours of a painstaking effort" while neurotic perfectionists are "unable to feel satisfaction because in their own eyes they never seem to do things [well] enough to warrant that feeling of satisfaction". Burns defines perfectionists as "people who strain compulsively and unremittingly toward impossible goals and who measure their own worth entirely in terms of productivity and accomplishment".

So in a very satisfying, real way, I am back to being just a plain old perfectionist.  But really, I think I just like CLEAN! 

:P