Psychotic

Compulsive, bi-polar, paranoid, neurotic, manic and obsessive are handy terms to describe the behavior of people around us we don’t really like.

Sometimes, they are also used to describe tendencies in our own behavior. I have a friend who insists that she is “completely anal-retentive” and from the way her eyes gleam, when she says it, I know she takes considerable pride in it. After all, her house is immaculately tidy - always - and mine is not.

Another favorite term is co-dependent. I never quite understood what the co- stands for, like as if you are not really dependent, just kinda, but less than the one who really is. Dependent on what anyway?

As far as I understand, however, co-dependency describes a whole array of behaviors which all have one aspect in common: they are too much of one thing. People are categorized as co-dependent, because they are either too nice, or too withdrawn, too forgetful, or even too perfect. Pleasers, pouters, ranters, and perfectionists they all display sub-optimal behavioral patterns, that were adopted somewhere along the way, usually during childhood.

It’s an interesting concept, because it tends to describe a person, who has seemingly adapted to a given situation. It refers to the copers of the world. And by doing so, it comprises of all those individuals who cannot be thrown into the one or other box together with all the other lunatics.

This, however, begs the question, who is left?