Reefing and OCD?

[brett559]

I hope this doesn't offend anyone, but I wonder if this hobby attracts those with some OCD tendencies. I realize that OCD is a wide-ranging thing, ranging from slight (I like to put my keys here when I get home to work) to crippling.

I know for me, my tank scratches that OCD itch a little. I have a busy life (wife, job, 4 kids (soon to be 5)), my house is usually a mess (sometimes a few hours after we clean it), etc. I like things orderly and in control, and most of life is by definition un-orderly and (somewhat) out of control. But the little box of water I look at it is TOTALLY within my control. It's a closed system, the only changes that occur are changes that I make (adding this much food, adding this fish, moving this coral, trying this additive, etc.).

And that may be why when something is NOT right (a little algae or cyano) it can drive us crazy. I can't be the only one who's been caught with his hands in the tank when I should be doing something else.

Think of the time and effort (AND MONEY!) we pour into our tanks. That drive has to be more than just "look at the pretty fish!" Also, think of how many people tear down a tank, and a few months later either (1) have a new tank up and running (me and several people I know) or (2) constantly wish they could start a new one (many other people I know). It seems like very few people who really dive into this hobby ever really get it out their system. People come back, sometimes decades later. They just miss it! I think they miss that one thing that is completely and totally within their control.

I think the same principal applies to those reefers who have three, four, five tanks at once. The thrill from setting up that perfect system is too hard to resist. When one tank is "complete", they start another one.

Does any of this ring true to anyone else? A friend confided in me that his reefing hobby was a godsend for his OCD - again something that he could control.

Sort of a heavy, ethereal topic for a fish forum. And of course some people do this hobby for their kids, or because they are DIYers, or because of the challenge. But I wager that most reefers do it (maybe even subconsciously) because it is an outlet for that need (call it OCD or whatever) to have something in their life that is completely and totally within their control.

I'm done now.

 

[Bent]

Please get the disease right.

It's CDO.

Edit:

Seriously, I don't know how much of a obsessive/compulsive aspect there is to it. Myself I am far from a type A personality.

Personally for me it's more about the engineering challenges and hands on projects. I have issues keeping my hands still. I've always had the tendency to want to make or design something. Unfortunately that often times leads to sinking cash into something that I usually abandon after I've built it or figure it out. RC cars, airsoft guns, actual guns, aquariums, computers, art, cars etc. For me the process of building something, installing something or making something is much more fun and gratifying than the finished product. Often times I'll get into doing something, get finished and then just totally abandon it.

 

[ca1ore]

Who knows.

I'd think a hobby that is fundamentally about battling the second law of thermodynamics would be problematic for legitimate sufferers of OCD. Plus I'd think going away and leaving the tank would be pure torture - just think if all the things that can go wrong. Maybe for those who are simply neurotic, it's a way to focus (and to stop yelling at the kids for never turning off a light - wife too).

 

[nmotz]

I think our hobbies are at least in part the manifestation of our human desire to "create" something. By definition, that which we have created, we control. But it's interesting that even our control over the boxes of water in our homes can become complicated. But to answer your question, yes I do think that many reefers have OCD tendencies (myself included) that we exercise in a mostly healthy way when it comes to our tanks. That isn't to say that those tendencies cannot become unhealthy though.

 

[ca1ore]

Please get the disease right.

It's CDO.

Collateralized debt obligation?

 

[brett559]

Who knows.

(and to stop yelling at the kids for never turning off a light - wife too).

The light battle! More futile that the pest algae battle....

 

[Bent]

Collateralized debt obligation?

Lol it was my attempt at being funny.

If you have OCD, then the jumbling of letters would bother you and you would want to put them in alphabetical order. Hence CDO.

*cough cough*

Bad joke I know.

 

[nmotz]

Lol it was my attempt at being funny.

If you have OCD, then the jumbling of letters would bother you and you would want to put them in alphabetical order. Hence CDO.

*cough cough*

Bad joke I know.

Nope I got it! Well done sir!

 

[Bent]

Nope I got it! Well done sir!

 

[cloak]

Not LARS?

 

[KafudaFish]

Nope. I don't have it and am glad.

I like to leave tanks alone and let them do whatever.

Even when one crashes it doesn't bother me.

 

[cloak]

Just a "thot" huh?

 

[brett559]

Nope. I don't have it and am glad.

I like to leave tanks alone and let them do whatever.

Even when one crashes it doesn't bother me.

Must be nice....

 

[KafudaFish]

I guess I need to clarify. I don't have deep pockets unless there is a hole in one and I am looking for change.

I have 4 kids also and I spend more on instrument rentals and fencing lessons than I do in this hobby.

The tank was a 5.5 gallon fish closet build. The only thing I purchased was a par 38 bulb and a single Zoa frag that I paid $15.00 for and grew the frag out to around 2800 polyps.

Just think if I sold each polyp for $5.00. Haha.

I learned to enjoy and watch my tank instead of being the kind that goes on vacation and worrying about it that is all.

If I had a $2k fish in my care I don't think I would ever enjoy it to be honest.

 

[Joche]

Given the opportunity, an OCD sufferer may actually use the nature of a tank and required tasks associated with it as "exposure therapy" which can help improve their everyday life.
For example, if one is afraid of a particular number, the daily exposure of keeping that very amount of fish or corals would overtime lessen the associated negative response. If that person carries on with said tactics and continues to increase the difficulty of them, eventually including other aspects outside of their reef tank then their quality of life can only improve.

So technically, a tank can actually be GOOD for you! Just don't let it replace obsessions/compulsions from other aspects of your life, which sadly, often happens.
I try to repeat to my self "YOU are not in control, NATURE IS! YOU are just along for the ride!"

By the way, TRUE OCD goes beyond "putting your keys in a particular spot every time". You understand that it is unnecessary and irrational yet are compelled to do it,otherwise it will cause stress, discomfort, fear or crippling panic.

Lol it was my attempt at being funny.

If you have OCD, then the jumbling of letters would bother you and you would want to put them in alphabetical order. Hence CDO.

*cough cough*

Bad joke I know.

I'm not trying to be combative or anything, but I NEED to make sure you understand that in your attempt to be funny you KNOWINGLY used one characteristic of a disorder that is or may be crippling to many.

It's not a bad joke, it's that for many, their uncontrollable circumstances became the pun of of a joke ONE MORE TIME...


I've been a lurker for a loooong time and this just happens to be my first post...(SIGH) But it's worth it if it can help anyone.

 

[Mrs. Music]

I often wonder if online forums attract people with social issues. Controlled interaction online is a "safer" way of meeting the need for human contact and interaction with fewer risk of hurt, anxiety, or rejection. Keyboard courage, if you will, in its best form.

 

[Bent]

I often wonder if online forums attract people with social issues. Controlled interaction online is a "safer" way of meeting the need for human contact and interaction with fewer risk of hurt, anxiety, or rejection. Keyboard courage, if you will, in its best form.

I suck at real life social interactions, so yes I can see that.

 

[Xxero]

Collateralized debt obligation?

That's funny. I had to run straight to Google for that one, too! :lmao:

I know exactly what you're getting at, Brett. To me it seems more like Reef keeping is a fuzzy warm blanket for people with OCD. I think our tanks give us a single point of focus and provide us with a "Happy Place" to escape to.

In a way, our tanks can be an OCD person's worst nightmare. I can't control my Hermit Crab from stealing another's shell, only to discard it for the one it had on originally the very next day. I can't control algae growth on the back of one of my snail's shell...none of the others, just this one particular snail grows long algae on its back??? WTH, it drives me nutz! And I can't control it when no matter how neatly I place my Goniopora, my Diamond Watchman Goby digs the sand out from around the base and topples it over. Every...single.........day. :facepalm:

So I think it's more the single pointed focus that reefing provides OCD types that attracts us rather than giving us an outlet for control.

I took about a ten year break from my last tank until now, and in those years in-between, I used to have a recurring nightmare. In this dream I had several reef tanks that had gone beyond the neglected point. The water in them was milky and murky; everything had ugly growth all over the place; and the inhabitants were suffocating and dying very slow and painful deaths. I had this dream many, many times during that hiatus period, but I haven't had it once since getting back into the hobby.

I guess I'll just speak for myself and say that as a person with quite a few OCD tendencies, reef keeping is like a deep massage for my brain. It makes everything else just kind of go away for awhile. :bigeyes:

 

[SARBoy]

I'm not sure if it's OCD. I think a large proportion of those who take up reef keeping are people who have done/are doing well in their chosen profession.

To do well in any job requires a certain amount of dedication and attention to detail to name but a few attributes. As such these are bought to bear upon our life outside our work.

I know if I take on a hobby it can be agonising trying to make sure that to the best of my ability I make it a success. I like the detail, making sure something is just so.

I don't think I have OCD. But some behaviours accociatted with OCD are prominent in achieving success in reef keeping and indeed success in any endeavour.

 

[C.Eymann]

I don't think I have real OCD, but I am very particular about neatness and organization to the point where when I vacuum, I do so in straight lines so the pattern left in the carpet is straight and uniform.
Reefkeeping has helped me stray a bit away from being bothered if something is not in its exact spot or done in a certain way. I when I setup my current tank I wanted to to have all the wiring for everything bundled in rigid wiring tubes, however my past experience in the hobby reminded me how much of a pain that makes it to remove and service and clean equipment and I have learned to live with a few dangling wires as long as they are out of sight.
I still do things that are unnecessary, for instance when its time to refill my kalk reactor, instead of simply opening the fill tube to add more. I must remove it and give it a thorough cleaning to remove the chalky build up on the sides.

I find that sense of peace though when I am staring at the tank and everything is happy and growing, gives me that "everything is okay" feeling that life outside of reefing isn't always able to offer.