and i like crazy people

well, they aren't really crazy. i feel bad saying people are crazy. i feel that 99% of people who go to therapy aren't crazy... they're just willing to admit they're fucked up. everyone is fucked up but no one ever talks about it, except with their therapist.

i also feel bad posting anything about my clients on here. although i bet it would be interesting for people to read, i would feel like i would be trivalizing their problems by posting on a blog and totally disrespecting their confidentiality.

but i will talk about crazy people who aren't my clients.

so i have this neighbor that lives in the basement. his name is don. hes in his late 40s probably. he wears dirty clothes and has long stringy gray hair that he never washes and that hangs over his face. even though i like typically like crazy and eccentric people, don scares the shit out of me.

my first intro to don was about a few days after mike and i got the keys to our place. mike went down one night to take out some garbage. don was by the garbage and mike and him struck up a conversation. An hour later i start wondering where the hell mike is. I take a step out the back door and i hear mike talking with some guy. figure he's making friends with neighbors and go back inside. almost 2 hours later, i'm really freaked out. where the heck is mike. how can he be hanging out with someone he just met for 3 hours?? anyways, long story short, mike spent 3 hours with scary scary don who was ranting about wasteful people and how he hates them. don told mike about what he does to wasteful people. when he had neighbors that left lights on, while they were gone don would turn the electricity off in their apartment. when people leave their clothes in the washing machine for too long, don throws them on floor. on and on.

mike also got to see don's apartment. it was tiny, not much bigger than our living room, and piled to the ceiling with stuff. old vcrs, news papers, lots of old electronics. don doesn't throw anything away.

other fun stuff...

don goes through everyone's garbage in the building, sorts the recycling, and brings the good stuff back into his apartment. and actually, it's not just our place. don goes through the neighbors garbage too... even down the street. if you ever lived near iowa and busey, don may have been through your garbage.

don likes mattresses for some reason. theres one right outside my door that's getting gross and moldy. there are some upstairs in the attic. there was one on top of his car for a few weeks and i think he put that up in the attic, and theres also one between his car and the garbage cans that i didn't realize was once a mattress. only the springs are there now it's been rotting for so long.

don also likes to draw lines. i don't know how or why he does it, but he spends a lot of his time drawing 6inch lines on our driveway, hundreds and hundreds of times. it doesn't seem like theres any real pattern, but usually there are about 10 next to each other in a bunch, then goes to draw another bunch. oh, and did i mention don draws them after 1am or first thing in the morning. i go to bed a lot of nights listening to the repetative scratching outside my window.

I feel bad because I'm almost a psychologist and i should be judgemental about mental illness, but don scares the shit out of me. when i see him my heart starts pounding really fast. it may be silly, but sometimes crazy people don't like psychologists. i'm thinking of my uncle here. he was in and out of mental hospitals his whole life. had ECT and everything. because of that, he really distrusts psychologists. you should have seen his reaction when he found out what i was going to grad school for!. so yeah, i am totally afraid that don will find out i'm a counselor (he already goes through my trash) and make me a target. did i mention our power has gone off randomly 3 or 4 times since august?

I've been trying to figure don out since i got here. he's definately a hoarder. hoarding is a form of OCD -- think howard hughes, marc summers, and monk the tv detective. hoarding though involves not having the impulse control to specifically stop collecting either objects or animals. both types of hoarders use the objects/animals to fill some void in their lives. the animal hoarders use the love of cats or dogs or whatever to fill the lack of love in their life. i have a theory that don obsesses about the world ending and somehow saving that moldy mattress from the landfill will save the world in his head. you guys will probably get to hear a lot more about don. i'll try to get some pictures up too.