I've always wondered whether someone that is superstitious has some sort of psychological disorder, but after today I know the answer is no. People that are involved in sports, band, or some other activity tend to have one if not more superstitions. Most know that I have been pretty heavily involved in swimming for many years. Before each meet, I always listen to ACDC. If I don't, I feel like I'm not going to swim as well as I am able to. One of the meets this year my iPod froze and I immediately didn't think I would do well. Turns out I did. Also, before every one of my races I take one drink of Gatorade and then one drink of water. I don't know why I do this, but I must have done this one time and the end result was good.
Today, I figured out that to be superstitious does not mean that you have OCD. Someone that is OCD is not able to perform a particular action, while a person that is superstitious is still able to do something, they just don't think they will be able to perform as well. Superstition is solely mental that people are able to control, OCD is also mental but they're not able to control the way they think or act about something.
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I would have to agree that I thought the same thing. I thought that someone that had superstitions had some sort to OCD, but apparently not. I can totally understand what Mr. Dreier is saying though. I think we all have some sort of things that we can be "OCD" about, whether it be something like what you do before a race or something you have to do every time before leaving the house. We just have to make sure it never controls our lives and that no matter what we do, it won't affect the outcome.
ReplyDeleteI knew exactly what you were talking about when you asked your swimming question in class. i have bizarre rituals too, but just like yours, if I didn't do them it didn't make any difference. I just brushed them off and ran/swam the best I could anyway. I do think that some rituals, however, are necessary. For example, the day of any cross country meet, I would drink three bottles of water during the school day and then one bottle on the way to the meet. Then I wouldn't drink any more water at the meet except for a sip before the race. While hydrating isn't superstitious, it did have an impact on my performance. So I would definitely say that some NONsuperstitious rituals are definitely necessary and I wouldn't be able to perform as well without them.
ReplyDeleteWell I really don't have very much to say on this one... Sorry...