Am I neurotic?

All of us have in us a certain degree of neurotic element. If we look back, we would probably realize that we could have handled a particular situation better! At least I have thought so many times! This indicates that all of us have exhibited a neurotic behaviour sometime or other in our life. Psychologists say that it is quite normal. (I am relieved!) The question is how often we have exhibited such behaviour and that determines if we should be ladled as a neurotic person or not!

If we go by the definition of Neurosis, there are several kinds which psychologists would be delighted to classify and give a high sounding name to it. What I am referring here is the mildest form which does not warrant treatment but disturbs our life to some extent.

Let me take some examples from our day to day life situations.


In personal life I go crazy, sometimes, (although my wife would not agree with the word ‘sometimes’) - When things are not under control, when something is delayed, when I am confronted by a problem which could have been avoided easily, when my home is not neat and tidy (Oops! let me stop, the list is getting too long!)


In my official life the scene is entirely different! If I do not exhibit any neurotic behaviour then something is definitely wrong with me! Everything is chaos - we seem to be thriving is chaos! Everything is ambiguous! Freud says “Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity.” So a neurotic behaviour in my official life is justified? I think so!


There is a lot of difference between what is real and what is perceived! “My perception is my reality” – very common in corporate meetings! The inability to distinguish subject from object! Again a fertile ground for neurotic behavior! Ok no more about my corporate life.


Coming back to my basic question “Am I neurotic?” I have been having this question in my mind for quite some time now! Why this doubt? Because Freud says “Every normal person, in fact, is only normal on the average.” If this is to be believed, surely I believe Freud; abnormality should exist in every normal person? Then how abnormal I am? Now you understand why I wanted to know “Am I neurotic?”


Sometime back when I was surfing for something and I chanced upon an interesting web site: The Neuroses Psychology Test - Are You Neurotic?

(http://www.neuroses.org/index.html)

Wow! I thought this would help me in answering my question - Am I neurotic? I underwent the test with utmost honesty and I got the result as mentioned below;

You are slightly neurotic and fairly enlightened as well

I was happy when I saw the result! (I am not sure how authentic this test is, but I would definitely like to believe this test as – Genuine and authentic!)