Vocal Voices

Have you ever known a really obsessive person?

My in laws ex-nighbour seems to be very obsessive, to the point where we are wondering if something is the matter with him. Nice enough bloke, never had a cross word with him, but he's behaving very oddly.

At one point he was obsessed with the idea that a local property developer called Mark (or "that bugger Mark") as Eddie (ex-neighbour) always called him, was going to buy the in laws old house.

OK so no big deal, but when we had a new roof put on the house, Eddie inspected the work - by getting his binoculars out. He then moaned to the roofing company, got them to come back out. What they found was a washer that had been left on the roof!

The latest thing that is obsessing him is his central heating. The engineer we recommended to him got called out by Eddie - at 11.45pm - to listen to the noises the pipes were making!

Eddie has since tape recorded the noises his central heating is making! The engineer swears blind that there is nothing wrong with it, and he's an honest man.

It's a bit weird.

There's nowt as queer as folk Cromwell.

He does sound a little unhinged, rather than obsessive though

An old mate lived in a Victorian house split into flats. The entrance to his was a porch with a door with three locks - a Yale and two five lever types.

Coming out he would make sure the Yale was on the latch then lock the top five lever then the bottom five lever. He would then unlock and re-lock the top one then do the same to the bottom one.

And whenever he used his car he would walk round and kick each tyre before getting in - every single time. He would do this even if he had just popped into a shop for a paper.

In all other respects he was normal!!!

Does he live alone Cromwell? He does sound very odd.

Frank that is OCD you are describing, it's an anxiety disorder as people suffering from it are convinced something awful will happen if they don't follow their little rituals. It can become overwhelming.

He sounds lonely and unwell to me

He sounds quite like Jackie, the lovely lady who my parents have lived next door to since 1971, although not as extreme.

Jackie always seemed perfectly fine according to my mother when we first moved there. She lived with her widowed mother, brother and sister. She and her sister used to go out together and go away on holiday to Spain. All perfectly normal. On one of their holidays though her sister met someone and they eventually married, moving away to Essex. Jackie then stopped going out.

Her mother died around 25 years ago and that left just Jackie and her brother. Her brother eventually got his own place, leaving Jackie living there alone and that was when her problems came to light. She was eventually diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

My parents started seeing workmen's vans arriving at all times of the day and night, and this is ongoing now, she'd knock on my parents' door and ask if they'd heard 'that' noise in the loft or wherever she was hearing it. Of course they hadn't and the workmen never found anything. They've even had workers in their own loft, they've come around and said that they're scratching their heads trying to find a noise in Jackie's so could they see if she's hearing something from the other side of the wall.
She believes that the noises around her house are coming from bugs and cameras which 'they' are planting to spy on her.

A scheduled flight to Birmingham airport which flies over the house every morning at around 7am is actually a spy plane and 'they' are checking up on her. My parents are imposters, she doesn't know where the real ones are though, and when she has that in her head then she won't speak to them.

Mom was saying just the other day that Jackie had taken some Christmas presents around, apologised for them being late and told my Mom not to worry about giving her anything now that Christmas was over, apparently it was Christmas the week before but 'they' had reset her time so that was why she was late bringing the presents around.

She's a lovely lady but it does worry me, especially as she sometimes believes that my parents, or rather the imposters, have a part in the plot against her.

Oh Jo what a shame, clearly a very unwell and lonely lady

She is, it's awful to see her like this
Her brother lives nearby and cares for her but I think he finds it difficult.

No wonder, and yes very sad for you to see the difference in her from years ago

Yes Kaz he lives alone, he was divorced a few years since; and you are right too Saundra, I know he is lonely and he hasn't been too well. Too much time to sit and brood, maybe.