Shrink-o-Matic

After such a lengthy absence from my blog, I'm back with a vengeance - two blogs in two days! I wow myself. ;)

But this is a typical behavior pattern for me. I actually believe myself nearly incapable of doing anything halfway: it's an ALL or NOTHING scenario here. This kind of behavior is somewhat compulsive and is one hairline away from being obsessive-compulsive in nature, but it's also one punctuation away from being dysfunctional. A fine balancing act, don't you think?

For instance, I was suffering from serious guilt for over-eating during the recent holidays, so instead of modifying my eating habits, I took it to the other extreme and didn't eat much but crackers for two days. Today, however, when a nice box of 6 (six), large, chocolate-dipped fortune cookies was delivered to my home from my attorney, I couldn't resist but eat one...or six. Initially, I put the cookies away in the pantry, determined to give them away or eat one every few weeks. However, by the time I'm done writing this blog...I will have eaten the entire box of cookies. I feel as if I've morphed into the Cookie Monster.

Yes, it was an unhealthy feast, alright, but it was so difficult to resist the (compulsive)urge. Okay, maybe I didn't try all that hard to resist. Like a scene straight out of "Alice in Wonderland," the cookies called my name, whispering "eat me". I did; oh, did I ever. Regardless, the guilt has set in once more.

How many of us exhibit compulsive behaviors in other areas of our lives? Clearly, eating is a big yo-yo struggle for many with a feast/famine pattern (and it is also the making of eating disorders). But what about love/hate patterns seen in a romantic relationships? Or excessive exercising versus doing the couch potato? Add to that the hourly compulsion to check email, or repeatedly log into popular social-networking sites, like Facebook or MySpace, and you have the making of a very neurotic generation of people.

Feast or famine themes seem more common in people's lives than most realize. And in a twisted fashion, since most of us suffer from one or another form of obsessive/compulsive behavior, it seems to "normalize" the existences of dysfunctional behavior in the rest of us: "Oh go ahead, have that extra cookie! We all do it!" Sure, but at what cost?

Then again, misery loves company...they say.