A lot of girls are called “crazy” by men they date, but are the women crazy or do the men drive them crazy? What comes first, the chicken or the egg?  Some women put on a fake persona on a first date and in the beginning of a relationship because they are afraid to be themselves and they want to be what they think the man wants. So when their true selves start to come through, the woman can end up looking like a bonafide lunatic.  Some women are being true to themselves, but are trying to temper their personalities a bit in an effort to be conservative and safe. So when they suddenly let out more of their personality they can appear certifiable. Then there are the times that a man just simply drives a sane woman crazy! Try to reel in the crazy ladies. Be yourself and don’t let the stress of dating make you into something you’re not. Try to keep it all in perspective and depart your date with your pride.

It doesn’t matter how normal my life gets, I will always have obsessive-compulsive disorder. The only parallel to this that I can think of is a recovering alcoholic. This person is still very much an alcoholic. They just no longer drink alcohol. They don’t feed their habits, and in that way, can lead a somewhat normal life. I’m not speaking for alcoholics, but I’m sure that a sober life for a recovering alcoholic is not easy. I’m not an alcoholic and I still have to drink sometimes. I’m pretty sure that’s the last thing that alcoholics say right before they realize that they’re alcoholics.

Just like recovering alcoholics are able to control their disease by not feeding it, I can now usually control my OCD by usually not giving in to physical compulsions and rituals. However, no matter how hard I try, it is impossible to not let it seep into my day-to-day life. Sometimes, I find myself walking to my car, and it’s not until fifteen minutes later when I recognize that instead of already having arrived at my destination, I’ve been making a constant loop from my car to the front door of my house. After about forty mindless trips to the front door, touching it with both elbows exactly fourteen times every time, I realize that that’s not a thing that people do.

Usually, I’m able to catch myself before I do something stupidly symmetrical like that, but sometimes I’m not. It’s not just physical compulsions, either. Mental obsessions are virtually just as bad as they have always been. While I’ve been able to control the physical manifestations of OCD, a lot of it still lives inside. This is an excellent way to hide the crazy. I suppose the mind is more powerful than the body. Don’t tell that to any quadruple amputees, though. Actually, go ahead and tell them. It couldn’t be any worse than them constantly realizing that they have no arms or legs. Now I’m thinking about why I wrote this. There are people out there without arms or legs, and I’ve spent the past hour worrying that I forgot to take my clothes to the dry cleaners. I no longer have any right to worry about anything.

I am so happy.

Back in the Kibitz Corner, 100hookup wants to know: What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done on a date? Here are some of our favorite answers!

Climbed out the bathroom window and left.

-MizMore, 42, Single, Woman seeking a Man, Boca Raton, FL

Choked on a sandwich and my date had to do the Heimlich to clear my throat passages. Then the chicken came flying out of my mouth. It wasn’t pretty at first, […]but then everyone in the restaurant applauded my date for saving my life.

-MeryllM1961, 49, Divorced, Woman seeking a Man, E Northport, NY

Sang Turkish patriotic songs in Speedos at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC.

-NotSoReal, 36, Single, Man seeking a Woman, New York, NY

Flew from Philadelphia to NYC for dinner. Drove three hours round trip for The Kitchen Sink (a 20 scoop ice cream sundae.) I was younger then…

-Gladeswhi…, 59, Divorced, Woman seeking a Man, Miami, FL

Sprinted away from my date, while chasing a thief who stole an old lady’s purse at the ice cream store. Thief went to jail, lady got her purse back, the date itself… didn’ […]t go so well.

-BuilderAL, 25, Single, Man seeking a Woman, Naperville, IL

First date, took her to a shooting range. Was totally spontaneous, spur of the moment and we had a blast. She had never even held a gun before and found she was a natural […]marksman…couldn’t get her to leave. Then we went to play laser tag. Crazy, fun evening.

-118987859, 42, Divorced, Man seeking a Woman, Davie, FL

“Hijacked” a front-loader, in the middle of the night, from the marine base in San Diego.

-1debswish, 49, Divorced, Woman seeking a Man, Irvine, CA

Impromptu Cubs game. Lame, I know. I need to do more adventurous stuff on dates. Want to crash a Quinceañera? Get matching facial piercings? Stalk a celeb? Steal a Vespa?

-carmensan…, 35, Single, Woman seeking a Man, Chicago, IL

Bad crazy was a first date with a guy who took me out to an elaborate dinner with his parents–for their anniversary. Huh???

-Galya, 48, Divorced, Woman seeking a Man, Albuquerque, NM

Walked out of the restaurant after she asked me: “I need to know how much money you make so you can give me what I want, and how fast can you get promoted to a position of […]more responsibility and money?”

-hookup ga…, 47, Single, Man seeking a Woman, Mineola, NY

You’re on the worst date of your life.  That is complete hyperbole but let’s just say that you are on a date that isn’t going well.  You don’t know your date very well, but you do know that you know her (or him) well enough to hate her.  You have a strong dislike for the woman across from you, and have lost your appetite.  You are dreading the next hour of your precious, short life.  You have exhausted all options.  You tried small-talk, but she is unresponsive to your winning banter.  There is only one way out.

In my experience, I have found that a fun way to make the dinner bearable is to just go for crazy.  You don’t have to be loud or obnoxious.  I mean you can be obnoxious if you want, but you really don’t have to put that much effort into it.  You could be the guy that never talks.  Just don’t talk at all for like twenty minutes.  Or you could be the guy with a weird collection.  Talk frenetically about how you have devoted the past fifteen years of your life to accumulating socks.  You have completely shut out the rest of the world.  You have a room in your house, the Shrine of Socks, which is completely full of socks.  You always wear at least two layers of socks because you love how it absorbs pressure and sweat.  Your dream is to open a sock store called Between the Foot and the Shoe, as well as its successor, The Sock Shack.  You joined a political cause to pass a law that says that makes it illegal to practice karate and gymnastics barefoot.  You have every episode of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In on DVD.  You haven’t been outside of your house for ten years.

Or you could be a crazy conspiracy theorist.  Tell your date that you are convinced that the waiter is trying to poison the two of you; when the water comes, splash it onto the floor.  When the bread comes, threaten the server with the bread knife.  When the steak comes…well…eat it.  No reason to waste delicious steak.