Correction obsession

I am one among the "patients/victims" who have fallen prey to this OCD.

One often comes across a lot of interesting, else pleasantly surprising types of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Recently, I stumbled upon this OCD called Grammar Pedantry Syndrome, wherein the person so affected feels the inexplicable need to correct every grammatical error that he/she comes across. It is only befitting that the first thought which struck me subsequently was that I am one among the so called “patients/victims” who have fallen prey to this OCD. Not that I regret being a part of the patient pool but I’ll have to accept that I have incurred many a wrath due to this tendency of mine.

It is beyond me to suffer grammatical errors in the English language but I perforce confess that my dad prescribes more than an English teacher that no one is supposed to slip into the pit, of course bottomless, of  grammatical negligence in any language.
Coming back to the lost point,  this so called malfunction probably stems from the kind of importance that is given to impeccable English in the educational and familial environment to which I belong. But in my own defence, I can hardly be blamed for correcting the usage of “your a nice person” to “you’re a nice person” (but many are not qualified for this!) Nonetheless, the correction did prove expensive as it was the last compliment I had heard from the person in this instance who had been subjected to this “condition” of mine.

Perhaps I could be a little more specific in order to put across the torment I experience when it comes to grammatical inadequacy. Take for example the application of the word “irony”. One cannot possibly fathom the kind of misuse this word is subjected to, especially in a conversational context.

It almost makes me believe that “irony” would whole-heartedly be consent to being replaced by “tragedy” in order to put itself out of the misery of its maltreatment; and don’t even get me started on the conundrum faced by “there and their”, “its and it is,” so on and so forth!

Please don’t get me wrong here. I don’t claim to be the most grammatically right person walking Mother Earth but is it so despicable of me to sincerely believe that when it comes to diligently engaging a language, it is only expected of you to be adroit in its treatment.

I am now given to understand that this might be an “abnormality” for which professional help might not be totally ill-placed!

It is only when faced with disturbing societal notions like these that one is pushed to look for plausible solutions in the most unlikely of places. But hey, turnabout is fair play! To all those claiming that this noble deed of ensuring a more grammatically correct  society is an OCD I say, isn’t it the cardinal rule of psychology that normality and abnormality differ in degree and not in kind?