Being told things repeatedly - a personal blog

I checked and there is no official phobia of being told things repeatedly, so I must be the first case. I have definitely become irrationally sensitive about people endlessly repeating the same inconsequential thing to me, presumably under the mistaken impression that I find it interesting or useful.

In general the symptoms I show are anxiety or mild depression – in response to being told things up to 10 time per year. In my case the messages I get vary from the fact that certain types of Broccoli are better than others ( even though I have made it quite clear on several occasions that I personally do not like any kind of Broccoli ), that Monday is a bad day to go to a fishmonger ( I cannot remember the last occasion I went to a fishmonger ) or that lamb is only nice to eat when lambs are lambs, and not when they have become sheep. This is of course blindingly obvious.

However this week, for example, I have been told 5 times to leave some money for a cleaner on Tuesday morning. This is despite the fact that the consequences, should I forget, are precisely nothing ( she will either not clean my house, saving me £30, or will leave me a polite note and I will pay her £60 next week). These reminders have been spread fairly evenly over the last 5 days, and have taken the form of 2 verbal reminders, a telephone call and 2 handwritten notes. The current run rate for being reminded about this particular task is well over 150 times per year. My symptoms to this level of patronisation are becoming quite physical, in that I don’t feel well and become anxious and nervous.

I actually try to avoid situations where someone might remind me yet again that the cleaner needs paying. My Monday evenings are ruined as I wait nervously for the inevitable reminder, I find it hard to sleep because I know on Tuesday morning there will be that patronising and quite unnecessary note waiting for me in the kitchen, despite the fact that I was reminded to do this just a few hours earlier. I am clearly losing perspective and becoming irrational – hence the fact that I am convinced I am the first recorded case of Trivialverbalcrapophobia.

The irony is that I have many things in my life that I could do with some assistance in planning for and executing – such as running a company, cash flow analysis, eating a balanced diet, paying the salaries, maintaining an exercise regime, corporation tax planning and recruitment to name just a few. These would have material implications if I forgot to do them, but no one ever reminds me about any of them.

I shall have to remind them to remind me, revenge will be sweet.