I’m pretty sure it all started with Perrier. You see, I’m old enough to remember the good old days when you could sit down at a restaurant and were just given tap water instead of having to know if you want tap, flat, bottled, sparkling, and with or without ice.

It’s been reported that Anxiety disorders are on the rise, so much so, that we can all now watch a show on A & E about OCD (“Obsessed”) because there’s so many of us who have it.  But I don’t believe it’s because the economy’s down, or because we have “issues.” Rather, I think it’s because we have too many choices in just making what used to be simple decisions, and instead, are constantly bombarded with never-ending possibilities all the time.

My grandfather used to say “We hat wahl, der hat knal,” which in German, means something like “whoever has choices, has discomfort.” And there are Buddhist priests who believe that having too many alternatives is the cause of all sorts of trouble. And let’s not forget the theory that fascism makes people feel comfortable precisely because their freedom is limited. Now before you go all Rush Limbaugh on me, I’m in no way advocating for a change in our system of government. I’m just making an observation that those of us who are ADD or what-have-you are so because the world has too many things to do in it.

Let’s take music. It used to be that if you wanted to listen to music that you could turn on your car radio, play a tape, a record, or maybe listen to your walkman. Now there are MP3 players, cds, limewire, about ten different kinds of I-pods, cell phones, youtube, free radio (the kind that still plays the baseball games), internet radio, and satellite radio (the kind that costs money but that we hear when we go to the salon).

And then there’s TV. We don’t just have bunny ears, basic cable, or super-duper cable; now we have DirectTV and gadgets that somehow record your show while the show is playing so that you can pause it and then continue watching it—live. And let’s not forget that before we can watch anything, we have to pick the right remote control.

I don’t even know what to do now if I want to talk to a friend about things like this. As most of us have both a cell phone and a landline, I first need to remember when I should call each one. Then I need to figure out whether or not to call my showbiz friends by the names they were actually born with, or their stage ones. Then there’s emailing (and most of my people have several of these addresses), texting, instant messaging, leaving a message, not leaving a message, twittering, myspaceing and facebooking. I feel bad if I actually have to call someone. And sometimes when I feel sad because I’ve made the mistake of calling one of my friends and bothering them, I want to eat. But then I have to decide if the food I’m eating is actually good for me, and if I want something called “organic” food or not (By the way, what was I eating, before I was eating organic food?).

And what happens if I make something to eat and then want to throw the food and its packaging out? Before I do, I have to somehow figure out what colored bin my trash is supposed to go into. I could just go to a restaurant and avoid the whole taking out the trash thing, but if I use a credit card and later want to pay the bill, I have to remember my online username and password. I guess I could go back to writing checks, but then I’d feel guilty about wasting paper. And speaking of trees, now I can’t figure out if I should actually buy a book I want to read at a bookstore, or just download it.

I hope bringing up the multitude of the once simple daily choices we all have hasn’t made you too anxious. If it has, maybe get up and take a drink of water. Tap.