Do YOU Have Compulsive Snow Shoveling Disorder?

What’s with the men who shovel every last millimeter of snow off their driveway, literally scraping at the concrete?

One time after a snowfall at my new house I saw a man just finishing up on completely shoveling his driveway at 6:00 in the morning.

Yet the snowfall overnight hadn’t been significant enough to make pulling out of one’s drive difficult.

In fact, while he was compulsively shoveling down to the concrete, I could easily see nearly the entire tires of vehicles in neighboring drives — that were not shoveled in the least.

The home I owned prior to this was next door to a man who compulsively shoveled.

This includes even slush — not even in the path he’d use to get from his front door to his car door. It’s like, WHY was he hell-bent on shoveling away every last glop of slush?

He’d shovel all around the back of his car including either side of the back, even though this area would not be walked on.

And I’m talking the removal of just a few inches of snow, and often even less, such as thin patches of slush (not ice, but soft slush that’s not slippery).

Why do I pay attention to this?

I’m enjoying a TV show. Then suddenly, above the dialogue, I hear this scraping. And scraping. And scraping. There’s no end to it: scrape-scrape-scrape-scrape-scrape…

I’m compelled to look outside my window, even though I already know it’s the noise of a metal shovel making contact with asphalt (because the neighbor just can’t stand the existence of thin, harmless patches of mushy slush within five feet of his vehicle).

I’m drawn to watching someone doing something really inexplicable, especially when it interferes with my TV viewing pleasure.

Now, it’s one thing if the snow is deep and he wants to cut a comfortable walking path, or if there’s dangerous sheets of hard-as-nails ice.

But as mentioned, he’d shovel where he never walked; he’d shovel right down to the asphalt — literally; and he’d really go at it.

No, I’m not ready to assume, and I certainly wasn’t then, that he was autistic.

I’ve seen compulsive snow shoveling disorder (CSSD) too often to assume that every single one of those men were neurodivergent.

Here’s the kicker: This particular man usually went back inside the townhome and never came back out. (This was easy to know because I’d hear the door shut.)

Meanwhile the sun would be melting the snow elsewhere, such that had he never shoveled, it would’ve been melted anyways.

I myself never shoveled. If the snow was a blanket, I simply stayed in.

But even when I had to go out somewhere (e.g., the gym, the dentist), the distance between my front door and car door (the same as the man’s) was like 13 feet.

If there was a layer of snow, SO WHAT. It’s more of a nuisance to shovel out a 13-foot path than it is to simply walk through a little snow.

And remember, often, this man would never use the area he shoveled the dickens out of.

He’d just go back inside his unit. This would often occur when the sun was out after the snowfall. He could’ve just let the sun do the job. 

Before you surmise that maybe he had coordination problems and thus, needed every last millimeter of snow and slush removed in case he had to unexpectedly drive off in his car …

This man went on hikes, including in the snow, and also rock climbed.

I’d see him load his equipment into the car, and he’d post images of his snowy mountain excursions on his FB page.

So you can flush the “maybe he has balance problems” smack down the loo.

Eventually a man moved in with him, and he too, was a compulsive snow shoveler!

What was even weirder was that this guy hardly ever left the home except for occasional rock climbing.

Believe it or not, the man who lived there prior did the same thing!

I’d hear all this very annoying scrape, scrape, scraaaaape for up to 25 straight minutes.

This man, 70, was literally shoveling at the concrete! Then he’d go inside and NOT come back out to use the scraped-to-the-bone asphalt in any way. I’d know this because he was a door slammer.

We can rule out dementia with him, because he worked full-time behind the counter of a convenience store.

Why was any of this my business?

First, I’ve always been fascinated by human behavior — much more so than most people.

At 10 I was reading a chapter in a psychology book on human intelligence and was so intrigued.

Secondly, these men created a noise nuisance from an unnecessary activity.

I’ve been WAKENED by the scraping — and it was scraping for nothing.

In fact, when people shovel away significant snowfalls, you can’t hear it because usually, the shovel never penetrates deep enough to the concrete.

But in the case of these men, they just couldn’t stand to see little patches of slush or just one-half inch of snow.

When the accumulation is that shallow, the shoveling will repeatedly hit the asphalt and create a noise that can easily be heard over a TV, not to mention WAKE ME UP.

“But shoveling is good exercise!”

Can we really, really believe that compulsive snow (or shall I say, slush) shovelers do this for a workout? No. That’s not why they do it.

First of all, the snowfall frequency isn’t consistent enough to produce a maintained training effect with shoveling.

Second, why would a rock climber and hiker shovel strictly for exercise?

And remember, his eventual roommate was also a rock climber.

The older man who lived there before was 70 and a heavy drinker. This is hardly a man who’d shovel only for a workout.

There were even times that I could hear the water melting from my roof, while they were going at the concrete to remove every last inch of slushy stuff. 

One might say that by coincidence, every man I’ve ever seen with CSSD had OCD: obsessive compulsive disorder.

But tell me, is it really believable that OCD can manifest this way? Especially in one resident of the same townhome after another?

Here is a more in-depth look into the perplexing behavior of compulsive snow shoveling.

Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer. She has a clinical diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder.