Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

s0l

I think i may have slight obesive complusive disorder.
The most recent thing i suppose was, i was on the toilet, and i get some toilet paper, some brushs against my leg, and i'm immediately compelled to brush it against the same place on my other leg, if i dont i feel unease.

Does anyone else get those kind of urges?

I dont have to flick the lights on and off in a room 50 times before i leave it or anything

eth0_

Are you also compulsed to have the largest frickin' sig? :OP

I have little foibles like that too, I wouldn't call them symptoms of OCD...like if I get the bus, I *have* to have the coins stacked in my palm in order of size, with the animals facing up (back in the day of the punt that is!). And I never choose the first product on a shelf in a shop, always the 2nd or 3rd.

ferdi

everyone has these little quirks (even if they arnt talked about)
nothing to worry about;)

ferdi

Tusky

yup i got some of them too...nothing to worry about unless are lieing in bed thinking OMFG i didnt brush the toilet paper off my left leg or anything

Repli

Those can be explained.. like taking the 2nd or 3rd item from a shelf.. you probably heard from somewhere that shopkeepers put items that will expire earlier to the front to sell them..

The thing with the coins I'd say it's just so you can check the amount again easily..

eth0_

Originally posted by Repli
Those can be explained.. like taking the 2nd or 3rd item from a shelf.. you probably heard from somewhere that shopkeepers put items that will expire earlier to the front to sell them..

The thing with the coins I'd say it's just so you can check the amount again easily..

Naw, it's more to do with the fact I don't want to buy something people have pawed over
As for the coins, I just have a thing about having them ordered.

Victor

Obesive Compulsive Disorder

You mean Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). I wouldn't worry about it until it starts affecting your life (e.g. you decide to wipe your entire body with said paper or want to do it over and over). Presumably you are still functioning normally.

Pigman II

Originally posted by Repli
Those can be explained.. like taking the 2nd or 3rd item from a shelf.. you probably heard from somewhere that shopkeepers put items that will expire earlier to the front to sell them..

The thing with the coins I'd say it's just so you can check the amount again easily..

Yeah I'm the same except I do that when it comes to buying CDs or books because the ones at the front are usually have damaged covers.

I'd find that sorting coins by value or size isn't that weird but making sure that they're all facing the same way is unusual!

Another one of mine was that for years I always worry that I hadn't properly locked the front door to my house but I finally solved the problem by drawing a little 'X' on my hand on the area where thumb meets first finger just after locking the door. Then when I pull the doorhandle to feel the door is locked I similateously look at my hand pulling the door handle and have a constant visual reminder to go with the tactile memory of the door being shut tight. Problem solved!

Gordon

I'll change the title of the thread to show the obsessive as opposed to the obese.

A mate of mine would have such ticks. He would be very confused as to what side of a lamppost he would walk around. It was a pain in the hole walking with him sometimes. He would go past it on the right and then stop and quickly think and go back and walk on the left of the lamppost - stop and repeat this loop for a good minute even. He didn't just limit it to lampposts it was in his life in many ways. He has overcome it however.

I'm not sure what it was - boredom, self doubt, unhappiness. But you will get over it I'm sure, it's just one of these things you have to do at one point in your life.

Oh yeah, I used to count stairs, god that was annoying. For a couple of years I would count any stairs or steps I walked on. :rolleyes:

Macker

The most recent thing i suppose was, i was on the toilet, and i get some toilet paper, some brushs against my leg, and i'm immediately compelled to brush it against the same place on my other leg, if i dont i feel unease.

Stop doing it ,I know that may sound cruel but just stop worrieing about it ,people in this thread telling you it's alright to stack your change the right way up ...etc...are just wrong ,what's the worse thing can happen ,next time the toilet paper thing happens just stand up walk away and forget it ....if you get hit by a bus I was wrong ......sue me ....

Macker

thedrowner

i don't think i have any quirks like that, come to think of it. . i knew someone with OCD though, and some of the stuff was a little annoying.

Sposs

My Girlfriend is very obessive about cleaning,she know she does it,she just cant stop like cleaning her room after coming in from a nightclub at three in the morning cause she can't sleep knowing there's a mess. Im not complaining im a slob who hates cleaning so we get on great

Lexie

My sister had it and she used to go around touching things and if she missed something she would have to go back and touch it. She eventually grew out of it. Very annoying thing to have!

koneko

It's not OCD until it starts affecting your day to day life, in a bad way.

Everyone has quirks, OCD is just an exaggerated version of them. If you don't do this, something bad will happen to you, or someone you love. After a while it takes over your life.

Everyone has little things though. Only start to worry when you think your parents will die if you don't turn the light on and off 20 times, or that the world will collapse if you step on cracks in the pavement.

Saruman

s0l thats not all the un-common!
Things like that happen to me.. usually i might have to scratch one leg and then to feel complete i scratch the other even though it has no itch.. Also if im in the gym for instance and on the treadmill.. you know when you go too far forward and your foot hits off the front part? Well i will make sure i do the same on the other foot then.

Also when i walk past a banister on the stairs i always feel compelled to touch the top of the posts...

Thats about it.. i think everyone has something they do like this... Some people are conscious of it though

logic1

Yeah I have a few of these.. actually quite alot.

I have the coin thing, anytime I have coins in my hand I have to make sure they all face up and are ordered from the biggest in diameter at the bottom to the smallest at the top and they all have to be aligned the same way so they all match.

I also need to keep all DVDs and CDs I have straight in their boxes. If I have stuff on my desk it has to be aligned with the sides of the desk and/or table.

I have to tie my left shoe before my right, if my left becomes undone I have to undo my right tie my left then retie my right.

If I need to turn around in a full circle for any reason I have to turn back the way I came so it's like I haven't turned at all.

I need to taste stuff before I'll use it, soap, shampoo that kind of thing.

If someone besides me touches my food I throw it out.

There's a lot more I can't think of right now.

.logic.

Sposs

Logic gets my vote for freak of the week

imp

I already mentioned these elsewhere on boards but they're relevant enough here.

When I eat something like Skittles, Pringles etc. etc. (i.e. things that you would normally take several at a time out of the pack) I always have to do it in even numbers. If they're small enough to fit a few in your mouth at once I'll split them evenly between each side of my mouth, if they're too big for that I'll alternate between the left and right hand side of my mouth.

Whenever I'm walking I'll always do it in synch to my thoughts. Putting down the back of my foot would count as one syllable of a word I'm thinking, the front of the foot would be another etc. If all the syllables of the sentence don't turn out to be divisible by 4, then I get a little pished off. Sometimes I'll do it with my tongue instead though. I'll press the tip of it to the back of my top teeth for one syllable, and sink the tongue deep into my mouth for another. When I do it this way it has to be divisible by 2. Sometimes I'll do all this with music, rather than thoughts.

I'm weird me. No?

Oh and I also have the thing whereby if something brushes against me on one side, I'll crave for it to touch me on the other side, but only if its inanimate.

}:>

LegacyUser

I reckon I suffered from severe OCD for a while. I'm a lot better now thankfully. As others have said it's one thing having little quirks, but it only becomes OCD when it starts to get out of hand and it can be really debillitating.

For example, I used to freak out if I felt a slight bump when driving my car at night. Even the tinyiest little bump such as driving over a pebble or a catseye. I would get an idea into my head that I had hit a pedestrian. Sometimes I'd have to turn around and drive back to where I felt the bump to make sure there was no-one there. Other times I wouldn't turn around but I'd make a point of checking newspapers, teletext etc. to see if there were any reports of people being knocked down in the area where I'd been driving. Ridiculous I know - but that's what OCD does to you.

I was also obsessive about locking doors, turning off taps and electric fires for fear that the house would be burgled/flooded/burnt down. If I left the house, I'd often return several times before I was happy I had left everything in order. I might come back 3 or 4 times specifically to check the electric fire - burning the house down was a major obsession of mine! Each time I'd remember turning off the fire, but it was like I didn't trust my own mind that I'd turned it off and that I had just imagined turning it off so I'd feel compelled to return to check it again. Then once i'd left, I the doubts would return...Another one of mine was fear of insects in my bed at night, that I'd sleep with my mouth open and would swallow something or that something would crawl up my nose or into my ears and that I'd wake up having swallowed spiders and with earwigs in my ears and my nose.

Hoarding loads and loads of old junk is another symptom of OCD. You hoard because you're terrified you might throw something valuable/useful out. You solve this by throwing nothing out. If you do manage to put out some rubbish you feel compelled to sift through the rubbish several times just to make absolutely sure you haven't thrown anything important out. I used to do this as well.

Its kind of funny in a way I suppose. Looking back, I can laugh at the stuff I used to do. I also think OCD is a fascinating disorder and I'm always interested to hear about the different obsessions people have

s0l

Saruman, i also do what you mention.
But i used to be worse than i am now, when i was young (10 and below, i'm only mid teens now) I'd obsess over everything being done in equal amounts, say i was eating a bowl of ice cream, i'd make sure that each spoon full was the same amount as the last, then near the end when it wasnt i'd start to feel uncomfortable.
I do think its fading alot though, unreg1, do you mind if i ask what age you were when you had big problems with it, or how old you were when it first started effecting your life? I'm a bit curious.

DapperGent

When I was younger I'd say around 16-18 I had this mad obsession with words. They had to be in an odd number for a very particular reason - so that the word would be balanced. It would have to have say 4 letters at the start, one in the middle and four at the end or whatever. So "wonderful" would be fine - wond/e/rful but "number" would be an irritant. I would have to find some gramatically correct way of altering the word so that it had an odd number so I'd change it to "numbers" in my own head. This gave me an overwhelming sense of wellbeing.

Unfortunately there are a number of words in the english language that you can't alter to do this, it is grammatically incorrect to make them plural or put an -ed on the end or turn then into adjectives or superlatives. I can't remember any off the top of my head now but when one came into my mind it used to drive me mental.

I also used to have a compulsion about having all the doors in whatever room I was in closed. I had to hear the door click shut aswell or it was no good, going back to the door loads of times to make sure it was shut was awful annoying.

I no longer do either of these things though the door thing still afflicts me sometimes when I'm sitting in the sitting room in the parents house.

To be honest I'd say I did these things because at the time I was very unhappy and didn't feel in the least bit secure. Now since growing up a bit and doing some interesting stuff, life is good and fun.

I reckon things like this are a way of affirming control when you feel powerless and unhappy- "I may be having a crap time in school/work/life but that ****ing door is sure gonna know who's boss." - says the unconcious.

My two cents would be to examine what makes you unhappy, identify some things that would make you happy. Lessen former, increase latter. Rinse. Repeat.

But then that's my advice to everybody.

Sev

I have a slight ocd in everything I do, nothing serious.. I evaluate (mentally) and tweak everything I do, a habit I try to resist.

If for example, I am somehow compelled to throw a pencil in the air, and I dont quite catch it in a satisfying manor.. I'll do it again, and often an odd number of times (I used to prefer even numbers, but now as I see it, if you do something an even number of times it cancels out the first action, call me crazy). I used to even 'think' an odd number of times, or may repeat something to myself mentally. I also put great deal into positioning objects.

When I go to bed, I'll leave my phone on the floor beside my bed, but ill be very careful with its position on the carpet, pointing in a precise, planned and meaningful direction (christ I really do sound crazy when I think about it). But I used to be far worse, I guess I kinda adjust, and learn to ignore and not to question these stupid compulsions as im sure there's far more examples I could name but I can only think of this one at the moment. Theres just something unsettling about leaving something imperfect.

I constantly see order, structure, patterns in everything I see/do, it doesnt bother me much tho, just drives me to perfection, I think.

Sev

Im a door shutter person too, but that compulsion probably arises from Counter-Strike. An open door lets in external noise as well as the cold, and just seriously bugs me such that I cant concentrate

I experience your turning quirk too logic, kinda like as if by turning full circle youre tangling yourself in some kind of invisible rope... something that must be rectified, balanced, brought back to how it was, equilibrium.

Something I just thought of now, and something I probably did quite a bit in my previous post, is that if I make a slight typo, I'll often delete the entire word (and the space preceding it) instead of just backspacing a letter, or often the previous 4 or 5 words too, just to feel entirely perfect, and have all evidence of error eliminated from existance. If I start typing again after deleteing, i try to keep it on an odd keystroke and consciously adjust my mental disposition to the task with each change of direction from backspacing to typing, as to keep in line with the sense of balance with which I began typing.

Im sure im making no sense at all, but this is how I think. You wouldnt believe how hard this is to explain. But I'm sure I managed to get my point accross anyway.

passthesalt

i was treated for OCD. what ended up working for me in the long run was this...
these little obsessions only have power over you because you allow yourself to be freaked out by them, ie: you notice yourself thinking something strange like "oh i HAVE to touch myself on the other leg aswell or something awful will happen", then "oh my god, somethings wrong with me, why did i HAVE to do that? oh no, this is serious, ahhhh"
however,
if you allow yourself to have these thoughts, like "i HAVE to..." and just say, "oh well, its just a silly thought, it doesnt mean anything, ill let it be there but wont indulge in it because its no big deal" then the obsessive thought loses its power because its not a major issue, because really, its ok that you think these irrational things, everyone has weird thoughts. its no big deal. theyre just silly thoughts. i wont fight them, i just wont pay them any attention because theyre just silly thoughts.

this doesnt work for everyone, but it did for my specific strain, which was 'pure obsessive'.

theres also prozac. yummy.

Victor

Do people sort their books by size? Well actually not quite I sort them into groups by subject, then by size.

I don't have enough books to have to sort by title.

birdbath

yes, i too have my own strange and difficult compulsions. sometimes i am overcome with the urge to round up every marketing person in a five mile radius and feed them to ravenous pigs. is this something i should be concerned about?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i sort my books by series, and place in that series...

and i usually keep hardbacks and paperbacks seperate, but only cos I only have one or two shelves that my hardbacks will fit on

Wook

Originally posted by Pigman II
(continued)Another one of mine was that for years I always worry that I hadn't properly locked the front door to my house but I finally solved the problem by drawing a little 'X' on my hand on the area where thumb meets first finger just after locking the door. Then when I pull the doorhandle to feel the door is locked I similateously look at my hand pulling the door handle and have a constant visual reminder to go with the tactile memory of the door being shut tight. Problem solved!

this sounds so much like an Douglas Adams character

Victor

Originally posted by birdbath
yes, i too have my own strange and difficult compulsions. sometimes i am overcome with the urge to round up every marketing person in a five mile radius and feed them to ravenous pigs. is this something i should be concerned about?

With me its Architects, eveyone gets stressed over one group or another. For bus drivers, its people who can't find their change, for café staff its people who have one coffee and stay for 4 hours.

But haven't you at least put your efforts into your website to satire said racketeers?

smiles

Bus drivers who can't find their change?

The stupid bus driver I have on Sundays actually spent a full five mintues giving out to me because I was paying with a €50 note (+ a 2 euro coin), I wouldnt mind if I was paying something like 3 euro, But I was paying €21.50 -- and he was so narky telling me I was using up all his change, and what did I think he was, a bank! etc. I mean, come on, it was 30 euro change, straight out, and half the people were handing him 20 quid notes.

Wánker.

/rant

<< Fio >>

Silverfish

Wow.

And I thought I was going mad, and no-one else did the things I do.....

Although some of mine have gotten quite serious and I'm getting a little freaked, like:

When I'm driving, its 'If the next car is red, I'll have bad luck. If the next song is this, I'll have bad luck.' and so on.

If I'm scratching my leg or my arm, I have to scratch the other one, simultaneously, an equal number of times. If I'm in public, I leg it to a toilet so no-one laughs at me, as has happened before.....

I have to hang my car and house keys up overnight, or I subconsciously belive my car will be stolen / house burgled (jesus, I'm definitely mad)

Same as above re: coins for the bus, taking 2nd or 3rd thing off shelves, checking stuff is unplugged and switched off before I leave (my flatmates love this one, mind).

If I'm drinking a pint, the glass absolutely cannot have condensation on it, I have to wipe it off downwards, while turning the glass, then wipe twice turning the glass in the other direction (still with me?) then once again in the original direction.

Oh, and I have to sleep with the light on, or I swallow spiders.