Obsessive-Compulsive Thoughts

[Debater Slayer]

I think it's safe to assume that most of us have experienced them at least a few times before, albeit to varying degrees, be it simple, temporary ones or full-on obsessions.

For starters, here are some of mine:

• Excessive hand-washing after touching numerous objects, e.g. keys and cutlery. Sometimes touching carpets also drives me to wash my hands.

• Switching TVs off if the picture is paused in fear of them "burning out," even though I know that probably won't be the case; it's a compulsion, pretty much.

• Meticulously observing others' body language — how they sit, stand, walk, and even how their movements vary during conversation. Eye movements interest me as well.

• Looking up words in a dictionary. If no new words come up, I'll look up old words in order to be able to define them in a "dictionary-like" way. I have literally looked up at least one word every day for the past 4-5 months, which varied between new and old ones, or both.

So, if you have any, what are some of your obsessions-compulsions? Do you consider any of them to be beneficial as opposed to annoying and/or distracting?

 

[methylatedghosts]

TV volume must be either an even number, a multiple of 5, or a double number like 11 or 33.

 

[Breathe]

I have OCD.

• Excessive hand-washing after touching numerous objects, e.g. keys and cutlery. Sometimes touching carpets also drives me to wash my hands.

• Switching TVs off if the picture is paused in fear of them "burning out," even though I know that probably won't be the case; it's a compulsion, pretty much.

Got those.

Also:


• Lists; I love lists.
• Paranoia; I'm convinced people dislike me
• I'm convinced I'm not stupid, even though things say I'm above average intelligence
• Lights being on in empty rooms
• Taps leaking


Also have more.

 

[Debater Slayer]

I have OCD.

Same here.

*high five*

Got those.

Also:


• Lists; I love lists.
• Paranoia; I'm convinced people dislike me
• I'm convinced I'm not stupid, even though things say I'm above average intelligence
• Lights being on in empty rooms
• Taps leaking


Also have more.

I get the last two, especially the last one. I sometimes go to the kitchen just to check for any leaking taps. :cover:

 

[dyanaprajna2011]

Right after my divorce, I developed some mental issues, naturally, like depression and anxiety, but I also developed a bad case of OCD, but all of these have since subsided. So, even though I don't suffer from OCD any longer, I have the problem of being Autistic, which some symptoms can mirror OCD-like issues.

Back when I had OCD, these are some of the things that afflicted me:

-when I was at home, laying on my couch watching TV, my things had to be set on the coffee table in a certain order: keys, wallet, drink, snuff
-TV and radio volumes had to be certain numbers, which are so random, I can't really list them
Those are the two big ones, it seems like there was more, but I can't remember them off the top of my head.

As far as being Autistic goes, I have this weird obsession (although they're not weird to a Autie or Aspie) with numbers and patterns. These are common traits among those on the Autism spectrum.

One other thing that is OCD-like that I've always suffered from, but don't quite understand why, is that I'm always looking out windows, obsessively, I've even woke up in the middle of the night just to look out a window. I'm not looking for anything, or expecting anything, just looking. That's subsided, some, the older I get, but I still do it on occasion.

 

[Alceste]

Open doors, drawers, cupboards, boxes, etc. Can not deal with them. Must close all the things.

 

[Kerr]

I clean my hands far too much. Sometimes they get so dry as a result they randomly starts bleeding. I am a vegetarian, so every time I touch something "meaty" I have to wash my hands. If I touch something my brain considers dirty, like the toilet or the washing machine, I have to wash my hands. Sometimes when I do something I do it like this.
1. Do part one.
2. Wash my hands.
3. Do part two.
4. Wash my hands.
5. Do part three.
6. Wash my hands.
7. Do part four.
And so on, even if I probably wouldnt have to wash my hands until the end. And I dont just wash my hands. Sometimes I wash them several times in a row because I can still feel the (invisible) dirt.

When I go out and lock my door I always starts pulling in it just to ensure that its locked.

My brain likes patterns. Like sometimes I when I move my head a little I have to move my head in the other direction to "even it out". Other times I move my head in different patters. Like an 8. My head is just an example, btw.

I dont like numbers like 29 because its so close to 30. Too close. If I do sometimes 29 times I prefer to do it one more time. Prefer numbers like 31 over 30 as well. The same applies to all numbers that follows those patterns (19, 29, 39, etc). Also, since I am a programmer, I think "32-bit" when I see the number 32.

Cant stop "crack" my limbs. They start doing that really easy, so I do it a lot, even if I dont like it.

I can be quite picky and want to say things exactly the way they are. Which causes me to sometimes bring up a subject efter it should have been left behind or to explain too much about it.

When I get tired everything gets worse, lol.

Those are the ones I can think of now. There might be more.

 

[ChristineES]

When I was a teen, I used to have to check to see if the front door was locked every night and I had to make sure the stove was off. Both of these were because of movies- one was in sixth grade when the school showed a whole family die in a fire in their house. The other was a John Wayne film- A woman answered her door and a man shot her dead right there.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

- When I walk up or down a flight of stairs, my right foot needs to be the foot to step on the very top or very bottom of the flight of stairs. If it doesn't, I remember next time which foot to start off with so walking the flight of stairs makes me happy.

- I'm obsessive over static electricity discharge opportunities. It's why i prefer hardwood floors over carpets any day of the week, no matter how cold the floors get. And I always lightly tap my car door twice with my knuckles when getting out just in case I created any static electricity. Even in the summertime. I don't want to get surprised with a sudden static shock on my fingertip.

- 5 minutes before I get on stage, I'm in a panic obsessing over my entrance, and KNOWING I'm going to get on stage and pee my pants and puke all over everybody at the same time. It has never happened. But those thoughts run through my mind every single performance. But when I get on stage, I'm completely focused and at home.

- I joke about it, but I really do think about what I can do to prepare for a zombie apocalypse. My family knows, and I know, how preposterous it is, but I'm still stocking up on our canned food, water reserves, canteens, backpacks, and training in edge weapons and firearms. I'm having fun with it, but I admit to being obsessed with reading survivalist handbooks and brushing up on living without our 21st century conveniences. All for the sake of being prepared for a zombie apocalypse.

- Sex. And whips.

 

[dyanaprajna2011]

- I joke about it, but I really do think about what I can do to prepare for a zombie apocalypse. My family knows, and I know, how preposterous it is, but I'm still stocking up on our canned food, water reserves, canteens, backpacks, and training in edge weapons and firearms. I'm having fun with it, but I admit to being obsessed with reading survivalist handbooks and brushing up on living without our 21st century conveniences. All for the sake of being prepared for a zombie apocalypse.

My fiance does this too. I'm not sure if she's joking, or being serious. It doesn't help that I've heard the Dept. of Homeland Security has put out how to take care of yourself in this case.

 

[4consideration]

I check, double-check, then triple check whether or not I have turned off electrical appliances -- the stove, the iron, toaster oven, anything that creates heat.

I will often return to the front door after I have walked away from it -- just to make sure I locked it. When I lived in a house with a garage, I would often circle back in the car to drive by and make sure that I closed it.

If I wake during the night, I usually go check on the children while they are sleeping -- to make sure they are there and that they are breathing.

 

[Debater Slayer]

Some more obsessions-compulsions and dialogues between me and my brain:

• I'm mostly meticulously careful as to not bother others. If I find out that someone might be annoyed at me in any way, the first thing I examine and think about is whether or not I did something "wrong" that could have caused it. (I think this particular aspect of my OCD largely overlaps with my paranoia.)

• A subset of the obsession-compulsion mentioned above is that I often try to minimize eye contact with strangers in order to avoid making them uncomfortable. For example (and the brain dialogues come into play here ):

"Stop looking at this guy. See the way he's looking at you? You are being creepy."

"Don't make prolonged eye contact with this woman or look at her body. It might make her feel threatened or uncomfortable." (This sometimes happens even when a woman is wearing a burqa. )

"Turn your eyes away from this girl. She might think you are scanning her body, and that can make her feel insulted." (Again, this sometimes happens even when a girl is wearing a burqa.)

"If you keep looking at this guy with the same fixation, he might think you are following his movements for no reason, which is creepy."

Now people here are going to think I'm crazy; the dialogues above are enough for now, methinks. :run:

 

[Astravalon]

- I'm obsessive over static electricity discharge opportunities. It's why i prefer hardwood floors over carpets any day of the week, no matter how cold the floors get. And I always lightly tap my car door twice with my knuckles when getting out just in case I created any static electricity. Even in the summertime. I don't want to get surprised with a sudden static shock on my fingertip.

I can totally relate to this; in the winter here when the air gets dry, I feel like I'm electrocuting myself whenever I flip on a light-switch. The shocks can be unbelievable.

I check, double-check, then triple check whether or not I have turned off electrical appliances -- the stove, the iron, toaster oven, anything that creates heat.

I will often return to the front door after I have walked away from it -- just to make sure I locked it. When I lived in a house with a garage, I would often circle back in the car to drive by and make sure that I closed it.

This is the sort of thing I do as well! Especially before retiring for the night; I even use a checklist at that time to ensure I haven't overlooked anything.

 

[BeckyRose1998]

I have to make sure my shoes are tied before I walk into school because there are some people who just walk behind me and make an effort to step on my laces. 0.0
I also have to make sure I'm wearing pants. (No lie, its true.) Because I had a dream I went to school without any pants on and I got expelled.

 

[otokage007]

- I can't sleep if there's any light or sound. I must be in total darkness and silence, to the point that I actually "hear" the silence.

- I can't work or study in a room where the door or the window is oppened. They MUST be closed or the information simply won't enter in my head.

- I hang on the rack all kinds of clothes, not only jackets. Shirts, pants and even underwear.

- I can't stand people using my moisturizer or any other ointment that I use.

- I can't use rings or bracelets, I feel they reduce blood flow to the fingers and hands. I do use watch, but I take it off as soon as I get home.

TV volume must be either an even number, a multiple of 5, or a double number like 11 or 33.

o. my. gosh.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

I check, double-check, then triple check whether or not I have turned off electrical appliances -- the stove, the iron, toaster oven, anything that creates heat.

I will often return to the front door after I have walked away from it -- just to make sure I locked it. When I lived in a house with a garage, I would often circle back in the car to drive by and make sure that I closed it.

If I wake during the night, I usually go check on the children while they are sleeping -- to make sure they are there and that they are breathing.

I've done these too. When the kids were younger, I would sometimes wake up to check to see if they were still breathing.

When I close up the dance studio at night, since I'm the last one to leave, I triple check every single thing. Turning off the AC, unplugging the sound system, closing windows, turning off the lights (that's easiest since the building gets super dark at night), and ESPECIALLY locking the studio up. I tend to triple check the door and pull on it three times while saying out loud to myself, "Locked. Locked. Locked" to somehow make an imprint in my head that the studio is locked.

Now, if we go on a trip, I bug the hell out of my family because I always double check to see if the coffee pot is turned off and unplugged. I have the husband go on and check on it, and then I ask to turn around again in the car so I can check it myself. One time it was a good thing we did that, since I went in to check after husband said everything was fine....and the coffee pot was still plugged in and turned on.

Freaked me out. I kept thinking what would have happened had we continued on to our weekend road trip. Husband was really embarrassed that he was caught blowing it off. LOL

 

[Breathe]

- I joke about it, but I really do think about what I can do to prepare for a zombie apocalypse. My family knows, and I know, how preposterous it is, but I'm still stocking up on our canned food, water reserves, canteens, backpacks, and training in edge weapons and firearms. I'm having fun with it, but I admit to being obsessed with reading survivalist handbooks and brushing up on living without our 21st century conveniences. All for the sake of being prepared for a zombie apocalypse.

I've started doing similar things, only mine are for reasons that are more believable (like electric becoming too expensive due to rising fuel costs), so harder for me to ignore.

 

[Noaidi]

I'm a compulsive checker, usually to ensure electical appliances are switched off. I have to go round the house several times to make sure everything is off. When it comes to light switches, I have to press them at least 5 times (counting out loud) to make sure they are off.
After leaving the house, I've had to return home several times just to make sure everything is off. It's made me late for work more than a few times.
Strangely, I'm not as obsessive if I'm staying anywhere other than my house. Anyone else have that?

 

[The Neo Nerd]

I'm pretty obsessive compulsive.

- I wash my hands like 10-15 times a day. Every time i walk past the wash trough at work i wash my hands
- When at home i wash my mouth with mouth wash like every hour
- It takes me like 15 minutes to make my bed, i can't handle creases

It gets worse when im upset, i'm known to go on 2 day cleaning sprees.

- I start counting, everything in threes.
- I alphabetise my books, cd,dvds.
- I measure out the lounge room so i know the furniture is square and true.
- All the pictures on the walls are made level, i get a spirit level out and do it properly.
- I have been known to regrout areas in the tiled section of my house because the grout wasn't perfect.
- Pull out draws, clean them and put everything back in nice neat piles (the kitchen draws get disinfected).

Normally i'm not that bad though, but the guys at work are lazy and will just leave rubbish lying around, i yell at them for it, even though im the newest guy.

 

[The Neo Nerd]

- I can't work or study in a room where the door or the window is oppened. They MUST be closed or the information simply won't enter in my head.

I can't study unless my room is spotless.

- I hang on the rack all kinds of clothes, not only jackets. Shirts, pants and even underwear.

I organise my work clothes the night before on a hanger, boxers and socks on the hanger, pants over them to keep them, and my shirt over it all. Then my boots have to sit neatly underneath the hanger.

o. my. gosh.

I'm the same except it has to be multiples of ten or five.