Everyone is a little OCD

[MuToiD_MaN]

I love this comic because I can really relate. I walk funny on tiles because I have OCD-like rules for what's allowed and what's not. I thought I was crazy for acting like this. Then I went around asking a few colleagues and they often do these things too.

Mine are almost all involving walking... If I am faced with a pattern of tiles that are alternating horizontal/vertical "grain" patterns, I try to walk only on the tiles that match that direction. In fact, if I am forced to step on a tile oriented the other way, I will rotate my foot 90 degrees to line up with it. If there is no pattern and the tiles are big enough, I'll try to keep my foot within the confines of one tile (no overlap). If I'm indoors and I'm walking around a corner, I'll try to step only once on the second "quadrant" as I go around the corner.

That and I sometimes blink with every pole that passes the car window if I'm in the passenger seat.

Am I crazy? I implore you! Confess your OCD actions here.

 

[lefty]

I like to walk in a checkerboard pattern on tiled floors
I used to clench my butt whenever I went over something painted in the road while riding in a car
I often count out the number of syllables on my fingers (by flexing or tapping them in order) when people are talking on TV or I'm listening to music.
I walk behind and to the right of people
Whenever people are turning in tests that have a numerical order, I stand by the teacher's desk and put them in order properly
there's probably more I can't think of

 

[Raziaar]

When it comes to walking, I have a compulsive habit to force myself not to walk in sync with the person I'm walking with. I will literally intentionally stumble to change my pace offset from the person I'm with.

 

[xombine]

Haven't there been like 800 threads about OCD/habits?

 

[lefty]

Oh yeah, I also do the opposite of what Raziaar just said.

I like a little order.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

Haven't there been like 800 threads about OCD/habits?

Perhaps there have but "OCD" is unsearchable

And I haven't been here much lately

When it comes to walking, I have a compulsive habit to force myself not to walk in sync with the person I'm walking with. I will literally intentionally stumble to change my pace offset from the person I'm with.

I do this too. Why do you think we do these things? Is our brain that bored that we have to make dumb games to keep us busy during mundane times?

 

[VirusType2]

I still. Still ****ing count seconds when I drink from a water fountain. It was probably something I picked up in like kindergarten and 1st grade, where we would all go at once and form a line. I didn't want to be greedy and drink for too long.

Actually I think I finally shook this weird habit recently.



I can't stand when my foot steps are in unison with the music if I don't like the song.

In fact, if I am forced to step on a tile oriented the other way, I will rotate my foot 90 degrees to line up with it.

OK, stop that.

 

[Bad^Hat]

I made up a game based on walking on tiles. I imagine my direction as an arrow, and try to navigate with the fewest steps possible without ever walking in the same direction the "arrow" is pointing. I've mapped out my entire living room for this; even though it's just carpet, I know where the tiles are. I know.

 

[Raziaar]

I do this too. Why do you think we do these things? Is our brain that bored that we have to make dumb games to keep us busy during mundane times?

It's not a game for me. Just simple obsessive compulsive. I can't effectively control it, like my other odd things I do. I'm just generally all around ****ed up. Curse you god for making me with all these problems!

 

[Geogaddi]

I used to check locks so often that it was interfering with my ability to live normally, waking up 4-12 times a night to check the front and back door, always an even number of checks... I also used to wash my hands so often that skin began to slough off my wrists...

OCD is not a set of quirky habits, it's a mental illness that extremely debilitating.

 

[Raziaar]

Thankfully none of my things are like that. My absolute worst one right now is me popping my fingers. Or rather not popping, but moving my fingers and initiating the friction that results in a popping noise. It's not actual popping like you know knuckle popping to be, but rather it's my cartilage doing weird stuff. And I've made enough threads about this problem in the past I'm not going to describe it any further.

It's absolutely destroying my hands, but I prefer it to some other OCD things I've read that people have, since I can do it anywhere at any time, and I'm not locked for example in the bathroom washing my hands constantly like a lot of people with OCD seem to be fixated on.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

Heaven help me if the sidewalk cracks don't line up with my natural stride.

Perhaps I should have named this thread differently, rather than trivializing the plight of real OCD. There needs to be a new term invented.

 

[Stigmata]

I'm gonna see just how many OCD tendencies of mine that I can recall.

- I have the creak-based "rhythm/melody" of walking up and down the stairs in my old house permanently ingrained in my mind. I also know precisely where each stair does and doesn't creak.
- I count tiles on ceilings and floors. I also walk in varying patterns on tiled floors.
- I chew my food with an equal number of chews in each side of my mouth.
- I walk two steps per sidewalk square, and I'll change the length of my stride to accommodate the sidewalk. If I can't change my stride without looking like a retard, I'll look for a repeatable pattern in where my steps land along a given series of blocks.
- My mouse (Logitech MX518) has two buttons on it to change the mouse sensitivity between three settings on-the-fly. I press the "increase" button compulsively, even though I'm always on the highest setting.
- A pattern is always going through my head. Usually it's a specific section of a song. If not that, then an entire song. Or an album. Or a series of numbers (1-10, 1-16, and so on). Or the keys on the keyboard (q-w-e-r-t-y-u-i-o-p-a-s-d-f-...). My mind never rests.

There's more but I'm far too exhausted to recall.

 

[Sulkdodds]

Everybody does these things; it's an experimental cognitive game the mind plays with itself while it's idle. But most of us do it voluntarily, amirite?

I tend to wash my hands a lot.

And not just because I'm always fingering people with smelly crevasses!

 

[Cormeh]

I always fill in the spaces between letters and numbers on documents. It's a strange habit. Slightly compulsive/obsessive.

And not just because I'm always fingering people with smelly crevasses!

 

[Jintor]

When it comes to walking, I have a compulsive habit to force myself not to walk in sync with the person I'm walking with. I will literally intentionally stumble to change my pace offset from the person I'm with.

I met a pair of identical twins who would sync their walking paces just for the hell of it.

 

[Baal]

Along the lines of the lock guy - I always think that I forget to lock my car.

I believe I have an excuse for this, because sometimes I do indeed to forget to lock my car, and I also have about $2000 worth of sports equipment in the trunk. Still though, it's like every 10th time I get out of my car I keep thinking I forgot to lock it, even though I didn't.

I'm seeing some OCD tendencies for sure. Oh well, at least I can walk on tiled floor without looking like a complete ****ing basket case.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

I used to check locks so often that it was interfering with my ability to live normally, waking up 4-12 times a night to check the front and back door, always an even number of checks... I also used to wash my hands so often that skin began to slough off my wrists...

OCD is not a set of quirky habits, it's a mental illness that extremely debilitating.

Indeed. My sister's had it for some ten years now and has to clean and wash everything she or someone else has touched. Or she used to, she's gotten alot better. Maybe someday someone other than her and her children will be able to enter her house.

 

[nurizeko]

I always drink from bottles of juice, soda and stuff with the barcode facing straight up.

I avoid the cracks when I'm walking, especially tiled pavements, and try and get a routine going when walking, like make sure I step over every other tile on whichever side my foot is on, and same with the other.

I like to sync my footsteps when I'm walking with a mate t, is odd.

Its silly but thats fit I do.




I've entertained the idea some of my quirks like that indicated some soft take on something like OCD, but I never bothered too much since it never effected my life really in any way, and obviously wasn't serious enough to warrant a diagnosis and stuff.


I cant remember anything else off the top of my head, but I'm sure I have others.

 

[Danimal]

I say it every OCD thread but it still haunts me. Most small actions I do have to be done in a number divisible by 5, and in groups of 5 themselves.

Example, breathing in for five counts, breathing out for five counts. I breathe in for four? I breathe in for six next time.