want to name your obsessions?

Counting how many times my children's chests rise and fall when they're asleep. I was really bad when my two oldest kids were little (they're 17 and 18 now). I would stand and count to whatever number seemed right, then go back and count again because I was afraid I had messed up. My symptoms decreased, then went away during the four years I was in college, and then I started having panic attacks and quit school with only a semester left. My youngest is 2 1/2, and I find myself again doing it, though not as bad as before. Except for when he was first born. For about a month I was a mess. Counting constantly, afraid I had killed him. One night I took a bag of trash out, and I had to keep checking to make sure I didn't put him in the bag. I would look at him in is cradle, count his breaths, believe I was imagining things, then go back out and check the trash bag again. I had to wake up my husband so that he could assure me everything was ok.

I do a lot of things with numbers and patterns. I am obsessed with things having a pattern, and everything must be equal. If one side has 3 and one side has 2, a side needs to gain or lose something quick to equal the other. The OCD comes out the most with checking things though. Even if I know deep down that the door is locked, the stove/TV/computer/etc is shut off, and the toilet is flushed, I will get this extreme feeling that I HAVE to double check, and I won't settle down until I do-I can't get it out of my head. For example: yes, I know I turned off the stove, and noone has used it since suppertime, but if I don't double check before I go to sleep, the house will catch fire and kill us all. I find, I often get these negative thoughts and they will gnaw at me until I do what I am trying to avoid (ie. getting up in the middle of the night to check to see if the stove is off--I try and stay in bed, but I won't have peace of mind and be able to go to dreamland unless I just get up and check). I am also germaphobic. I am a compulsive handwasher, and always think that if I touch certain things I will get sick unless I go wash my hands right away.

G~d bless!
~Lily~

I've been a germaphob for a few years, but I've never been weird about washing my hands.
For a long time I had to do everything 4 times. If I accidentally hit a table on my way by, I had to go back and hit it 3 more times the same way.
One obsession that I just started this year is that I won't set my alarm clock on a multiple of 5. Right now my alarm is set for 7:22 am.
I'm an extreme perfectionist (even though my personal space is a mess). When I practice singing, I'll go over one line of a song for a few minutes until I get it to sound the way I want it to, before moving on to the next part of the song. It's good practice, but really annoying..
Maybe it's becuase I'm a musician, but at the very least I spend a few minutes out of every hour tapping some sort of beat. I've used my hands, fingers, feet, tongue, teeth, etc and hit tables or whatever was nearby.
Also, I can hear really well, so sometimes when I sit on the couch I listen to the 3 clocks on the wall in 3 different rooms and sit there for several minutes trying to make a beat using the clocks to keep time, but not tapping on a beat when one of the clocks ticks. It's somewhat entertaining, but really weird...
I double-check things all the time...... then do it again later...
Whenever I type something and see an error, I don't usually click where the error is and fix it. I hold backspace until I get to the mistake, then type everything I erased from memory. Unless it's more than about 15 words or so, then I won't erase everything. When I'm done writing something, I usually read over it and edit before I post. And I rarely have any spelling errors, though I don't worry about grammar mistakes nearly as much.
oh btw, if you want to see an example of my perfectionist habits.... click the link in my sig.


I can't think of any more right now, but I know there are several things I haven't mentioned.

jazzcat7 said:

I'm new round here.
I watched Oprah once and I have signs of OCH obsessive compulsive hoarder I think it was called.
Alot of it lined up. I'm a perfectionist. But I get to the point where it's like if I clean up my room it's not going to be to my standards so why try. Or the mess is overwhelming. Or I begin to clean and then find items that take me on tangents... I have SO MUCH TROUBLE throwing things away. Even trivial things. It's like will I need it for something in 6 months and regret throwing it away. Or will I want to read it again. I get quite upset when my Mum pushes me to clean up. Because I can't cope sometimes with how I am going to get everything the way it needs to be. I'm maybe not quite as extreme as some they showed on Oprah but I don't have a house yet. It's like God help me!

I would be interested to know if there are any others out there that are OCH?

Blessings Jazzcat7!

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I definitely have hoarding tendencies which I am currently fighting. I think I have something called "Pure O" OCD, which means you have the obsessions without the compulsive behaviors. You can learn a lot about that by searching for info on the internet. Some hoarders are pure O types.

My obsessions relate to unbidden thoughts that are disturbing. Then I have to backtrack mentally to figure out how that thought popped in to my head. I never knew that I did that until I read for the first time about the pure o type. I knew that I had a problem with rumination. But there is more to it. It's definitely an emotional/anxiety reaction to certain troubling thoughts. The say that those with the compulsive behaviors are using rituals to counteract the anxiety while a pure o type will use mental processes to solve the anxiety. YOu get stuck ruminating and mentally problem solving for long periods of time.

Clutter. I freak out if the counters in my kitchen and bathroom have much on them. I can't stand stuff on them. I do the same thing every night endlessly. I know something's weird with me but I don't think it hurts anyone,does it? Just me! I'll be dead tired but I go through the ritual every evening and then I'm happy. I have to have everything put away,wiped down,candle lit,not a fork,drink,piece of trash or mail in sight. I go to great lengths too. Sometimes shining the fridge because it's one of those stainless steel ones that show every fingerprint. I do the floor too. I actually feel sick from rushing so fast.It has to be perfect. Why am I doing this and when did I actually notice I'm doing it???

Daysoni said:

Hello to my Sunny Dee,

I am Daysoni and I to have been diagnosed with multiple things. One being OCD. Some times it takes up most of my day. I do things to certain numbers, clean fiantically, Tv's and stereo's need to be turned to certain places, orginization, orginization, and if I'm even remotely late or one of my friends is I will cancel. Every thing has a place and a time and needs to be done in a number pattern

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you sound like me..these posts every one of them from members-- I am understanding and shaking my head in agreement. It feels okay to do these things..it's not though,is it.

Ceili said:

you sound like me..these posts every one of them from members-- I am understanding and shaking my head in agreement. It feels okay to do these things..it's not though,is it.

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I have to count things in lots of 10 and check for bugs near my bed before I go to sleep. I also have to get things right the first time or they have to be done again.

I bite my nails as well, but didn't realise it was an OCD thing.

My mom has a severe case of OCD. She's heavily medicated and goes to therapy at least a couple times a week.

The traits have manifested themselves in all of us children, even before my mom knew what was wrong with her.

The first thing I can remember is having to walk around a pole seven times clockwise on the way to school, and seven times counter-clockwise on the way home. If I lost count I had to keep going back and forth until I got the balance right. Sometimes this would lead to me getting home from school late and get me in trouble, though I never thought to tell anyone what I was doing. I left for school so early that it never caused me to be late.

In fact, I'm never late anywhere. I used to be an hour early to anything I had to show up to at a certain time, but lately I've been able to push that back to about half an hour.

When I'm stressed out, my compulsions become more powerful, so it's important to me to find ways to relax. I'm not going to list everything I currently deal with, but I am functional and hope to avoid the complications my mom deals with.

I have a terrible fear of the number twenty-three, to the extent to where I don't want to type the actual numbers... Not OCD, but whatever. Whenever I see the number, I get all... weird. I don't like it.

Can't ever have anything on my hands or my face. I hate messy foods for that reason, and I hate painting, drawing with charcoal, especially chalk, because it gets all over my hands.

I HATE everything about my left side. Hate it. I cannot have any people walk on my left; if someone does, I literally have a spaz attack. The only exception is if the number of people on my right side is equal to the number on the left. My friends and I joke about it sometimes, but it really isn't funny when it comes down to it. It's like I have no control over it... and it's such a stupid little thing: people walking on my left.

Oh well...

My biggest obesession is with germs. I have to be germ-free. I wash my hands, use hand sanitizer, and avoid anything or anyone sick or germy. I also have a thing about odd numbers. If there is anything I do multiple times, it has to be an odd number of times, not even. I have gotten much better due to medication and an understanding of my disorder.

I have OCD but with therapy i've learnt how to control it and how to stop those doubtful thoughts It use to take me over an hour to go to bed or leave the house because i had lots of rituals i had to go through, with checking things. I had CBT though and found it sooo helpful in understanding why i feel the need to do certain things and then learnt ways to stop myself doing them. I'm not "cured" and still have problems with certain things but i'm now able to control the OCD, it no longer controls me

I think I have mild OCD. I make anagrams of words I see around me in my head, words on shop signs, leaflets, and so on. If there are numbers around, I add them up and divide them until they make a number I like, or I see if I can get to, say, the number 7 using a row of numbers that doesn't have a 7 in it. The worst thing is that I bite the skin around my nails a lot, until it bleeds sometimes. I've done it since I was thirteen or so and I've been trying to stop for about a year now. It's not terrible, they don't hurt most of the time, I'd just rather not be doing it.

I used to count the stairs every time I walked up or down them, even though there were always fourteen, and I would have to take the first step with my right foot. At one point I had a habit of not stepping on chewing gum on the pavement, which developed into a habit of not letting my foot cross above any mark on the pavement. I got out of that one by avoiding looking at the pavement for a while. Most of my habits are gone now, it's just the skin biting that I really can't shake. It's annoying because I play guitar, and I tend to bite the callouses that develop so my fingers hurt when I play. Sigh.

I don't see the point in going to the doctor and wasting my time when I know I have OCD. It is minor but it still happens.... I can control it to an extent.
My biggest problem is napkins They gross me out. I hate using or looking at them. Especially used ones. Wadded up. GROSS!!! I don't use one. It is very bad when I am at school because well..... it doesn't bother anyone else. I have gaged many times.

I have a big thing with organization. If one thing is pointing one way.... everything has to be pointing the same way. It is starting to get pretty bad because I work in an office.

I just recently developed a new one. Pepper always has to be on the right. Always.

lol, I bus tables, but all of the waitresses seem to appreciate my perfectionist habits.
I'm the only busser working there that doesn't leave ketchup in the middle of the table or set the silverware crooked. I just can't let it sit there like that though. It's fine for the job I have, but not when I don't seem to have the mental capacity to deal with something being crooked.

I'm embarrassed to say mine. Sorry.

I dont know if I have OCD, have never ever been treated or diagnosed for it. But been told once that everyone is in one form or another and to one degree or another. Sounds logical to me.

But reading this thead did give me pause to stop and think of somethings that I do that perhaps others here could suggest that perhaps I may be OCD or just plain different....

I cannot at all in any way shape or form sleep with my bedroom door open. It has to be locked. if the door is open, I will stay awake the night! I share a house with a male relative here in the central valley of Northern California where we have a heat wave goin (113 at my front porch 2 days ago...). At 9 pm, the swamp cooler is still on full hurricane force setting and it is hot inside still. He goes to bed with his door open and tells me he is leaving the cooler on hight for a few more hours. I can feel the air coming into my room from the swamp cooler down the hall. I still could not sleep. After an hour I had to get up and close and lock the door and just deal with the heat.

If I sleep over at family or a friend's,wil sleep on the couch so my back is against something. Now, I am a veteran and diagnosed with PTSD from my former soldier days so maybe it that. I dont know, dont do counseling either for it but thats my sleep obsessions.

Oh, if theres the hint of the faintest sound of a base of a stereo next door or from a passing car on the street while I am trying to sleep - it just bugs fro some reason. High notes in music dont bother me much, but the deep base sure just gets me. go figger. (whats ironic about that is I am half deaf too...)

anyhooos, thanks for the thread. am gonna get ready for bed real soon and I will log off, go out and make sur the house is secured, my roomate wil be on his bed asleep and the swamp cooler will be running on full and I will be shutting my bedroom door.

Oh, and yes, even at my age, I will have a low light nightlight in the corner - got it so it lets just enough light to show the far corner at a glance at 2 am.

personal security obsession???

I have had obsessions with ppl I was inspired by in the past.
Is this OCD when you write a list of things (i.e things that relate to your series) a list of things like: Personalities, bios, character traits of the characters of your series. I seem from time to time (not every day) to make a list that pinpoints astrological signs, numerological aspects of their personalities, favorite colors, interests, etc. And other lists include things I want to use in my series or things I have already used, so I can keep track of them easier, not that I have a much of a problem keeping track of them whenever I proofread my stuff. I don't know if this is OCD or not.

I think repeating a question over periods of time, is another, unless I forgot I asked already...which is rare

I have a thing about the numbers 5, 7, and 13. I wash my hands or use hand sanitizer alot. I am afraid of germs, sickness, and vomiting. I will do almost anything to avoid sickenss and germs.

My doctor jokingly said I have OCD.

I count everything! I'm counting the letters I'm typing right now. I count when I brush my hair, shave my legs/underarms, walk, everything! I count when I'm stirring. Once I stop and do something else, I'll come back and starting counting over again. When I was a child I used to count ceiling tiles, floor tiles, anything that was countable.

I make lists for everything. I make lists of lists. I never seem to accomplish the lists.

I have about 50 projects going on at any given moment. Right now, I'm in the middle of sewing some plant shades, creating a scrapbook of stuff I like in magazines, getting stuff together for a yardsale, etc. What's REALLY driving me crazy is that everything is out in the open and I want my house CLEAN! I want to complete these projects to get the stuff out of the way! But here I sit on this computer......

I'm not too afraid of germs, but I can't touch any part of my shower (except my feet, of course, and I hate it!). If my back touches it I feel gross and have to scrub it off. My shower isn't nasty, in fact I clean it and Lysol it all the time. Wierd.

There are more but my daughter just woke up so I better go get her! Thanks for listening.