Your most annoying OCD habit.

[superario]

Hmm, I get my thoughts stuck in loops, where the same image/frame of movement will keep repeating over and over again and I can't pull out of it or make it do anything else. An example is putting a needle in my arm or having one already in my arm (as a thought image), I won't be able to make it move or pull up, because it'll keep looping back to the start. The only way I've found to break these thought loops is to do something illogical and odd. Like with that example I would make the needle go right through my arm and out the other side (it's a thought remember, not actually doing it). Not the most pleasant thing to think about, but it stops the loops.

Recently I've had some success with discarding looping thoughts... I'll imagine them dropping out of my line of sight or being swept away, destroyed etc.

I also have a habit of biting my lips til they bleed, but since I had my teeth shortened a little I've been unable to do that though I still try to pick at them.

And of course I forget that I've checked or done things (about 5 seconds after I did so), and thus need to recheck or redo multiple times. This is why I make lots of lists and always carry paper and pens with me, because otherwise I'll just forget far too quickly.

Looped thoughts? Hmm. I think we might have experienced something similar. Well, I'm not sure how similar exactly but I know there are things that I have to imagine in my head. For instance, when we used to live in our house I would look out my window and see cars driving down the street, on the hill. And later I developed a habit where randomly, I would stop what I was doing and could not move on til I imagined this car going down this hill in my head. It rarely worked the first time because by the end of the street it kind of 'resets' itself, and I have to do it again, thinking really hard to make it work. This is by far one of the strangest things I've had to deal with with my OCD and I have no idea how to explain it.

Also, sometimes there's these imaginary lines...like say for example, there are strings attached to everything, that float around in the air and wind but are attached and do not go anywhere. I sometimes have to work my way around these, like for instance...

Ugh. To be honest, I have absolutely NO idea how to explain this. I don't think I'll ever find a way. It's just too bizarre. But it's like a looped thought, I have to imagine something for a few minutes in order for this feeling to go away.

I don't know. Is that kind of what you're talking about?

 

[FalseAlarm]

Opening doorknobs not with hands but upper arm

 

[BloodFury]

I don't have OCD, I don't think, but I do have an obsession with correcting grammatical mistakes when I see them, it takes so much effort for me not to correct people on this site ::

I think it's because it's one of the few thing's I'm good at and I can control, sort of, and it lets me escape from being helpless

You didn't put a period at the end! Haha

 

[<ladybug>]

I do have an obsession with correcting grammatical mistakes when I see them

I dont have OCD but I totally do this when I hear somone say something wrong. Like how to pronounce a word. I have to correct them like 90% of the time lol.

 

[simpsons2007]

Well I don't know if it's OCD or not. But I'm always checking if I have my trousers on before I go out. Even though I know I've put them on in the morning when I get up. I always have to double check that I'm wearing them and check again and again. I'm always worried that I'm going to forget to put them on. And I'm always checking if the windows and doors are locked even though I know they are. I check them about 10 or so times before I go to bed. Sometimes more.

 

[superfluouslyme]

You didn't put a period at the end! Haha

Uh oh. Pebbles got caught.

 

[nothingtofear]

I've had the stuck in looping thoughts thing too but only when I'm reaaally stoned

 

[Inferiorpotter]

Obssessive Compulsive Intrusive fantasies/thoughts. And yes they are unwated.
Compulsive drinking
Facial TIcs ( I hate this)

 

[Aden]

reasurring every single thing
ex. spending hours thinking whether I had properly closed a faucet or not even though I know I did or making sure I hadnt uttered anything offensive to a disabled person I talked to.

 

[Lucy:)]

I check that the door is locked so many times before I go out! I also check that my bedroom window is closed before I go to sleep. I annoy myself when I do it!

 

[Pyrophosphate]

While brushing my teeth, there's a very specific pattern of floor tiles I walk on repeatedly until I'm done.

It bothers me sometimes if a physical sensation in my body isn't symmetric. For example, if I'm walking along, measuring out all my steps so I don't step on the cracks between slabs of sidewalk (that's also annoying), and I happen to brush my right arm against a pole or something, it bothers me until I brush my left arm against something in exactly the same way to create exactly the same feeling. That's why sometimes I actually run into things on purpose.

I'm not particularly bothered by odd numbers (anymore), but (probably because I'm a computer geek) I like things to be powers of 2. So 2, 4, 8, 16, etc. or the sum of two consecutive powers of two, 6, 12, 24, 48, etc.