The other day while Graham and I were driving on the highway on our way to the Home Show we listened to Howard Stern talk about his OCD rituals and how they had been intensifying lately. I could sort of relate.
Not to make light of the disorder…I realize that for many people this is a crippling and serious anxiety disorder that makes day-to-day life very difficult. However, I think everyone has little OCD-like tendencies to one degree or another, those “thoughts, images, or impulses that repeatedly enter the mind, and feel out of the individual’s control.”*
I told Graham about some of my little compulsions. For example, I don’t like odd numbers, unless they are multiples of five. If we are listening to radio or watching television and we adjust the volume, I won’t leave the volume on level 9, for example. I’ll bump it to either 8 or 10. No way would I leave it on 17 or 19, although I could live with 15. I also count steps when I’m going up or down stairs or when I’m out going for a walk. I know that we have 13 stairs leading from our main floor to the upstairs of our house. And as for arranging things, one look at this post about organizing my kitchen cupboards will probably convince you of that tendency.
Confessing these things to Graham actually made me feel a bit better about these habits or compulsions, whatever you want to call them, even if he did look at me sideways for a second there, his eyebrows raised. I still think this kind of thing is more common than most people think. I think that counting stairs or controlling the volume of the car stereo is about just that: control. Life is messy, life is scary and unpredictable. The human mind is quirky and deals with daily stresses in unusual ways.
Make me feel better about this, okay? What compulsions do you have?
*Source: Anxiety Treatment
I get really angry when I can hear someone chew. And the detergent and water must go into the washer before the clothes do. That’s a big one.
I have to check and recheck that I have locked doors and that I have shut off my straightening iron. I recently had my husband drive me home to check on the latter with my MIL in the car. Luckily she doesn’t know the frequency with which I have this compulsion or she might not have been so understanding.
BTW – I have never left a door unlocked or my iron on (knock on wood).
I have to sleep with my face toward the closed part of the pillowcase. If I flip over, I have to flip my pillow too…even in my sleep I do this!?
I do that same thing with the TV volume, even numbers or multiples of 5. There must be something to this, don’t you think?
My husband checks and re-checks the locks, the oven (even if it hasn’t been used in days) and the iron. He unplugs appliances, too. We’ve come back to the house multiple times. I’ve been apopleptic about it sometimes if we’re late. With the iron, I’ve come home to find it in the bathtub if he’s had to leave while it is still hot.
My issue is time. I can’t stand to be late. I check my alarm clock a few times before bed and make sure it is on. I check clocks incessantly. I would rather be 20 minutes early than 2 minutes late. I can’t wear a watch because then it just gets out of hand. (no pun intended)
I sleep a certain way every night: right side, covers pulled up and puffed so they cover my left ear but don’t cover anything past the top of my head. Right hand brought up to my chest, holding a fistful of covers, left hand under pillow. I only sleep differently if I’m sleeping with my kids or I’m not in my own bed.
I also really really hate little bits of paper. I can’t stand it if someone, for example, gets a straw with a paper wrapper and then balls up the wrapper or plays with it, twists it up and stuff. It literally makes me feel sick to my stomach. I call them ‘bits’, I can’t stand bits and everyone who really knows me knows this about me and usually does their very best to make fun of me and torture me with bits.
I have a number of compulsions that are about the same severity as yours (i.e. not that severe and don’t interfere much with my daily life), but I could not stop them if I tried! They are mainly to do with the way my wardrobe and kitchen cabinets are organized, the way the dishwasher is loaded with dishes, and my car keys. I’m paranoid about locking my keys in my car and I just CAN. NOT. close and lock a car door without physically holding the car keys in my hand. I’ve tried putting them away in my handbag first but every time without fail, I’ll have to dig them out of the bag and hold them in my hand before I feel comfortable closing the car door. It’s a bit ridiculous, but it is what it is!
The more I think about this, the more things I come up with. I count stairs, too. HUGE stair counter. Things need to match/be paired/balance each other: for example, there must be two end tables wit two matching lamps and two matching plants; I have two tattoos on each side of my body (two on the left and two on the right and/or two on the front and two on the back). Coloured candies (Skittles, Smarties, etc) have to be eaten in pairs and in colour combinations I find pleasing. If I’m home alone, I have to make sure all the windows and the door is locked before going to bed, even if they haven’t been opened (sometimes I actually have to *touch* the lock to ensure myself that it’s locked). ANYTHING I question myself on will have to be double-checked: I *always* turn off the headlights, but the second I wonder if I did, even taking into account that they will ding if left on, I have to go all the way back to the car to make sure.
Wow. No doubt about that neurotic mess label, hey?
That’s really funny. I have the same thing about numbers, only I like odd ones. I can never set my alarm for 6:00 AM, it has to be 6:01, 03, or 05. I also have to check all the knobs on the stove before I leave the house or go to bed, even if I clearly remember that I’m sure they are all off.
When I am at an event where people have to applaud, I clap in multiples of 3. My husband counts his steps and he counts the number of stairs in stairways.
My compulsions were much stronger when I was younger. They mainly pertained to staying inside arbitrary borders, like the tiles on the floor or the corners of a wall. Hard to explain, but it makes me laugh now because it seems like it was all geared toward “fitting in”.
What you said about life being scary and unpredictable? I think that’s what helped me leave my compulsions behind. There’s only so much that I can control.
Although I’ll admit I think Allie’s a little strange. Odd numbers are only good if they’re multiples of five.
I agree! I have certain quirks that just ARE what they are. Although when I was little, for some reason I couldn’t walk down the hall from my bedroom to the living room without tapping each and every door frame. And if I missed one, it was almost a physical sickness in my stomach if I didn’t go BACK to tap that door.
Thankfully now I just call myself very very Type A!
Lorrrrrrrrrd, Bossy can hardly read any of this for fear she’ll adopt everyone else’s compulsions. Could easily happen.
Aaaand…adding another comment so the list sits at 14 instead of 13. Not nutso at all, is it?
You all are even more crazy than I am. So thanks!