O.C.D. (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)

[Quinlan and Donnelly]

I have this (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) It's not too serious but it annoys me so much. For example I have been on this site for hours now because I feel the need to add more and more. It's not an addiction. I must my wardrobe colour co-ordinated and my books must be grouped by author. I work in Oxfam at weekends and I have rearranged all the books in the shop by author. I have also a tendency to pick stuff up off the ground even if I didn't drop it! Annoying stuff like that! It sometimes ruins my prospects of having a relationship but thankfully I have a fantastic boyfriend at the moment who I love dearly...

Does anyone else have it?
Do you think it's insane what I do?

It's very irritating I can asure you.

[Sam]

It is in no way insane what you do, it's a perfectly understandable condition. I, in a sense, have a minor form of it, though as i said it's only minor, just stuff like picking up all the new stuff in a room or area when i go there again, or sometimes on loading screens of games i must be doing something so i end up playing the guitar, which might not seem so bad, but when you consider that then i must finish the song it wastes so much time. And you are right it is very annoying. The best advice i can give is just to accept and really use it, like if i can't do something, be it achidemically or just something on guitar i will just try over and over until i get it.

[Mig]

I think I mildly obsess over things, too. =p

When I'm walking along the street, I don't know if people notice, but for some reason I make a deal of where I step. Like, usually I'll avoid the lines/cracks on the floor, or I have to step two tiles at a time, or whatver. Sometimes I feel the need to swing my foot over the cracks/lines while stepping on 'clean' bits of the floor with my other foot. It's so annoying, because I do it instinctively without thinking, and I usually realise I'm doing it when I'm probably looking a complete pratt at it. XD And then it's immensly hard to stop.

Don't really know if that's OCD really, I mean I doubt it, but it's still obsessive and annoying. :P

[krikie]

Like, usually I'll avoid the lines/cracks on the floor, or I have to step two tiles at a time, or whatver.
Hahaaa I do that too! But I walk in patterns on tile, like diagonal or every other or something.

Also, when I drink through straws (as I frequently do since all I drink is water and soda and I drink soda through straws for teeth reasons >_>) I always have to take 5 sips. No more, no less. If I do happen to go over, it's 5 more XD

Also, if I'm reading a book, I have to finish the chapter before I put it down. No stopping on random pages! >:o

[Kat]

Mm, same on the tile thing :P I feel a disturbance when I step on a crack or a line; my steps have to be within the little squares. And I absolutely cannot step on wet ground. I mean unless it's raining then I guess I wouldn't have a choice :P But I'd always take the time to actually go around puddles and avoid walking on them.

We're all a bit OCDish really <3 One way or another. Unless you have the actual diagnosis then :( yeah, that must suck. I've seen a documentary on it and they live by very specific rituals.

I don't like eating M&M's in odd numbers and I don't like when picture frames are crooked. Finding things on the ground disturbs me greatly too, only I'm too lazy to pick them up anyway so eh :P Other than those dumb things I'm fine, really. I do that color co-ordinated thing too but I think that's just me being picky.

And and XD When I can actually be bothered I always have to be in-step with whoever I'm walking with

[AP]

We've all got a little bit of this in us, and that's what you have to understand. It's a strange disorder in my eyes because I find it difficult to accept it as a disorder if everybody has it to a degree.

It's like some people are bald and some people have long hair. Everybody has some somewhere though. Hair's a disorder?

Stupid example, but, really, like I've said we all have some of this disorder in us. I'm meticulous about my arrangement of games and DVDs. Everything has to be in a set order that doesn't necessarily make much sense. The same for file and folder formatting on this PC - even in the internet directories of this website.

I eat smarties in colour order, and when I eat a meal, I don't eat it all at once - I actually eat it one item at a time (Like Bacon first, then egg, then the chips, then last the peas.) When I was a kid, instead of playing with and driving around my toy cars, I used to line them up and arrange them based on shape and colour. Instead of building up Lego and smashing it back down I built a meticulous city and went crazy if any of my friends changed things around.

People have called me insane, but it's perfectly normal and human. What you need to just remember is what I said; pretty much everybody has it to some extent, if it's being anal about the arrangement of their CD collection to actually fully-blown being diagnosed with a serious version of it.

The serious version is obviously very different to what I described me doing, but the point is everybody does that kinda stuff. You're not a freak and you're not insane. Trust me on that one.

[Lyra]

How coincidental. I just did a mini project on OCD.
What I learnt from it is that real OCD is in the top ten for most debilitating disorder (i.e affecting the quality of life) OCD tends to mean you do something ( or a group of things) that lasts for more then an hour a day. Or was it an hour and a half? Anyway. So it would be like- every day you take down your books and sort them out in author, or something to that effect. Obsessive means that you have an inclination to be preoccupied mentally with something, where as the compulsion means you act upon it. Apparently, when you get a song in your head that you can’t get out- that’s an aspect of being obsessed. I think if you then keep it in your head for a long time it turns in to OCD. Obviously this project didn’t work to well if I can’t remember all the details.

I have little things that are classic OCD- such as I watch taps for about 3 minutes to make sure they are turned off and not dripping. And then I go and check them again 2 more times- but just checking. I have started to do the same with the fridge. I have to push it in 3 times before I’m satisfied it’s closed. I have a fear that if I don’t keep an eye on my watch for 1.15 minutes, then it will stop working if I have touched it against something. But that tends to be my only major OCD problems.

I think you’re doing ok if you are in a relationship- because real OCD sufferers are one of the least likely of anyone with a mental disorder to get married.

[Tim]

... when I eat a meal, I don't eat it all at once - I actually eat it one item at a time (Like Bacon first, then egg, then the chips, then last the peas.) ...

Slightly unrelated note, that meal sounds rather disgusting.

Anyway. I can't think of any way in which I'm really afflicted with this. When I was little I'd obsess over the way I walked to school and minor things like that. Same way every day up and back, but then I decided that it was boring.

I do have a teacher who seems to have a serious problem, though. For example, she won't let you get out of your seat, not even to throw away a tissue. She'll literally come take it and toss it for you. Every student has to be in their seat at all times.
You can't touch her bookshelf. If you do, she'll tell you to leave the classroom. For the rest of the period she'll be glancing at it and whatnot, and when you come in the next day it'll be back in perfect order again. The way she conducts class doesn't change from day to day either, she has to take attendance, give out handouts, check dresscode, read whatever needs to be read, do handouts, and then give us generally exactly 10 minutes to start homework. I have to say, she's a fucking cunt and I can't stand her. <_<

[Beatrix the Goddess]

Well we're all coming out of the woodwork now, aren't we? ;)

But I've got plenty of obsessions/compulsions as well. Very similar to Alex - my CDs/DVDs & games are all in a meticulous, rigid order, but the worst thing is my books. Its worse than the Dewey decimal system, it really is :P. They're all specifically arranged and catalogued and labelled and I get extremely irritated if someone has a poke through them without my permission. And when I'm out shopping - in my local town that is - I always have to visit the shops in a certain order, which isn't even very logical. I wouldn't say anything else is particularly weird in itself, but I do get stressed if my general routine of doing things gets upset.

But yeah, its not something that should be considered weird. As people have made perfectly clear here, its something that operates on a continuum - i.e. its not a case of having it or not having it, its the [b]extent[b] to which you do these things. Alex makes a good point about whether it should be classified as a disorder at all - you can judge whether something is a disorder in four ways (if anyone's interested :P). 1. By how much the behaviour differs from the average value of that behaviour in the population (so, whether statistically a lot of people do it or not). 2. Whether it deviates greatly from established social norms (i.e. whether a substantial majority think its a 'weird' behaviour). 3. Whether it interferes with a person's ability to function effectively in everyday life. 4. Deviation from ideal mental health, which is far too complex to go into here, but its largely about diagnostic criteria, such as the amount of time O-C behaviours take up in a day, as Lyra mentioned.

So basically when obsessive-compulsive behaviour falls into one of those four categories, its classified as a disorder, but obviously there's a lot of argument about the validity of those categories; deviation from social norms in particular.

But in the end, all human beings have a natural desire for closure, symmetry and organisation, and we all feel psychologically uncomfortable to an extent when they're not present. Its not an 'unnatural' thing, the brain just tends to get stuck on a loop concerning those those three things in OCD sufferers. The specific expression that it takes depends on your own personal experience. In fact, being a particular supporter of the evolutionary psychology perspective, I take the view that on some level its even an adaptive behaviour, because it can kindle the desire to repeat safe and effective strategies, rather than randomly switching between successful/unsuccessful or effective/ineffective strategies.

I'll stop before this turns into a psychology essay :P But to answer the question, no, I don't think what you do is insane at all. All scientific research points to it merely being an overproduction of a normal behaviour, and any decent intelligent person should be able to see that :).

EDIT: I've just remembered the daftest thing that I do & indeed the most relevant to this place XD. I'm an absolutely terrible person to play videogames with - or at least, rpgs, because I have to have absolutely everything done my way, & I get really uncomfortable if its not. Like in the beginning of FFVIII, Squall has to have Shiva, he can't have Quezacotl, ever. And I have to have exactly 100 of each magic all the time - I don't ever cast it, & I never draw less than 100 in one go. Don't look at me like that :P.

[Haywire]

I have also a tendency to pick stuff up off the ground even if I didn't drop it!
Hey, someone has to pick it up, at least you're keeping the place clean, which sounds great compared to David Beckham's "OCD" of having to buy a new set of underwear every week, wasteful fool that he is.

[seph]

You know what? I dont really believe in O.C.D or anything like that. In my eyes if people want to be neat, then let them. Dont make them think that they have some "disorder" or something. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be neat and orderly, I know I am all the time. I sit there and pick trash off the ground and sometimes small things just drives me nuts, such as a misplaced book or clothes on the floor.

Dont for one moment think you are insane! Doing small things like that doesn't make you some kind of nutcase! I havent gotten time to knwo you that well, but you do seem like a genuine person. We all have our pet-peeves and quirks, thats what makes individuality so amazing.

[Mysterious Being]

You know what? I dont really believe in O.C.D or anything like that. In my eyes if people want to be neat, then let them. Dont make them think that they have some "disorder" or something. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be neat and orderly, I know I am all the time. I sit there and pick trash off the ground and sometimes small things just drives me nuts, such as a misplaced book or clothes on the floor.

Dont for one moment think you are insane! Doing small things like that doesn't make you some kind of nutcase! I havent gotten time to knwo you that well, but you do seem like a genuine person. We all have our pet-peeves and quirks, thats what makes individuality so amazing.
I don't think that OCD is something that you can't believe in. It definitely exists. I've seen an article which showed a girl that HAD to be clean. She was so afraid of germs that she couldn't leave her house, and so bad that she couldn't be next to her mum. She'd go into hysterics if her mother got out of the car, because she was afraid of the germs.

When the interviewer touched her, she HAD to wash her hands for about 10 minutes, making sure everything is clean. She cleaned hours and hours a day, and you could see that she was really affected by OCD.

[as a side note, I can't believe I didn't question the fact that the interviewer was allowed in the house but not the mum - it seemed ok at the time :P]

The issue, I think, is at which point you decide to stop calling a behaviour "A stupid little thing" and start calling it OCD. I, for one, think that once it begins to affect your quality of life, it becomes OCD. Sure, not walking on the cracks (which I used to do/still do sometimes) is something that you'd rather do, but if the gaps between the cracks are too small to fit your foot in, you're not going to be able to do it. So you don't.

However, I'd call it OCD (or consider it 'real OCD') if you would walk three more blocks so you could find footpaths that have larger gaps - even if you were running late for something.

But yeah,personally I don't do too much like that. I think I'm just too lazy to care sometimes :P I often want to do things a certain way, but I don't have to do them that way.

[Hellsnextboss]

I have a mild form of O.C.D. too!
For instance, I have to look under my bed, in my wardrobe, ensure all windows are shut and the doors locked every night or I won't be able to sleep, even if someone else is staying up who will ensure these things anyway.
My books have to be in exact order.
I correct all spelling mistakes I see. My friend found a letter she had sent me once with all her spelling mistakes corrected in red pen.
Its actually really annoying. :(

[Pauwel]

You know what? I dont really believe in O.C.D or anything like that. In my eyes if people want to be neat, then let them. Dont make them think that they have some "disorder" or something. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be neat and orderly, I know I am all the time. I sit there and pick trash off the ground and sometimes small things just drives me nuts, such as a misplaced book or clothes on the floor.

Dont for one moment think you are insane! Doing small things like that doesn't make you some kind of nutcase! I havent gotten time to knwo you that well, but you do seem like a genuine person. We all have our pet-peeves and quirks, thats what makes individuality so amazing.

There's nothing wrong with insanity or mental diseases. It's just like the individuality you talk about, it's just taken a step further.
I think it's sad that "crazy people" have become such a taboo topic, and that adjectives such as crazy, insane or mad can be used as insults. Psychologically ill people are people too, and they have lives like everyone else. Their lives are just a bit (or a lot, in some cases) tougher on them than most people's, just like people with physical handicaps or disabilities.

Sorry. I feel quite strongly about this. I will derail this thread no more.