Are you OCD about anything?

[Adam Jensen]

Before I begin, let me be clear, I'm using the term "OCD" in a colloquial, not a medical, sense.

Anyways, so I have some habits that are a bit OCD. As an example, I cannot leave my house or my car without physically touching my keys. I have to have them in my hands before I close the door. It isn't enough to know they are in my pocket, or to feel them in my pocket against my leg, I have to actually touch them.

This is actually the result of locking myself out of my car, with my phone in the car, at an interstate rest stop.

I also cannot leave a hotel room, without double checking my wallet for my key cards.

I have to have my phone, wallet, and keys in specific pockets, or I freak out. It's bad. Like sometimes I'll put them in my jacket pocket and then feel anxious later because they aren't in my left pants pocket.

Despite living alone, and despite there being no way to view into my bathroom from the outside, I must close the door to take a crap. Anything else, the door stays open. But for that one bodily function, the door must be closed.

I also close the door when I shower, but that's generally to contain the humidity, so there's a reason for it.

So what things are you OCD about?

[Deleted]

Locking my door, feeling so that it's locked if I'm leaving. Always check it before I go to sleep to make sure it's locked.
Keys in the right pockets.
Have my cards at the right place, I check so it's there every 5 minutes when I'm outside.
Oven & stove being off. I can check multiple times, right after the other, just to be sure.
Wear a towel when going out from the bathroom if I just showered or taken a bath, even if nobody can see me.

[Deleted]

All my lifts finish in reps of 5 or 10 no matter how many sets I did prior.

I put the milk in the cup before the hot water when making tea.

When online I keep all my email accounts open when on the computer.

Back when I lived with my family I put little post-its on my tupperware containers that had diet food, I still do it to this day but I just label it with what's inside.

Pretty lame right?

[Independent voter]

OP doesn't sound OCD as much as work flow related. I do a lot of things that require a process a long series of tasks. I do a lot of things that remind me and double check cause if I didn't the whole thing would fail.

I bought this bread maker. The thing with it is you have to put the paddle in before the flour and other ingredients, if you leave the paddle out it won't stir. I have yet to come up with a work flow that will remind me to put the paddle in.

[Spectral]

All things running related. Tracking mileage, pace, constantly doing math in my head to see what the pace and time will look like when I finish, how many miles I'll get in for the week, for the year, what times I think I can run in races, how hard I'll have to push to take a Strava KOM, and so on.

There's worse things to be obsessed with.

[Claborn]

i think society needs to come up with the difference between OCD and an old fashioned habit

[endersblade]

Not to Monk levels, but just about everything. Things misaligned. People parking off center or at an angle. People not following street signs or lights properly. My keys have to sit a certain way in my pocket. Dog has to go out at very specific times. Have to feed the fish at very specific times. Can't stand my coffee table being cluttered. If I go out to eat with someone, I have to know who is paying for what before I will even get in the car. My bedroom door has to remained shut at all times unless someone is walking through it. I came home once and it was opened because my roommate had to reset the router, we almost got into a fist fight. And so, so many other things.

And I wasn't anything like this before I went to Iraq.

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I'm really just posting to say I strongly disapprove of the colloquial use of OCD. Everyone has habits.

And you need to learn the difference between a habit and an obsession.

[Rukentuts]

Updating my computers. I always update anything that has an "update" feature before I get off the computer. Chrome, Windows Update, Java, etc.

Then once it's patched, you realize it introduced bugs that are annoying as shit. It's lose-lose.

[Sketchy]

I always check my pocket for my keys before I close the car door.
If they're not in the left jacket pocket, I have a mini freakout until I find them.

[MerinPally]

I put the milk in the cup before the hot water when making tea.

fucking peasant

[Fenixdown]

My friend just told me that she's OCD about having underwear that matches her outfit.

No, you don't get pics of her. :P

[TrumpIsPresident]

Locking the door, checking the handle, then putting the key back in to make sure the bolt is still turned all the way.

Patting my pockets to feel my cell phone wallet and keys before leaving home, or my office, or a store, etc, and then doing it again after taking a few steps knowing full well they're already accounted for.

[Crissi]

locks of any kind. Door, car, lockers, even my own purse... I imagine that will also extend to things like registers too if I encounter any. I have to lock and relock and re-relock and re-re-relock over and over until I feel ok about it. Even then, I start panicing about 2 min later when Im driving away form my apt if I loked my apt or not

Also, I cannot sleep if my bottom sheet that people sleep on isn't completely on. If even just a corner is loose I have to fix it. The rest of the bed can be messy, just not that part.

Then again I was clinically diagnosed with OCD in those regards so...

[Rukentuts]

I have daily ghost images that are created ... So I can always go back to an earlier image.

Although it pales in comparison to the obsession when QA finds a late-cycle bug in your work, and PM decides to defer it. Those are the worst.

[Crissi]

Ahh... hmm... maybe I misunderstood it. Watched a documentary on it... a guy who had to skip stepping on cracks in the road, and had to do a certain ritualized movement when he passed a fire hydrant.

I think I remember that. Ended up making me check my stuff again -_-;;; I was triggered!

[endersblade]

If we're talking about actual OCD, then as I understand it, it's kind of the other way around. The distress comes from intrusive thoughts, which are partly stymied by the ritualized behavior, rather than the failure to perform a ritualized behavior being the cause of the distress.

You guys are both correct. Two sides to the same coin, I guess. My problem is that if I don't do these things, or if these things happen, I lose my shit and fly off the handle. I mean, like completely irrational for me to be agitated by this, and I realize this after a while.

I have a friend who is the other ocd. He does things to basically calm himself. He will say the same sentence ten times until he feels he got it right. He closes the door five times to make sure it is shut properly. And it is always 5 times. I'm sure he does more, I've just gotten used to them lol. The door thing drives me nuts especially when we're running late!

But yes, as far as society goes, the line between habit and true ocd has been heavily blurred. I don't consider myself clinically ocd, but my friend certainly is. I just write my problems off as being neurotic lol.

[Xargoth6634]

I put my phone, wallet, and keys in the same pockets most of the time. It doesn't really eat away at me if I don't, though. I guess my only semi-OCD tendency is that I have to piss right before I plan to go to sleep. If I stay up in bed thinking for an hour, when I decide that it's time to go to sleep for real, I have to get up and go empty my bladder. I don't have bedwetting issues and I don't have a tiny bladder, it's just a thing with me. I've tried to quit, but eh. I guess in the grand scheme of things it's pretty minor.

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Despite living alone, and despite there being no way to view into my bathroom from the outside, I must close the door to take a crap. Anything else, the door stays open. But for that one bodily function, the door must be closed.

Oh yeah, that too, actually. And when I'm alone for long periods (roommate goes off on spring break, whatever) I still close my bedroom door at night.

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I'm really just posting to say I strongly disapprove of the colloquial use of OCD. Everyone has habits.

[Crissi]

I'm really just posting to say I strongly disapprove of the colloquial use of OCD. Everyone has habits.

So...you're OCD about the use of OCD eh?

[DocHibb]

You guys are both correct. Two sides to the same coin, I guess. My problem is that if I don't do these things, or if these things happen, I lose my shit and fly off the handle. I mean, like completely irrational for me to be agitated by this, and I realize this after a while.

I have a friend who is the other ocd. He does things to basically calm himself. He will say the same sentence ten times until he feels he got it right. He closes the door five times to make sure it is shut properly. And it is always 5 times. I'm sure he does more, I've just gotten used to them lol. The door thing drives me nuts especially when we're running late!

But yes, as far as society goes, the line between habit and true ocd has been heavily blurred. I don't consider myself clinically ocd, but my friend certainly is. I just write my problems off as being neurotic lol.

Have you ever seen the documentary series "Obsessed"? After watching most of the episodes on Netflix, I feel as if I am essentially a licensed psychologist.
One guy had extreme anxiety caused by El Caminos (the car-truck). If he'd see one or think of one, he would compulse and "wipe it off". It was the only thing to get rid of the anxiety or he'd have panic attacks. He also had like 50 other compulsions

Also, from what I learned, OCD can be triggered or magnified by extremely stressful or high anxiety situations, so your tour(s) in Iraq could have actually caused you to have real OCD.

[Xargoth6634]

One guy had extreme anxiety caused by El Caminos (the car-truck). If he'd see one or think of one, he would compulse and "wipe it off". It was the only thing to get rid of the anxiety or he'd have panic attacks. He also had like 50 other compulsions

To be fair, that's a perfectly legitimate reaction to encountering an El Camino. They are awful.