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Comic Discussion => QUESTIONABLE CONTENT => Topic started by: AntiEntropy on 02 Jan 2006, 10:38
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I've probably just about hit the limit on this subject, so here's my own little thread. Feel free to a) comment, b) ignore, or c) throw tomatoes. I will stop after this, I promise.
OCD girl, as far as we know at this time, smokes, has at least eight piercings (in her ears), counts things for a living, washes her hands a lot, and is fairly open about all this.
She has said to Marten that sex is "yucky" ("too many germs and fluids") but keep in mind this is a guy she knows little about and is inviting back to her apartment. She could be being honest about her aversion to sex or she may be keeping herself safe -- testing him if you will. "Yes, I'm OCD. No, we're not having sex. Do you still want to see me?" She also has been listening to Marten talk openly so she knows he's at least a descent guy.
People with actual OCD (like me) can manifest it in many ways, but there are always two parts:
* The Obsession: something that bothers you that is difficult to control. It could be germs; it could be bridges; it could be unwanted thoughts; it could be webcomics; it could be all of these things.
* The Compulsion: this is want the person does to keep them "safe" or to lessen the anxiety of the obsession. It could hand washing; it could be swearing; it could be locking and unlocking the door three times; it could be writing a long posting about OCD.
One of the fun things about any fictional literature and especially about webcomic forums is talking about the characters as if they were real. (I would start talking about something that Bruno (http://www.brunostrip.com/bruno.html) had done and my wife would say, "Wait, is this one of your cartoon characters?!)
It is perfectly reasonable a consistent that OCD girl smokes, has piercing, drinks, invites people she just met back to her apartment, and (probably because of therapy) is quite open about her problems. Yes, she's a fictional character, but it's nice that she's consistent with reality.
That's it. Comment if you want to talk about it. Otherwise I'll shut up.
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I don't expect you to be an expert, just give me an IYHO answer...
OCD Girl said that she had been in therapy since she was 11. Does OCD manifest itself that early in someone's life?
She is now a young 20something. What sort of hardships and hurts would she have gone through during her high school years? How might she fare now in a romantic relationship?
Just interested in your thoughts...
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OCD can manifest at many ages!
and why be in therapy just for ocd? she may have had all types of problems...I was in speech therapy at 6, and it continued till I was 12...
as for OCD, I would like to second anti-entropies words :) I have found, too, that it is something which you as the sufferer REALISE is irrational, but it is NOT open to discussion--you still must answer to it. Though, it is controllable to some degree in public. (but this seems to make it worse later...)
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OCD can manifest at many ages!
Agreed. I've heard of it showing up as early as 13. Eleven wouldn't out of the question. It's early, but I think that's the point: "I've been sick a long time."
And yes, it's something you learn to live with. You manage it. It's like being an alcoholic is some ways -- probably more like anorexia, in that you still have to eat but you never have to drink.
SPOILER!
There's a scene in As Good As It Gets (http://imdb.com/title/tt0119822/) where Melvin (Nicholson) steps on a crack accidentally as he's opening the door for Carol (Helen Hunt). Normally, he'd never do that, but he was distracted. The fact that is doesn't bother him as much as it used to signify that he's getting better. He also forgets to lock his door at one point -- another obsession.
These things are pretty accurate. As you get better you notice you're not doing stuff as much, but you still do it (and you hate it).
I think this has a lot to do with OCD girl's humor about her condition. It's like, "Let's get this on the table right now. In fact, let's laugh about it! I know, it's pretty weird, huh?" That's a very healthy attitude.
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My (mild) O.C.D. started manifesting itself when I was in primary school (i.e., pre-teen): when I was running around playing soccer I had to run out of my way to step on all the dead leaves on the ground.
As for the smoking, etc. - one possibility is that it's a side-effect of any drugs she may be taking. When I was first medicated the drugs initially gave me cravings and compulsions to buy the weirdest things - such as cigarettes, even though I'd never smoked in my life, and black felt-tip pens, even though I had always used blue ones.
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I think OCD tends to be a trait of intelligent to highly intelligent people. I've observed this in a lot of people. Smart kids do really weird things. I don't consider myself OCD as such, though. I just have my superstitions.
Me, I have issues stepping on cracks because it causes an imbalance in the feelings between my two feet, so I have to step on another to even it out, and so on. When I was little I used to get into pattern fits if I accidently pressed my face to hard, and then had to balance it out, and then had to balance out the "well, that side was first last time so this side is first this time" kind of thing...
I also have to do things in odd numbers, because they seem more balanced that way. I mean, they have the lever in the middle on which to balance, as opposed to empty space. But it even goes out to candy and bubble gum and stuff. Odd numbers are comforting.
But sometimes I purposely deny myself, just to prove I can. So there. *grins*
On a similar note, I was watching Monk last night. Man, that show is excellent.
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I wouldn't consider myself OCD, but I recognize a lot of the symptoms and behaviors described here. I'd never presume to diagnose myslf but a few of them are kind of familiar to me, which is neat. Though, I suppose most mental "disorders" are things everyone does, just taken to extremes. I've never met anyone who didn't have an odd little habit or tic, but if any of them were actually OCD they hid it from me pretty well.
*babbles*
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I think OCD tends to be a trait of intelligent to highly intelligent people. I've observed this in a lot of people. Smart kids do really weird things. I don't consider myself OCD as such, though. I just have my superstitions.
I don't know about intelligence, but I think there's a definite correlation between having an active imagination and being O.C.D. Not that I think every highly imaginative person is likely to get O.C.D., but it does take imagination to think up every tiny little thing that could possibly go wrong if you don't wash your hands, or make sure the door's locked, or whatever. Although having said that it's also important to remember that O.C.D. is not a psychotic illness: the sufferer is always aware that his or her actions are irrational, it's just that the agitation that builds makes the compulsions extremely hard and stressful to ignore.
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I'm either minor, minor OCD, or just highly neurotic.
It's more fun to say neurotic. Gnu-wrought-ik.
It's good to hear that Jeph is writing believable things. I wouldn't have known whether or not this character was realistic. Good of you to verify!
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Laurie: you have classic OCD tenancies, you just don't need medication or therapy to control them.
OCD is not a good predictor of intelligence or retardation. I've worked with retarded children that were OCD and many OCD sufferers are inelegant. Obsession plus compulsion that interferes with your daily life is about all the diagnoses you need.
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Oh, I didn't mean to sound as if OCD identified intelligent people-- my observations say that the intelligent people exhibit OCD tendencies.
I'd have to agree with you about me, though. I usually stick with the term "anal retentive."
Of course, even that is a psychologically unsound diagnosis-- ah, what vernacular does to the English language.
Heh. Sorry, I like big words. And shiny things.
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Obsession plus compulsion that interferes with your daily life is about all the diagnoses you need.
It's been some years now, but I seem to remember that after the publication of the DSM IV, that "interferes with daily life" observation became critical to the diagnosis. My memory, as a nonprofessional, was that previous editions (I think it was the DSM II) didn't stress that at all and many things now considered to be within "the normal spectrum of human personality" were being diagnosed as personality disorders. I specifically remember the diagnosis decision tree in the older edition. It didn't allow for any evaluation of "no disorder". Back in the late 90's, if you walked into a therapist's or psychologist's office, it was almost as if you couldn't walk out without a diagnosis of some disorder.
So, how do you think that OCD may have interfered with this girl's life as she was growing up?
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I feel bad for posting so much, but... yeah. Oh DSM-IVR, with your wacky ideas about PMS. You don't cater to the insurance and medication companies at all, do you, lovely.
I imagine she was terrible at math. Excellent at counting, yes, but bored or maybe irritated at anything that included irrational numbers. She probably had 200 digits of pi memorized.
In the style of the early Jews, she probably counted every step she took, and not only on Sundays. Depending on if she had an odd- or even-number fixation, or any at all, that would have led to some odd leaps or stumbles.
She probably got dizzy from staring at the ceiling fan, trying to count the blades while it was turned on. And if she had a brother, you can bet he made her life hell.
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Well, she also has a hand-washing complusion, so she's probably obssesed with germs on he hands. A normal person gets something icky on their hands, wahses, and feels pretty much normal. Maybe a little "yuck". An OCD person can't get that "I'm clean" feeling so they keep washing. (I say OCD person but that's just one of many complussions.) What would it be to grow up having to count everything and wash your hands constantly? Not too fun. She's extreamly well adjusted, considering.
(BTW, I know a guy who memorized pi to 100 places. When I was five I wrote every Roman numeral from one to 500. I still "doodle" by writing out the prime numbers or factoring every natural number. I don't count "1, 2, 3, 4, 5...", I say 0 is zero, 1 is one, two is prime, three is prime, four is two squared, five is prime, six is two time three... etc.)
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Heh. When I got bored during standardized tests, I would play word games, one example being:
S_A_E
or
_I_E
And make a list of every word that fit that particular pattern, alphabetically. I would have hated to be the person looking through some of that stuff. Or I'd tear the edges of the practice book in even fringes while the other kids finished up.
But yeah, I'm surprised a germaphobe (even a minor one) would go to a bar with someone like Jimbo roosting there. She's definitely dealing. Could be the sleep-deprivation, though.
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On a similar note, I was watching Monk last night. Man, that show is excellent.
Yes it is.
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OCD girl might also just be irrational in her fears. I walk in flip flops all year (with all the disgusting things that could get on my feet), but I can't handle eating something that someone has just touched. Just because people are OC doesn't make them rational. It's not unthinkable that OCD girl would smoke.
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Many OCD compulsions are irrational. What's wrong with stepping on a crack? Why are odd numbers more "balanced" than even?
You don't eat with your feet, but you do with your hands. It makes some sense that your feet can get dirty but not your hands. Some compulsions make sense and some don't. I yell or swear when an embarrassing though enters my mind. That in itself can cause an embarrassing moment in a public place. But it makes some sense. It's a way to get the thought out of my mind quickly.
For what ever reason the compulsions helps the obsession, rational or not.
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For what ever reason the compulsions helps the obsession, rational or not.
So, typically, in a subject diagnosed with OCD, one observes obsessions followed by compulsions which relate to or are driven by those obsessions.
Is that a fair statement?
(Random aside: OCD Girl is such a sweet and sympathetic character that she really can't go much longer without a name. If Jeph doesn't give her one in the next couple or three days, somebody will probably start a thread or poll to come up with one.)
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i think, textbook wise, that is a great definition abe :)
typically--the subject KNOWS that this is irrational but only feels okay after doing the compulsion. People like "rain man" are Obsessive-compulsive PERSONALITY disorder--very different--are not self-concious of disorder & can not hide it in public/etc.
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Okay, time for me to put in my $.02
I'm not OCD, but I dated a chick for 3 years who was, and has somewhat errie similiarities to the one in the comic. Seriously.
Here's our conversation the other night:
Me: http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=521
Me: that comic made me think of you when I read it
Me: (the girl is OCD, hence the comment about icky sex)
Her: yes, I get it
Her: and she likes to win at scrabble
Me: oooh, I didn't think about that
Her: made me laugh
Her: good that I can laugh at myself
Her: I'd much rather kick ass at scrabble than have sex
So yeah, it's irrily similar. Even down to the "sex is dirty" stuff.
Except my chick was a redhead, but still.
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JasonF: Good for you for dating someone for three years who'd rather win at scrabble than have sex.
steever: Yes, "Rain Man" was different. The person he's based off of (Kim Peek (http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant/kimpeek.cfm)) is an autistic savant. OCD often pops up with autism; no one knows why exactly.
Abe: The obsession may not be observable, but the compulsion almost always is.
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i think that i used to have mild OCD, but not really even the "Disorder" part as defined by Abe, as it didn't really impact my life negatively. i had the crack thing, would worry and odd/even steps going somewhere, would have to take an even number of steps going up stairs, or would count the stairs as i went up them. things needed to be tidy/evenly stacked. spaghetti, pens & pencils, matches, toothpicks, whatever, they needed to be lined up properly. i'd spend ages arranging my desk at school so that things were in line, or at right angles.
i was (and still am, i guess) obsessed with "truth" and logic. loved logic puzzles, and would pull people up on semantical errors almost without thinking about it, because they made a "mistake". some people interpreted this as me being a smart-ass, but it was more of a compulsion than anything else. eg: my teacher was giving us a lecture about drugs. he said something like "take a look around the class. from the statistics, ten years from now one of you won't be here anymore". i immediately rebutted with "but sir, none of us will be here anymore, we'll all have graduated". as soon as i opened my mouth i knew it was the wrong thing to say, but i had to say it.
i am mostly over all of this, but sometimes in times of stress i'll revert back to things akin to this that i know are dumb. stupid little things like making sure all my windows are lined up neatly when working in Access, even when they don't need to be. things that help me feel more in control of myself when a deadline is looming and i feel like things are getting out of hand. i'm not sure if this is a common theme, but i have a feeling that my little quirks are mostly compensations for feelings of things being out of my control. i am kind of a control freak sometimes, especially when nervous, so little things like that give me the illusion of control and help me calm down.
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When I was young, I had lots of OCD-related obsessions, but lots of kids have them too. I've grown out of them.
My favorite one involved the tiles on our kitchen floor. Now, all the tiles are grey, but I would imagine that the tiles were checkerboarded, and that the tiles of only one of the colors were the ones I could step on. This developed into the rule that forwards or sideways, I had to skip one tile, but diagonally, I could step on any of them.
"take a look around the class. from the statistics, ten years from now one of you won't be here anymore"
He must not have had high hopes for his students passing his class. That's a stupid way to word that sentence anyway; he should've known better. That's the kind of sentence where I maybe wouldn't say anything (depending on the teacher), but I'd probably crack a smile.
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oh man, you just reminded me about tile patterns. i would totally freak out over tile patterns on our front porch and in our bathroom and in my nan's bathroom, and over carpet patterns and so forth. sometimes i'd sit and count (and recount) the tiles between everything to make sure that they were (still) even.
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It drives me crazy in bathrooms when the tiles aren't arranged in any particular pattern. I mean, when I was growing up my family's kitchen had these hideous greenish-yellow broken-looking linoleum tiles, but at least they were perfect squares.
I never thought about my smart-assishness being a manifestation of my compulsive tendencies... hmmm...
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I have an even number fixation I dont like to think about odd numbers, but I'd hardly count it as interfering with my life so whats does it make me?
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oh man, you just reminded me about tile patterns.
My thing with patterns is to try and get my feet to fit in with them if I'm sitting down. Failing that I like to somehow make my feet block out part of the pattern so that it looks like it fits.
Mini blinds bother me, not enough to think I'm OCD but having one little blind out of order with the rest tends to make me get up and fix it.
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I actually registered specifically because of OCD Girl and her "fluids are icky" bit... I'm always a bit iffy about characters with personality disorders because quite often they aren't portrayed correctly at all. Unfortunately, I can more than verify it's correct in THIS case. :P
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I have this thing about the floorboards in my house. I have to test them before I step on them. If they creak at ALL I will not step on them. I guess it's just an old childhood habit, but still...
Also, if there is a lighter, I will play with it. I was never able to make lighters work, so I'll just flick the wheely thing idly until my ma takes it away.
I stomp in puddles whenever I can help it. It doesn't matter if I go in halfway up my shin in mudwater, I just charge up and go "STOMP!" It pisses all my friends off really bad, but I can't help it.
I have this other thing about watching the oven when it's on. I'll just sit in front of it and watch it like it was a TV. I don't know why. The light on the inside just is nice to watch, and the kitchen is always warm, so I guess that might be why.
I am also a spelling nazi. I also have to say Nazi like "nah-zee".
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I had some very OCD tendencies as a young child that have since gone away, but others are manifested in their place. I had an obsession with mail order catalogues. I couldn't turn a page until I had come up with a feasible real-life situation in which each item for sale could be used. I was also obsessed with each of my hands and each of my feet feeling the same--once I stapled a finger by accident, had a panic attack, and stapled the other. This sort of thing has since gone away.
These days, I organize coins by date. More than one coin from that year? Alphabetized based on whether they were minted in Denver or Philadelphia. More from one mint? Organized in descending order by condition. I also often find myself muttering and swearing involuntarily in stressful situations or when recalling stressful situations.
The one tendency that has stayed with me is walking in circles around the house in a sort of pattern or course. I have this run, which goes down the hallway and around the coffee table and into the kitchen and back. I actually do it a hell of a lot. Of course, when I lived elsewhere I had different routes. . .
YAY FOR OCD!
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I have an even number fixation I dont like to think about odd numbers, but I'd hardly count it as interfering with my life so whats does it make me?
A number theorist?
I dunno, am I the only person here who finds it entirely possible that the girl just smokes because she wants to smoke? I used to attend an OCD group therapy session and me and this other guy (who described himself as "severe" and of the cleaning type) would take smoke breaks all the time. It seems perfectly reasonable to me that force of habit or nicotine addiction could override any "need for cleanliness" that an OCD sufferer could have. Often, this compulsion to clean doesn't even necessarily relate to getting everything objectively CLEAN; rather, it can be a compulsion to regain order and visual appeal. Or it could be the desire to destroy every bacterium, microorganism or piece of waste in the vicinity. As an aside, smoking does tend to heighten levels of anxiety (and thus the severity of OCD symptoms), as does drinking copious amounts of coffee (as Hannelore's speculated alter-ego, Pizza Girl, does in her QC debut).
I was afflicted for about a year with obsessions, but no compulsions. I would get a random terrible thought in my head and carry it with me for months at a time. For example, I got this thought in my head that I was going to kill my roommates and I was really freaked out that I was going to do it, and I felt like I would need to convince myself not to do something that I obviously wasn't going to do. That sucked. That went nicely hand-in-hand with my panic disorder. Luckily both subsided at the beginning of 2005 (the panic disorder for the first time in years). Anxiety disorders: they're a bitch.
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I think i may have little (but by little, i mean tiny) bit of OCD. The radio volume has to be set to an even number. 10, 12, 14 are all good. Any odd number volumes sound wrong. They make the music sound flat. I can tell just by listening to a radio if the volume is set to an even number. My girlfriend annoys me sometimes by changing the volume to an odd number, right infront of me, cuz she knows i'll have to change it.
Also, i can't sit with my back to a door. If i do that, i'm constantly looking over my shoulder. I had my work put in a new desk and computer in the server room so i could sit facing the door while working
Finally my hands have to be doing something. I can't just sit still, my hands have to be doing something.
I used to do the whole cracks on the pavement thing as a kid, but i stopped that years ago.
So yeah, what do you think? Am i OCD?
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I have minor OCD, I think. Few examples:
When I was a kid, I would sometimes open the car door when my dad was driving us somewhere simply because I couldn't resist opening it.
Glasses need to be on coasters, precisely in the middle. I'll get incredibly annoyed if someone puts it on the side of the coaster, on the table, or on anything else (I didn't speak to my brother for a day once after he put his coffee mug on my notebook).
I freak out if I have stuff under my fingernails. I will never put my hands into dirt or whatever.
When writing something in my notebook, if I make a spelling mistake or think of a better way to say it, I never cross anything out. I rewrite the entire page. Same when I'm drawing with a pencil, I'll get a new piece of paper instead of erasing. The leftovers from whats erased drive me insane.
Okay... maybe that's not so minor.
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I think it's really only considered OCD - disorder - if the behavior is a detriment to your life somehow.
I think we can safely say it probably detracts from Raccoon Girl's life in a variety of ways we haven't seen clearly yet.
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a friend of mine can only do things in evens.
when she eats fries, for example, she eats them 2 at a time so she can keep track. if there is an odd number of fries, she can't bring herself to eat the last one left. when she smokes, she takes two drags from her cigarette at a time.
it's actually a really cute quirk :)
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I have minor OCD, I think. Few examples:
When I was a kid...
You gave what I think were some current examples later, but here's a reminder: OCD isn't really based on just childhood quirks. I had dozens of them, to the point of where it took me a lot longer to walk short distances than it should have. I don't have these anymore, as I grew out of them.
Most of the OCD in this thread is pretty mild. Serious OCD is where, for instance, you obsess about germs to the point at which you wash your hands until they're raw & red. I don't know anyone who has serious OCD, but I took college-level psychology SO I KNOW EVERYTHING.
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I really can't tell you if it's a childhood quirk because I haven't been in a car for years. Biking is for yes! For all I know it's still there. It was last time I was in one.
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I hate long tonenails and finger nail. I cut them right down to the pink.
I also have a thing for odd numbers..
That and binary.
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One of my friends has mild OCD. He washes his hands in between EVERY class.
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My girlfriend annoys me sometimes by changing the volume to an odd number, right infront of me, cuz she knows i'll have to change it.
That sucks. Girls are so mean. My boyfriend thinks my odd number-thing is cute, and is in fact trained to kiss me odd numbers of times. Sometimes I'll pretend that I didn't notice, and he'll make me kiss him again just to evenodd(?) it out.
Ditto on the back-to-the-door thing, and the hands. I find knitting to be an excellent pasttime.
Glad to see, from someone else, that I'm not alone on the "equal sensations" thing, although I've never stapled myself.
I'm going to be getting my ears pierced a third time soon, and a tattoo in the center of my back, and a cartilege piercing on the top of my right ear, to balance out the tattoo on my left hip.
Why does everyone have a thing with even numbers? I'm telling you, they don't balance!
Also, doors should usually be closed, but closet doors must always be. The room I'm in now has a door that's held open by mounds of junk, and I can't sleep well.
I don't know if this is related, but on the topic of strange problems: does anyone else with OC-tendencies have sleep disorders? I tend to have very vivid dreams (bad ones-- the gore is too frequent to call them nightmares anymore) and bouts of sleep paralysis. Both contribute to some of my nighttime OC behaviours.
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Dont forget also, that this is all conversational 20's.
Keep in mind two things: almost no one ever exhibits textbook symptoms and only textbook symptoms.
and two: it's a conversation between people in their 20's which means she could be anywhere from unable to walk down certain sidewalks all the way too: she likes her hands clean.
Come to that, I like my hands clean too. Obsessively. It really bothers me when my hands are dirty and I must wash them at the first available oportunity. BUT: this has never stopped me from grabbing something dirty if it needed to be grabbed (I can wash my hands after)...it never stopped me from becoming a painter (ever see a painter whose hands were clean? My sink was well used) and it's never effected my sex life.
Probably I would not be diagnosed by any competent proffesional as legitamate OCD. On the other hand, when going to wash my hands a second time in five minutes after getting a bit of beer spilled on them, I might easily say conversaitonally to a friend "Heh, gotta wash my hands again...damn OCD acting up."
Of course, it's also highly unlikely that my friends would start several threads on the internet to discuss what I meant by that comment...
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Man, I was really hoping that Marten got it together with OCD girl, it seems like he hasn't been laid in, like, forever. Or is he just like Ross from Friends and he's banging hookers the whole time but Jeph just doesn't bother showing it?
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Man, I was really hoping that Marten got it together with OCD girl, it seems like he hasn't been laid in, like, forever. Or is he just like Ross from Friends and he's banging hookers the whole time but Jeph just doesn't bother showing it?
It's called "sexual tension". And dude, start your own thread or stay on topic!!!
I mean it!!1
LOL!!11!!1111
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I'm enjoying this thread... I agree with the OCD being a result, or a component of an intelligent or highly active mind, and in my case, that probably explains my tendencies, even if they are somewhat minor...
Kindergarten: I measured the spaces between my words, so they were all perfectly even. When every other kid drew a house, they'd draw it free hand, i wouldnt even touch the paper unless i had a ruler... this is when i was 5/6 people.
I was taken to a shrink when i was about 4 (or earlier) and i told him his office was messy. He then told my mother that i wasnt sleeping cause i had an overactive mind... So its not suprising that OCD people have sleep problems.
My tendencies now, aren't that huge, although revolve highly around routine, things have to be done a certain way, and if they aren't perfect, im not happy....
OCD, can benefit some people, which is probably the case with me, although the constant need for perfection screws things over sometimes...
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Doesn't everyone have those things they do that have to be done a certain way though? People just get so set in their ways after so much time that things just become like that naturally, yeah?
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They do. People all have there little quirks. "We're all weird in our own way." OCD happens when these things get in the way of normal living.
Let's take hand washing. Many people think about washing there hands before they ate or after they go to the bathroom. Then they feel okay and go out with their lives. What if the hand washing didn't make you "feel okay"? You still felt like you had just taken a dump and needed to wash your hands.
Or maybe you shake hands with some. Many of us (especially in the flu season) think, "Hmmm, maybe I should wash my hands at some point." What if right after you shake hands with someone you get an intense feeling that you must wash your hands NOW. You try to suppress it but you start to sweat and panic. You excuse yourself and run to the bathroom. That goes over really well in a business meeting with a new client.
The first part is "normal". The second part could be OCD.
[edit to repair spelling. obessive?]
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Stickying this, because there seems to be a few people bringing up certain things about OCD who only have knowledge of the cliches of OCD, not the reality of it. Leaving this here for a while as a good "Hannelore reference post".
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I don't think issues with numbers or tiles, etc, are problems with OCD as much as they are typical human behavior. Our brains are meant for pattern-matching, and especially with intelligent people, when those patterns become more and more abstract, we start counting or looking for patterns in stupid things like tiles on the floor/ceiling/walls. I used to count the number of steps to get a particular place, and I'm sure it was more of a way to keep my brain occupied more than anything.
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The sickness comes when these things interfer with your everyday life.
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Yeah, as far as all the OCD-related speculations out there go, most of you don't have OCD. Watch the show Monk (on the USA channel, perhaps others) and you'll see what OCD really is.
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Is that actually a decent reference, though? I saw a couple of episodes of that series and was like "Ok, this is an awful show". Granted I don't have OCD, but it just seemed like they were going out of their way to be all like "he has OCD! look at how wild and crazy he is with the OCD and the cleanliness and the wackiness!"
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Yeah, I've only watched snippets of that show but I don't see any evidence of frustration, anger, diminished self-esteem and self-confidence, or self-harm used as a distraction mechanism.
For a better televisual depiction of O.C.D. watch the episodes of Scrubs in which Michael J. Fox guest-starred.
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Or As Good As It Gets (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119822/)
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There was an episode of Monk where he got arrested because he mistakenly walked into his (deceased) wife's house, which had long been owned by different people by then.
Monk really is a good example of OCD, but he also suffers from other stuff. It's more of a situation where he took a huge psychological hit when his wife died, one of the results being some OCD-ish tendencies.
I personally am a much better example of OCD because I like even numbers better than odd numbers. </huurrrr>
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I have not been officially diagnosed,but I am fairly certain that I have a mild case of obsessive compulsive disorder.
1:I need to pop my fingers,toes,back,and neck about every hour.
2: Every time I attempt to lock my door,I lock and unlock it at least three or four times to make sure it is locked.
3:Every time somebody else spits,I have to spit.
4:My bed cannot be unmade,ever.
5:I cannot have dirty hands/feet/fingernails.
6:I cannot wear clothing with any stains.
7:If my hair is made,I am very pissed if it is disturbed. (Very vain of me,yes.)
8:If,for instance,I do something to one finger (such as biting it out of nervousness) I must do it to all other fingers. This also goes for toes.
But of course,I may just be a silly.
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Marten's suggestion about the odd/even numbers seems so simple - is that really possible? I have heard severe OCD people talk about it being already "contaminated" by said odd/even number.
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Obessions don't have to be logic.
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exactly; that's why I'm asking if the solution would work
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In the real world, probably not. Might help someone. Still, rearranging your pizza toppings isn't much better...
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At the moment, my big thing is joint cracking. I'm constantly cracking fingers, wrists, toes, ankles, neck, jaw, back, knees, elbows, shoulders, and so on. Always. Even when they're cracked and don't pop anymore, I go through the motions. I've gotten so good at it that I can crack all ten fingers [with each non-thumb finger cracking in both joints] and all ten toes, my neck in both directions, both sides of my jaw and my lower back within 10 seconds without anyone seeing. It really is a compulsion, too; see that list up there of all the joints I crack? While typing the list, I kept catching myself cracking the named joint without even realizing I was doing it...but then I had to crack all the others, just in case they hadn't been "cracked out" as I call it. All the joints. Each time I typed a word.
Back when I was a little kid, I would curl my lower lip. I did it so often that it split right in half and bled whenever I did it, but I'd still do it ten times an hour.
After that it was nose crunching. I would "scrunch" my nose up like a pig constantly, but that went away fast.
My old bathroom had a tile pattern that was mostly white with a few black tiles. Every time I was in there I had to cross my eyes so that the black tiles seemed to overlap each other perfectly. If they didn't overlap so well that I couldn't tell there were really two black tiles on that spot, I'd stand there and squint and tilt my head until they did.
Whenever I do anything to one side of my, I have to do the same to the other. I bet if I ever break a finger or something, I will deliberately snap the corresponding one in half as a matter of balance, and it will probably bother me if one heals faster than the other. I've already "mirrored" cuts on my arm; I fell off a bike and scratched up my right bicep, so I scraped my left one on the ground until they hurt equally. The right actually healed first, so I rescraped both. Luckily, they healed roughly in unison.
It goes on like that. Opening both eyes as wide as possible, CLOSING both eyes as tightly as possible, putting a heavy rock [20 pounds] in front of my bedroom door to make SURE it wouldn't close. Checking my shirt tag twenty times an hour to make sure it isn't up. Degaussing the monitor every hour on the hour and feeling sick to my stomach when I missed a time.
The first time I cracked my jaw, I remember it was the right side. I spent two hours trying to crack the left side, and I finally did, but not before I pulled the muscles in my face [I kid you not].
I know this message is really disjointed and hard to follow, but it's 2:00 in the morning. Sue me.
EDIT: Just naming those old habits that I've kicked is making me itch to do them again. I caught myself doing the nose and lip things, as well as the eye once and checking the clock to see if it was time for a degauss. Oddly, it was [off by a minute or so], but I fought that one off. Barely. I've cracked joints more times during this one post than I do in a normal hour, and while reading this topic more than in a full day; talking about it or having attention called to it makes it much, much worse. When I'm stressed is the worst of all, I nearly broke my wrist while giving a speech because I was trying so hard to get ONE MORE CRACK out of it.
Can anyone give me some advice on how to control these compulsions? It isn't that they're messing with my personal or academic life [I'm in Grade 10], I'm very sneaky about them. I used to "sneeze" or "yawn" to hide a lip-curl and/or a nose-crunch. The problem is that they're getting worse; none of my "younger" tics had so powerful an obsession. I used to know exactly when I would tic, do it "consciously" and be able to force myself to stop; now I hardly ever notice when I'm doing it, and absolutely cannot stop if I try. In fact, trying makes it worse!
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Laurie: you have classic OCD tenancies, you just don't need medication or therapy to control them.
I'd agree with you on that one, I have the same thing with both sides of my body. If someone touches my left knee, I practically insist they do the same to the right need, with the same force and so on. It's quite annoying tendancy, but I'm learning to deal with it, it freaks me out to have my nose touched, because its in the middle, theres nothing that can be touched to balance it out, and that just plains creeps me out.
But it's cool, as far as OCD tendnacies go, I think the need to mirror touch senses isnt that much of a bad one, and I can have a laugh about it with my friends.
also at home we have big blinds over the window, the dog tends to like to see out of the window, he will quite often hop up onto the windowsill, then leave putting some of the blinds out of position, so for instance if they were closed, one would be looped on it's chain and stuck open. This must be fixed.
I think my oddest thing is that I'm not a clean person, or particuarly neat, because with neatness it is sayhing " i think it looks tidy that way" but i dont see the point, its when something MUST be that way that i get anal and compulsive about it.
And as Anti implied, needing medication doesnt make it a condition, its a condition that sometimes needs medication.
I think JJ is doing a good thing depicting OCD on a character of his, where most web-comics may be way to Politcal Correctness worried to go near it, or just go too far and potray it in a false manour.
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My sister has diagnosed OCD, and has (this is for all those people speculating about 11-year-olds with OCD) had it since she was in elementary school, I think. She has to check that all the doors are locked every night about fou times, check and recheck that the dogs are inside (even after she's seen them), etc. She's also terrified that she'll accidentally leave a cigarette lit and it will burn the house down, so first she checks all the ash trays, then she makes me catch them. She hates the thought of throwing up (to the point of real fear -- once I had to tell her thirty times that she wouldn't throw up. She counted.), but not of sex. She also has a thing about the stove and oven, and whether or not they're lit. She doesn't like bridges, but there's one bridge in particular that she's terrified of -- she hadn't driven over it in two years, until just recently her therapist drove her over it.
My sister has her ears and belly button pierced, and she smokes and drinks.
So basically, what people have been saying is right. OCD manifests itself in all sorts of different ways, and there's no compulsion that HAS to be there. And Hannelore is fairly realistic.
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I am more compulsive than obsessive. There were things that I had to do in the past but it wasn't to "make everything Okay" it was just that it looked better that way.
I have about 60 Role-Playing books from D&D 2nd ed to every system White-Wolf created. My WW books used to be arranged by game (Werewolf, vampire, etc.) then by Publish-number (WW1100 was Vampire's first book) until I got to the "clan books" or "tribe books" Those would be arranged alphabetically ... last in the order. My Ex used to re-arrange them backwards on me and I would spend quite some time fixing them. I had to. I grew out of that but now my bookcase is WRECKED and it doesn't please me.
The other thing I did consistently is make my bed. I grew out of that for a while when I moved out of my parents house but now it's back. If I leave my house, my bed HAS to be made unless it's occupied. If it's occupied, I have to make sure that it will be made when I come back home. I can't stand walking into my room with my bed unmade.
I mumble "I wanna go home" whenever I think or do something embarrassing. It doesn't matter where I am or what I'm doing at that time. That's the only actual OCD thing I do. Everything else I do is compulsion for compulsion's sake.
I guess what I'm saying is this: You can be Compulsive without being Obsessive. Since I know this, can you have the Obsession without the Compulsion too? I'm sure they're both disorders regardless.
Thanks!
MJ
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I don't know what I am, but since everyone seems to be talking about their problems I thought I'd join in too.
I can't ever go to the bathroom at my school. Not because of the germs, but because the first time I did I missed all of my classes and almost the bus. The tiles on the bathroom floor consist of white, blue and burgandy colors, and there is no discernable pattern.
I sat down and looked at them, trying to find a pattern and the next thing I know, it's 5 hours later.
I'm one of the "sex is icky" people. I'm not a germ freak, but I really don't like gross things and go far out of my way to avoid them. I think about sex and it while the idea seems like fun, thinking about the actual act grosses me out.
I can't have my back to other people. This isn't an OC thing for the most part, except it happens everywhere in the most conventional settings. At school I have to be in a back corner, sitting sideways in a desk. In the cafeteria I'm against a wall in the corner.
At resturants I've gotta be in a corner booth, and waiting to order by a wall.
I'm always playing with something or other, except when I type. Just now, I stopped to ponder what to write next and there was a tube of Blistex in my hand. I noticed and put it down, and then I realized that I was picking at a spot in front of my ear. I stopped that and responded to an Instant Message and then I was fiddling with a comb.
That brings me to another one. I've got to comb my hair. My hair is very short, but I've got at least two combs at my computer desk and I'll just randomly stop doing something and comb my hair. This one doesn't happen much outside of my home, though.
I have a need to be able to crack everything in my body. I can crack all my fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck, jaw, ears, throat, ribs, spine, upper back, lower back, hips, groin/upper legs, knees, ankles, and all my toes. I crack them about once every hour and if one won't crack I can't do anything else until it cracks.
I'm a nail biter. If I'm listening to someone talk I'll start biting my thumb nail until it's clean off, and slowly work my way around every finger. If I realize I'm biting my nails I'll purposly do it faster so they're all gone.
My jaw was cracked when I was younger so it's ever slightly off. I've been growing facial hair since I was twelve, and every time I shave I go for a goatee, but it gets shaved because it looks 'off'.
Finally, I think, is that my bedroom door needs to always be closed. As I was typing this my grandmother came in and said something, and I was already up and pushing the door closed, listening for the "click" that means it's fully shut before she was all the way out because I had to have the door closed.
So... that's all my stuff. What do you all think? By the way, I'm new! I found a link to Rob and Elliot, which linked to this, and I couldn't sleep unti l I was finished reading the entire archive. I guess that's another thing; I have sleeping problems. Heh.
Edit: I forgot one. You guys know that website http://www.fark.com? Well, I started checking it every now and again because it keeps me up-to-date on current events.... but now I have to check it a lot. Every hour or so.
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I only have a cople OCD-like tendencies:
1. When I make my bed, it has to be PERFECT. No wrinkles, even on both sides, hosptial corners....the whole nine yards. I can go days without making my bad, but making it and having it be off drives me batty.
2. If I have a stack of papers, they have to be perfectly straight. Having one paper off bothers me, and I have to tap them on all sides until they're straight again.
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I've a few little quirks; I'm sure everyone has a little of these kinds of things; though my family notices some of the things that i do, it doesnt interfere with anything.
I have to smell things before i'll let them touch any part of me other than my hands, which are used to pick them up so i can smell them >_>. THis is most important for towels. Ill go through an entire cupboard and find the towel that has the most non existant smell.
I wash dishes when i take them out the cupboard; This is more because no one in the universe knows how to wash a cup ... If i wash the dishes it takes hoursof serious inspection. I can't dry things with a towel because ..er.. towel fibres... I don't want towel fibres in my food or drink.
I used to save with Ctrl+S between 3 and six times, and user the menu as well, depending on the importance of the document. Now i just use the menu because i've gotten used to woking with C++ workspaces, where the IDE option to save everything doesnt have a shortcut key (though it may be customizable).
Things should be at right angles, especially paper. I don't always budge to move it, but if i look at a table, and its not orthagonal to the wall, it annoys me. If i do handle it for any reason, then as im already in the process of touching it, i'd make it orthagonal to the wall; The most common things subject to this are my mouse mat, books, and coasters (in which the cup has to be centered).
Im far too lazy and tired to ever develop anything serious though... Unless uoi can be Obsessively compulsed to do nothing, in which case i need immediate help :D (Im 18..so i think that explains it)
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I'm bad about the lock on my apartment door. I always end up getting out of bed 5 or 6 times to make sure its locked before I can fall asleep. The only other quirk I have is concerning the zipper on jackets. I either have it zipped all the way up, unzipped, or right to the solar plexus.
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Wow, I have OCD symptoms and never realized that they were OCD symptoms until I read this thread.
On number 1 - 9, I prefer odd numbers, because they always have a number in the middle. I envision dots in my head and for some reason connect the beginning, middle, and end dots in my head. I gives them a sense of...security? With numbers 10 and up, I prefer even numbers because they are easily divisible and fun to manipulate in my head. I like prime numbers, too. There's a sense of security that I don't have to worry about any other numbers being multiplied to equal the prime number except for the number times one. Prime numbers also have a bold feeling to me. Weird.
I rarely pay attention to cracks when walking, but when I do, I like the balance the sensations between my feet by alternating stepping on cracks with each foot, touching approximately the same spot on my foot.
I can never save a word/excel document just once. I save at least twice, usually three times, and sometimes five times. Once does not feel secure enough.
When I was a bit younger, there was a period of about 2 or 3 months where I would constantly sniff my nose as if I had sinus problems at least once a minute. It drove people INSANE. It went away on it's own, though.
None of these impact my day to day life in any perceivable manner. They just make me feel a wee bit quirky.
Oh, and Hannelore is my absolute favorite character. I am filled with glee everytime Jeph puts up a strip with Hanners in it. If there ever was a QC spinoff, I'd love to see a storyline with Hannelore as the main protaganist. I might have a seizure due to overwhelming levels of awesome, though.
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Apart from the number things, I share those things too Serene Cataclysm (Inc. Hannelore thing).
I was always told my nose would fall off if i didn't stop sniffling >_>.
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I've got some moderate OCD myself. Briefly, my O's and C's are:
-Symmetry, as mentioned by many
-Even numbers, ditto
-Stepping on cracks (mostly appears when under stress)
-Right angles and alignment
-Sometimes I count stairs as I climb/descend them
-I have to have the seam on paper cups facing directly away from me
-I once had a minor anxiety attack where I felt compelled to read absolutely every word I could see. It sucked. I was in Borders at the time. It really sucked.
-Other various things
The one thing that strikes me as particularly inaccurate about Hannelore though is that she got a job counting things because she enjoys it. I don't know about anyone else, but my compulsions drive me crazy. I can't stand being compelled to do things that get in the way of normal life most of the time. If I had a serious counting compulsion, the last thing I would do is put myself in front of things I needed to count. So instead of a dream job, it seems more like it would be hell to me. Of course, I may be wrong. Anybody have thoughts on this?
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In Monk they did something similar--Monk's "dream job" was being a cog in a corporate machine, collating and proofreading reports, etc.
Do OCD folks "enjoy" acting out compulsions; or is it more that they 'enjoy' the results, or is it all just a drag?
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Yeah, as far as all the OCD-related speculations out there go, most of you don't have OCD. Watch the show Monk (on the USA channel, perhaps others) and you'll see what OCD really is.
Um...no.
Although I do wonder if most of these people are severe enough to be said to have OCD. I mean, look:
-I can't stand cheese. Not the taste, but the idea of cheese, not the source, but just the fact that it is cheese. I'll eat cheese dishes, unless I'm reminded I'm eating cheese (e.g. a pizza that doesn't melt too much or have certain toppings). If someone is chewing cheese with his mouth open, I go fucking crazy.
-Unless I consciously stop myself, whenever I'm left alone in a room with a chair, I spin it counterclockwise while walking clockwise, sometimes for the better part of an hour.
-I can't stand to be in a room with an open door. No matter what I'm doing, if there's a door, it absolutely has to be closed (ajar is OK sometimes).
-I can't stand it when paper torn along a perforation has scraps of the other piece on it. I always stop to tear them off.
-Everytime I see something that screws in, I stop to see whether it's loose. If it is, I screw it in until it's tight or unscrew it completely (this has gotten me into a bit of trouble with fire hydrants).
My point being that I don't have OCD (as five seconds in my room would show). I'll bet I could make a list like this for anyone on the planet. If a few little nervous habits make a "disorder," who the hell doesn't have one?
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OCD is a shitty deal unless you use it to your advantage. I myself have had it for quite a while and I tend to put it towards schoolwork. However there are OCD freak out moments that when coupled with my anxiety and depression that I just can't handle things properly. So naturally, I turned to a drug that covers all three of these things: zoloft!
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I've heard mixed things about zoloft. it gave a friend of mine terrible headaches; and she said it did nothing for her mood.
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As someone diagnosed with OCD (and medicated, for a year or so, before I learned to handle it on my own), I think that the concentration on cleaning and rigid structure is kind of misleading. For example, my obsessions and compulsions usually have to deal with moral issues rather than anything else. And yes, they did manifest themselves in ways harmful to my life, but I was able to get over them. I just think that constant cleaning is too often associated with OCD sufferers, and while some definitely do have that problem, most have others. And some, like myself, have very atypical conditions still within that disorder.
Just offering my experiences.
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weird that i have spotted this today, as yesterday my boyfriend and i were discussing this kinda.
Out of curiosity is it possiable to have bi-polar OCD?
Because i am kinda mildly bi-polar at the moment (this is an improvement) and most of the time i am absolutetly fine, but when i do get a mood swing i get all panicky.
I wash my hands too much. i will be ready to go to sleep and be in bed and realise that my hands are still not clean - having already washed them three or four times and actually have to get out of bed to go to the bathroon and wash them. This means warm water, soap, rinse, more soap, rinse REALLY WELL i cannot have any soap left on them, and they need to be completely dry. I cannot leave them damp or i have to wash them again.
I also Clean Stuff when i switch moods too. I get really angry with the rest of the people in the hosue for being so messy and just clean everything. i clean the kitchen, do all the washing up, all the drying (wash my hands before and after, even though they have been in the washing up water) the sink has to be emptied and re-filled when the water gets mucky, etc, etc.
When i am at the pub or wherever, my packet of cigs, lighter and phone all have to be parrell to the edge of the table. if it gets moved i have to move it back. mostly i do this without thinking about it.
But as i said, it is mostly only really when i switch moods.
Is that plausiable?
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Golly, this is really interesting!
It sure is!
I am glad that those of you with OCD have been open enough to share your stories, I have found it interesting.
That said, I also agree with Near Lurker. Most of us don't have OCD. We are complex human beings and all have our odd quirks.
However, when quirks become obsessions is when it turns into a mental health issue.
I would also like to know if people who have OCD with a particular thing (counting in thes example) actually like doing the behavior as a job. I would think that if you have an obsession that you are trying to get over, then you wouldn't enjoy doing that obsession as a job. This is all theoretical though and just my mind pondering. I don't think that Jeph should have done it differently, because the fact that she is OCD about counting and has a job counting is entertaining.
Oh, and Hannelore is my absolute favorite character. I am filled with glee everytime Jeph puts up a strip with Hanners in it. If there ever was a QC spinoff, I'd love to see a storyline with Hannelore as the main protaganist. I might have a seizure due to overwhelming levels of awesome, though.
I love Hanners too, although she would have to be a bit more developed for a spinoff storyline to be created for me to be interested.
As with all obsessions/addictions they are only "bad" when they affect your life in a negative way. If obsessively counting stairs as you climb them interferes with your life then you have a problem. If obsessively counting stairs does not interfere with your life then it's just a quirky part of you.
It's a good thing I'm not OCD about spelling because I can't spell worth beans. :)
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I used to have a weird form of OCD. I would always have to touch the corners of my desk, my paper, and even sometimes, the room. I also used to have to cover up my pencil with my hands completely. I also had to walk around the corners of things like sandboxes and jungle gyms. I eventually broke myself of these weird habbits. It is an odd feeling, having to do weird random things or else you have this feeling of anxiety.
I love Hanners. She's one of my favorite characters. =3
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Me, I have issues stepping on cracks because it causes an imbalance in the feelings between my two feet, so I have to step on another to even it out, and so on. When I was little I used to get into pattern fits if I accidentally pressed my face too hard, and then had to balance it out, and then had to balance out the "well, that side was first last time so this side is first this time" kind of thing...
Wow, I always thought I was the only person who did this... but there again I realised a long time ago that it's a bit egotistical to believe you're the only one who has a particular trait or characteristic so really I don't know why I assumed that!
But it's not really OCD, I don't think, or at least not for me. Too many people (ie my age) like to pretend they have something badly wrong when really it's just common of the age group.
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Well, I guess that I should be here too.
I have diagnosed OCD. I have an obsession about hygiene and symmetry and need to wash my hands all the time, clean every inch of the house, place things in alphabethical order, place them with the excact same space between and that kind of stuff.
Sometimes I can't sleep because I need to get up and check if the carpet lies symmetrically to the wall and that kind of stuff.
This takes up many hours every day, I barely get any sleep because I stay up late at night and scrub the kitchen clean. It's annoying, and I go to a therapist, but I can't say it's helping much.
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There's Death Metal band named "Scar Symmetry"
They're pretty good, mixing hard beats and good melodies with raw and clear vocals...
Anyways, on OCD's, I once saw this one case where this one woman spent almost all day at home re-arranging her chairs to be alligend perfectly... sounds recognisable?
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Pretty much, yes.
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I'm suddenly reminded of a certain simpsons episode where Flanders wants to be more like Homer and goes on Homer's program to become more wild :-P
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I just want to thank J.Jacques for having the ability to create a OCD charator with both cunning skill and sensitivity. She makes me laugh lots, and I can see some of myself in her. I also suffer from OCD, thankfully its not the classic clean evertying thats nailed down type but it does affect my life in many various ways, and has cost me jobs relationships marriage.
At this time I am not taking any medication for it, it would take me 4 years to get on meds with waiting lists for psychiatric so I deal with it as best I can though mental excersizes. though its rough and its hard trying to find ways to do things that most people would normally do.
Well thats enough out of me Back to your regularly scheduled program
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Is what Stephen Fry has also an OCD?
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OCD:
i have ocd.
mine were odd. my obessions were related to religion/morals/spirituality and to bodily thinness. my compulsions were "obeying the voice of god" and having to change my clothes and adjust them because they felt too tight..to loose..to tight..to loose.
at first, OCD took just a few mimnutes out of my life. and just a little happiness. eventually, it took DAYS aways and i was always miserable.
hooray for drugs! and therapy!
antientropy is rights. OC happens alot. OCD...the DISORDER, is when one's obessions and compulsions start to fuck up your life.
if you *enjoy* making up your bed perfectly, and it takes 10 minutes..so what? no OCD.
if you *hate* having to do it, it might be OCD>
someone said smart people are more prone to O and C. maybe. but I would say mentally disabled people are very C prone.
as for what part of the brain OCD is from...they think it is It has been theorized that a miscommunication between the orbital-frontal cortex, the caudate nucleus, and the thalamus may be a factor in the explanation of OCD. The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is the first part of the brain to notice whether or not something is amiss. When the OFC notices that something is wrong, it sends an initial ?worry signal? to the thalamus. When the thalamus receives this signal, it in turn sends signals back to the OFC to interpret the worrying event. The caudate nucleus lies between the OFC and the thalamus and it prevents the initial worry signal from being sent back to the thalamus after it has already been received. However, it is suggested that in those with OCD, the caudate nucleus does not function properly, and therefore does not prevent this initial signal from recurring. This causes the thalamus to become hyperactive and creates a virtually never-ending loop of worry signals being sent back and forth between the OFC and the thalamus. The OFC responds by increasing anxiety and engaging in compulsive behaviors in an attempt to relieve this apprehension.[2]
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I have quite a few OC's quirks.
When I was little, I always had to rearrange the candy at the cash registers. Like if there was a box of say gum, I had to make sure there was a flat layer of the packages of gum, and then line them up from right to left. Also, there was a bait shop my dad used to go to, and he had a box that had various candy bars and such and I would always arrange the box with the candy bars along the back and stacked up one on top of each other and then the gum packs in front of it with them on top of each other as well, so long as they were the same size.
Whenever I am at a social gathering where a lot of drinks in cans are being consumed, I have to make a pyramind, and if doesn't make a pyramind (ie, I can make one, but have some left over I then have to drink/gather more cans to finish it)
And in high school, I used to freak the hell out if the regulars who sat at our lunch table switched seats. everyone had to sit in an "assigned" seat.
I too have to avoid the lines and cracks in the sidewalk, but I also try to calculate how big my steps are based on how many steps it takes me to cover say 10 of the sidewalk blocks.
My bed has to be acrossed from my door, yet I sleep with my back to the door. And whenever I sleep at someone else's house and am in a guest bedroom or whatever, the door has to be shut, whether I'm in there on not. It bothers me quite a bit when I've gone to bed at a friend's house and the door was opened, which has happened quite a number of times.
I guess that's it for me. But yeah, i don't see it as quite a disorder, except the whole seat thing in high school, but I'm out of high school and it doesn't affect me anymore.
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drug companies want everyone to be ill.
good doctors dont
only 1% of people are bipolar by conservative estimates.
highest is still less than 4%. my quess: 2% have some sort of bipolar.
why does it seem like "so many"
1) false diagnosis, esp in youth.
2) 2% means 6 million bipolar.
what does number 2 mean?
well, there are only 3 million mormons in america.
and only 3 million jews.
so think about how many mormons and jews you have seen. they even have buildings! so, when you think of bipolar remember that.
i have about 28 relatives..none are bipolar. i do have a step cousin who is bipolar..if i include step cousins, i have about 40 realtives.
and remember it runs in families. so does OCD.
pyschology today reports that 50% of all marriages fail. and 90% of marriages with one bipolar do. wow.
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Wait wait wait wait. LEt me get this straight. Locking and unlocking the door three times is a sign of OCD? ...I do that a lot. Does this mean I am OCD, ADD, or just bored?
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The DSM IV characterizes something as a disorder if significantly interferes with your daily life. On that note, I'm pretty sure you're fine
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I don't see any evidence of frustration, anger, diminished self-esteem and self-confidence, or self-harm used as a distraction mechanism.
I know two adults and one child with OCD and they don't self-harm or seems to suffer from anger or esteem issues. I know one of them went through a phase in their teens where they self-injured and had real anger issues, but he eventually accepted that he was the way he was and moved past it. The child is only 7 and doesn't see anything wrong with his "rules". The other adult is kind of in denial, he doesn't see anything odd or irrational about the things he does.
My husband is bipolar, he was diagnosed at 18,and he has some mild OCD-like behaviours/thoughts. When the time on the clock is all the same number, he has to be still until it passes. When the days like up that way, like 07/07/07, he is anxious all day long, certain something bad is going to happen. He has to make sure the stove is off every night before he goes to bed, regardless of whether it was used or not. He constantly checks to make sure his wallet is in his pocket, never mind that the thing is constantly digging into him, he has to touch it to be sure it's there.
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While I think that the representation in QC of OCD is a bit weird, I am not going to dismiss it. I mean, I doubt anyone here is qualified to diagnose any kind of mental illness. I am currently on medication for OCD and general anxiety, which manifested itself after I was treated for anorexia; apparently these are quite interlinked. Hannelore is clearly supposed to be making an effort, which I think is good because it is not cool to portray mental illness as a cool thing to have.
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[Ja, I am new here. I hope you do not mind me jumping in upon this conversation.]
Actually, for those wondering if eleven year olds were ever diagnosed, you should consider going lower.
I was diagnosed with moderate OCD and anxiety at the age of seven, after a series of strep throat infections and bronchitis. They put me on an inhaler and that was it. After that, I can vividly recall my mother hurling the thing down the driveway. Before hand, I was told I displayed some suggestive tendencies, even at the age of three. However, my family has a long history of mental illnesses of this kind, so I am not surprised I was struck with it.
I used to worry about swearing constantly, and had violent mental images of being dragged down into the earth if I cussed for some odd reason. Some OCD sufferers are very God-fearing, which I happened to be. (You wouldn't know that now, since I am far from religious and swear rather fluently.) The only way I got over that one was to sit in a corner of my room and cuss under my breath, as I believed standing in the middle of my room would actually permit whatever forces there were to smite me.
On top of that, I would ask people constantly if I was flipping them off. I would do so repetitively, which still manifests itself to this day.
I once had gotten so terrible that I would walk around all day with my hands clenched into fists. (Though, I was also deathly afraid of germs on my hands at that time, and would wash them superstitiously until they were raw.) I was unable to even play outside because of it, and kind of just watched the kids in my neighborhood have fun.
I was later terrified of throwing anything out with my name on it, because I was afraid someone would take my identity. So, I hoarded everything I ever wrote my name on and hid them under my bed. Eventually, with treatment I hated, I was able to do so. (Mental help facilities really weren't as sophisticated as they are, now. I remember going to a specialized school for awhile.)
There are a slew of other things, but recently I have revisited the old fear of something penetrating my skin. At the moment, I am afraid of my nails, so I cut them very short. I also constantly ask if there's anything odd on my skin. For a while, it was an obsession with my weight, but I can only think of one thing at a time.
Yeah, so...That's my experience.
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keltic:
Comedians also say that 85% of all statistics are made up.
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Well, now I had to go and register so I can add my two cents...
Couple of points:
1) OCD = obsessive/compulsive behavior that intereferes with the ability of a patient to perform their normal activities. OC Traits are similar symptoms that are not bad enough to interefere with life to any significant degree.
2) Many people have OC traits. Most "type A" people have some degree of this quality. Most physicians have some degree of it, which is useful if it means they are very detail oriented and are less likely to miss a lab result or such that may make a difference.
3) Some of the stuff people have listed actually sound more like Tourette's syndrome. OCD and Tourette's syndrome often go hand-in-hand, as ~40% of Tourette's patients have OCD as well. Basically, Tourette's simply means you have at least one motor tic, at least one vocal tic (throat-clearing, sniffling, etc.), both of which last for more than a few months, and it started prior to age 18.
4) People with psychiatric conditions often smoke. It actually may be a form of self-medication, especially in bipolar and schizophrenic patients.
In case you're wondering, I'm actually a neurologist, and have seen (and treated) many people with Tourette's (less with pure OCD, they tend to see psychiatrists, first). I have a patient who strikes me as very similar to Hannelore, so the depiction is actually very realistic (although people with OCD can vary quite a bit).
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To expand on the point our esteemed neurologist has made...
OCD is much the same as psychological disorders around the world: you cannot classify any two cases as exactly the same, for the simple reason that no two people are exactly the same. I find it entirely believable that someone could have a case of OCD much like hannelore's, while another peon from seattle would have something completely different. Yes, many people who suffer from OCD or Tourette's share similar symptoms and compulsions (washing hands, etc.) but that does not mean by any stretch of the imagination that all people who suffer from OCD must have the same traits.
On a side note, for those who truly suffer from OCD, I'd hate to think all this speculating and conjecture in any way offends them - we're just a bunch of tards splitting hairs over a cool comic.
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A great book on this topic is Just Checking by Emily Colas.
This is the summary from the publisher: Hip, humorous, and honest, this is the first first-person account of living with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. In it, Colas explains the minutiae of day-to-day life with OCD -- endless, looping fears about pills, garbage, restaurant food, everything -- and how her phobias grew until they all but called her life to a halt.
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keltic:
Comedians also say that 85% of all statistics are made up.
i think that about the same percentage of fake people on the internet :P
but i'm sure everyone heres cool.
a few of my mates have some serious OCD's, they dont let it get them down, and keep on doing things, trying to fight back at it. ones even stopped her meds and is now concentrating on beating it themself. i have several mild disorders - bipolar and a disasociative disorder, only one OCD however. i go mad if i cant touch my hair. :oops:
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I know that this has been pretty well covered, but I thought I could contribute a clinical perspective.
The essential features of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (not to be confused with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder) are recurrent obsessions or compulsions that are severe enough to be time consuming (more than 1 hour a day) or cause marked distress or significant impairment. At some point in the disorder, the person has recognized that the obsessions or compulsions are excessive or unreasonable.
Obsessions are persistent ideas, thoughts, impulses or images that are experienced as intrusive and inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or distress. There is a sense that the obsessions are alien and not within the person's control or not emanating from the person's own mind. The most common obsessions are repeated thoughts about contamination, repeated doubts, a need to have things in a particular order, aggressive or horrific impulses, and sexual imagery. These thoughts are not related to real-life problems such as work or school. A person with these obsessions normally tries to suppress, ignore or neutralize them through some other thought or action - this is a compulsion. Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or mental acts the goal of which is to prevent or reduce anxiety or distress (not provide pleasure or gratification). The most common compulsions involve cleaning, washing, checking, requesting or demanding assurances, repeating actions or ordering.
Adults, by definition, have some insight into the disorder and its negative impact, however, this criteria does not apply
The onset of OCD is typically in adolescence or early adulthood, however it can be diagnosed in children. Onset for males tends to be earlier than females with males' onset between 6 and 15 years and females' onset between 20 and 29 years. The early onset of OCD in the comic would not bode well for treatment and prognosis, although it appears that since it was caught early and with the help of parents seeking treatment Hanners is doing well. For the most part, onset is gradual, but acute onset has been noted in some cases. Most individuals demonstrate a persistent and chronic waxing and waning of symptoms over time. About 15% of people with OCD show progressive deterioration and occupational and personal difficulties related to the symptoms. About 5% have an episodic course with minimal or no symptoms between episodes. Hanners does not seem to fall into either of these groups, but demonstrates the chronic pattern.
With therapy and anti-anxiety medication, the symptoms of OCD can be managed. Hanners has been in therapy since age 11, which indicates both the severity of onset and symptoms (and also prognosis). However, she appears to be functional for the most part with minimal impairment on social functioning. She has adapted by choosing work that not only minimizes her exposure to stressors but actually serves the compulsion of counting. Her insight seems quite remarkable and while we don't know the obsessive side of her (other than contamination, but I suspect there is more), I would say she is actually doing quite well and the portrayal of OCD in Hanners is clinically feasible. There are a few anomalies, but in Psychology everyone is an anomaly; there is no such thing as a "text book case" there are only text-book case presentations.
I hope this has been somewhat helpful. I would be happy to expand on anything that is unclear.
Sources Referenced: Class notes and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV - Text Revision.
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Do you mean Hanners instead of Penelope?
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*headslap*
Yes, I mean Hanners. No more posting at 2 AM when I should be sleeping. Previous post is now edited so I don't look like a complete dork.
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someone was questioning how hannelore was able to go into a bar where the likes of Jimbo inhabit.
I find that as long as i don't see people do anything gross, i won't feel the need to constantly wash my hands. y'know "what you don't know can't hurt you"
Although travelling on the bus every day does start to make me feel abit paranoid about pressing the bell to stop the bus or having to hold onto a railing (i've found i can just get on the bus and then get off at the popular stops where the bus HAS to stop anyways) that and i find myself feeling very unsure when i can't sit in one of the few seats i've decided are "OK" to sit in - Although there's always going to be the day, when someone sits in your seat and you think "oh god i'm going to get thier germs, i'll not sit there for the next week"
Although in places where young people in thier 20's go, (i.e. university) i find myself compelled to ALWAYS wash my hands after using the campus computers 'cos you never know who's been usuing it before you (icky sex germs).
I have a problem with washing my hands too much. but i don't do it until my hands go red raw, i'm just going to have joint problems when i get older. and then i can't dry them on the hand towel because everyone else has used that towel.
wow i don't need to sign up with a psychiatrist, i can just pour everything out here
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Although in places where young people in thier 20's go, (i.e. university) i find myself compelled to ALWAYS wash my hands after using the campus computers 'cos you never know who's been usuing it before you (icky sex germs).
I have a problem with washing my hands too much. but i don't do it until my hands go red raw, i'm just going to have joint problems when i get older. and then i can't dry them on the hand towel because everyone else has used that towel.
I work as a computer maintenance / admin, and let me tell you: You don't have to have OCD to wash your hands after using the computers... How people can't is beyond me... I'm not going to tell any stories but there were instances when we had to call security...(spitting tobacco + fist fights)
I've always wondered: can't you hire and talk to a psychiatrist online these days? Or is it still the office and couch?
question to omi: I've watched shows on people with OCD, is yours strictly germ-related? or does it cover a broad aspect of habits...like waking up at the exact times, or checking something a set amount of times?
Of course if you don't feel comfortable to answer its cool...
That said...
LOOK OVER THERE! *ninja vanish*
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question to omi: I've watched shows on people with OCD, is yours strictly germ-related? or does it cover a broad aspect of habits...like waking up at the exact times, or checking something a set amount of times?
Of course if you don't feel comfortable to answer its cool...
That said...
LOOK OVER THERE! *ninja vanish*
I'm actually finding it quite liberating being able to discuss OCD on here because for the past 9 years i've kept it a secret from everyone (except my family). Even friends who thought they knew EVERYTHING about me, didn't know about it.
I'm not strictly germ-related, but germs are a BIG worry to me.
I have to check i've turned the boiler off at least 3 times (because once i left it on and then was told i nearly burned the house down :-( )
Locking doors is also a bit confusing because i can't tell if i've locked it and i have to unlock then lock again.
I don't really know how to control the times i wake up 'cos sometimes i can't sleep.
when i was younger i tried to take an even number of steps because i was worried i'd wear out one leg more than the other etc. Cracks in pavements didn't really bother me. But the vinyl flooring (because it's easier to keep clean than carpet) in my bedroom has a sequence of coloured squares, but i keep staring at it and can't find a pattern to it. that's becoming quite annoying.
Also through an over-active imagination i get really worried that my friends have got home okay incase anything bad happens to them on thier journey. I thought it was just sincerity and that i really cared about them (and i do) but now i'm also thinking that perhaps it's just OCD.
The only shows i've seen with people who have OCD is 'Monk' and 'Scrubs'. What other shows are there?
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when i was younger i tried to take an even number of steps because i was worried i'd wear out one leg more than the other
I used to do exactly that, and now I still try to step on the same number of dark and light paving slabs with each foot. I've managed to stop doing the hopping thing though, where I would hop on one leg to make up the right numbers.
I don't think I've really got OCD but if it's a sliding scale, I'm higher up it than I'd like to be. Particularly with the germs thing. In fact I'm off school today because I'm feeling a bit queasy and I know I will not be able to go into the school toilets if I'm feeling sick. In fact it would probably make me sick.
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I must have OCD too because you described what I used to do as a child; In fact, that and combined with my sleepwalking rewarded me to a trip to the doctor ala brain wave tests... They said I was "normal" although the next day I was throwing toys at other kids, man I think I was just :evil:
The only shows i've seen with people who have OCD is 'Monk' and 'Scrubs'. What other shows are there?
As far as shows go, it was one of those documentaries, "I have OCD" type they have on Discovery channel... or used too... Discovery Health has similar programming... They went inside the life of a married couple whose husband had OCD and did everything in routine... if he messed up he would do it again regardless of time...or something...
That said Monk and Scrubs are awesome shows....
And I agree with Barmy that OCD is probably a sliding scale...
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I'm diagnosed OCD, panic disorder and depression. Whee!
Basically, from the research I've done (medical obsessions are a bitch...I used to read medical books obsessively as a kid to make sure I wasn't coming down with a life-threatening disease) I've learned several main points that have not been discussed here:
* To be diagnosed with OCD, the obsessions and/or compulsions need to significantly interfere with your daily life. Most places I've read have cited this as >1 hour per day. Basically, if it's stopping you from completing the major tasks and interactions of the day, it's probably something you should talk to a psychiatrist about.
* You can have Pure Obsessional OCD, Pure Compulsive OCD, or a combination of Obsessional/Compulsive.
* To the person who posted about being diagnosed at age 7 after several strep infections, this is something called P.A.N.D.A.S (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal infections). You can get OCD from having too many strep throat infections. Weird, huh?
* Monk is a pretty severe example, but he seems pretty accurate.
* There are several different categories of compulsions; most people with OCD fit into multiple.
* Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is different from Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder. People with OCD realize that what they are doing is irrational, but they can't stop themselves from doing it (at least without significant anxiety.) People with OCPD don't realize that what they are doing is irrational. They think it's weird that YOU think it's weird that they spend fifteen minutes making sure that all the chairs are properly lined up.
* People with OCD aren't going to kill you in your sleep! I had a friend who used to joke about this, lumping me in with those who have severe psychotic or delusional issues that may cause them to commit heinous crimes against their fellow man. Just because someone has OCD (and therefore an often-visible sign of "being crazy") does NOT mean that they are unaware of their surroundings or the way they interact with people. :-/
There were more things I wanted to say, but I can't remember them. However, I will leave you two funny stories about my OCD...
* Two Septembers ago, I had just been diagnosed with OCD and was in the process of trying out different treatment options, etc. I was frustrated that I wasn't making any progress, so I decided to try and take things into my own hands. What did this translate to? Disorganizing my closet. I had a VERY rigid system for ordering my clothes (it would take about 10 minutes to explain this system, no joke.) I spent a good half an hour yanking hangered clothes out of my closet, shoving hangered clothes over, and reinserting the clothing item in it's new, disorganized location. My roommate (who, by the way, had only known me for about 2 weeks at this point) sat on her bed and laughed her @$$ off at me. When it was done, I sat on my bed and tried to do homework...I had to shut the closet door in an effort to stop myself from going over there and reorganizing it again :-P
* I have an issue with stepping on cracks. However, this was later that year, and my treatment was starting to work...I was feeling great. My roommate (same one!) and I were walking down the hill to our dorm room, and I was jumping around and being silly. I decided to prove to her that I could step on cracks now, and that my treatment was working! I started jumping on every crack I could find - jump, jump, jump - and she was laughing. Then, I take a really big leap onto the crack that divided the sidewalk and the grass. Unbeknownst to me, the sidewalk was about 2" higher than the ground, so I fell and rolled down the hill, giving myself a nasty gash on the knee in the process. To this day, this event is known as "Bridget's Great Crack Fiasco". :-P
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can't. stop. squeezing. pores. and. popping. zits.
on myself or anyone else that lets me. it was getting pretty bad for a while but i've been able to curb it by keeping mirrors is hard to reach places, or dim lighting, as well as arguments with my current bf, and it has since calmed down to where it doesn't interfere with life (or more specifically, conversation. i'd be paying more attention to a black head on someone's face than what they were saying to me, and out of nowhere ask "can i squeeze that?")
at its worst i felt like i was going to go crazy and feel physically ill if i didn't squeeze the offending pore or zit. there's also something erotic to it that i can't really explain, but it definetly never translated into some wierd fetish or anything. i just felt as ease and more intimate doing so, so it became an obsession to find people willing to let me pop them. also at its worst, i stayed in a not-so-beneficial relationship mainly because that person let me pop their pores. i would be more excited to see what new black heads this person had than actually seeing him... so yeah, it was pretty bad.
i still love to do it, and my current bf lets me pop him, and it is regulated so that my pincer-like fingers dont get too squeeze-happy.
and yes, i visit that zit fetish blog on LJ. afjsldkjflkajsdf :lol:
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it takes me about 5 minutes to set the alarm clock every night because 1 time it didn't go off. so i have to make sure that my phone is charging (i use cell phone for alarm) that the alarm is on, and that it's on for the correct time, then i gotta make sure its not set on vibrate... yea and if i don't do it i can't fall asleep :|
also at the helpdesk i work at we have to sign off our phones, one day i didnt sign off for the weekend. so now i have to say "sign off" about 37 times out loud while signing on and off before i can leave for the day without thinking about it.
once i start cleaning, i cannot stop. i mean that literally when i used to live with my parents, i would start cleaning my room and i would wind up cleaning the whole house. when i do it at my house now where i live with 3 roomies i have to distract myself with some other activity after i finish cleaning my room so that i don't start cleaning our townhouse.
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I don't know anything about OCD except what I've read in this thread, but there's a book that I think people here would enjoy - The Pleasure of my Company (http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-My-Company-Novel/dp/0786888016/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-7687449-5934832?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182528287&sr=1-1), by Steve Martin. Yes, that's Steve Martin the comedian, but don't let that turn you off. The book is not wild, wacky, or crude - it's very well-written.
The main character is a mathematical savant with OCD issues. For instance, the wattage of lights that are turned on in his apartment has to add up to 1,125. If he turns off a light in one room he has to turn on a light in another room to maintain the balance. Also, he can't step off a curb, he can only cross a street where there are symmetrically opposed driveways on either side of the road. Later, when he goes jogging with a neighbor, he has to step off a curb and it's a big deal. He doesn't want to embarass himself and manages to do it by following his neighbor, maybe imagining that his neighbor temporarily broke through the barrier. That's why I say it's a good book - who would imagine that I'd be riveted by reading three pages about a guy psyching himself up to step off a curb?
So it seems like the depiction of OCD in the book is pretty feasbile.
One question though, can people with OCD be "triggered" into adopting compulsions that they hear or read about? I'm guessing the answer is "no," or else this thread wouldn't have very many replies.
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Okay...here's a question. As a person who is woefully un-educated about such things as OCD (other than a discussion about it in Psychology class at college), is it possible that it can be triggered by other people's actions or by the way they were raised?
I ask that because of Hannelore's reaction to her mother's impending visit. Is Hanners the way she is because of her mother, or because of something specifically in Hanner's mental make-up, and nothing to do with her mom?
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I used to have fairly bad OCD, but now with the help of my friends it's just turned into a mild anxiety disorder. I can really identify with hanners and I'm glad she's in the strip.
I have piercings, and I smoke. Smoking helps calm me down. I know it's not the best thing to do but like Faye I'd rather smoke, or in Faye's case drink, then be on an RX for the rest of my life.
I used to have to stack thing before I ate them, and the kitchen would always have to be clean (just giving some examples). I didn't realize how bad I had some of these things until I was washing dishes at every friend's house I went to, or that I was stacking animal crackers by shape...and yet I I mix together food before I eat it and don't have a problem with that? Contradictions are just part of life, i think. It's being a person, not someone you laugh at on television.
I also have a mild panic attack when I have to go into someplace new, or meet people I haven't met before.
...yeah...this whole long post was simply 'I don't care if hanners is textbook OCD or whatevs, I'm just glad she's around'. It makes me laugh and feel better about my own problems.
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i have depression, PD and anxiety disorder.
the anxiety comes and goes over the course of a day (but can at times nearly overwhelm me for weeks at a time), tho.
good thing, too, cos otherwise i wouldn't be able to sing and play music for ppl or do my dayjob/career-that-i-hate!
i know ALOT of ppl in both the entertainment (performers even) and IT fields who can barely even talk on a telephone, ppl you would never know had anything going on cos they seem so together when you walk up to them...but you get to know them and discover they're loaded down with all sorts of stuff.
you can't really tell what's going on under the hood with ppl just by looking at them on the surface.
myself, i can go from interacting with a clamouring crowd of ppl or an angry customer in a calm and friendly manner to practically curling up in fetal position and chewing my hands bloody within the space of a few minutes.
panic attacks are far worse for me.
i don't know if i could cope with OCD, but anyone who can get through a day with that in their life has both my sympathy and respect.
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i think something else about OCD that has been inadequately mentioned is how close it ties with anxiety disorders. most of us with just quirks, it annoys us if we can't do whatever it is, maybe even worry a little, but with OCD it's blown completely out of proportion. lots of people with OCD also think that they have much more control over the world than they actually do; not checking the stove 20 times might cause the entire world to end. (and lots of people really believe that. and holding millions of lives in your hands, who wouldn't be worried?)
having said that, it can also work in reverse. i have horrible, awful anxiety. (and for the record, i've had it as long as i can remember. if my parents would have admitted i had a problem, i should have been in therapy since i was six or so.) without my meds, i can't go out into public, i can barely post online. i become destructive and alone and in a constant state of panic. now, with my meds, i keep it mostly under control. however, i have traded that anxiety for another, which is a common side effect of anti-anxiety meds. i have "OCD tendencies due to severe anxiety", quote from my therapist. instead of having a meltdown whenever i come into contact with another person, i just have to arrange things and do some things a certain way. i'm completely fine with this.
also, someone mentioned OCD having close ties with Asperger's / Autism. not all autism-spectrum people have OCD tendencies, but most of them have an intense desire to do whatever needs to be EXACTLY as they want it to. this blows everyone's regular quirks out of proportion. if it looks slightly better even, then it absolutely must be even.
i speak mostly in generalizations, but, yeah. it's true. OCD is awful. and i love Hanners. <3
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Anxiety and OCD are linked for a lot of people. I started having panic attacks (which have gotten increasingly worse over the years) because of the anxiety caused by my OCD. They can trigger from non-OCD-problematic circumstances, but that's a major reason they came into play in the first place.
As for the autism/asperger's link, I'm an Education major (going to be an English teacher, woo) and I had to take a class about special education as part of my program. My professor told me that OCD, as far as special education is concerned, is classified as "high functioning autism" because of the rigidity of routines and the distress caused by not following them. Now, lots of people with OCD can function in a normal school/work environment, they'll have their quirks but they can function. Only if someone had OCD so badly that they would have trouble with the everyday classroom tasks (completing assignments and tests, doing in-class work, completing projects, walking from class to class with everybody else, etc) might they have a full special education program (called an IEP, if you care) written up for them. Generally, though, I think these plans would be in conjunction with the therapy they are already having (it wouldn't isolate them from the things that bothered them forever; it would be gradually adding them back so that the patient could eventually lead some semblance of a "normal" life.
So, rambling about special ed = super cool, apparently. But yes, I agree with you, vunja...OCD suxxors and Hanners is awesome. :-) And well said, RefD. Sometimes the person who seems the most pulled-together can be dealing with a lot more than you know.
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I agree with DM almost everyone has OC Traits it is the brains way to understand the world even if we dont understand it everyone makes patterns and has a need for symmitry or asymitry based on the type of person you are. Just because i have to type a sentence out as is would say it regardless of grammer dosent mean i have ODC. I just cant read anythin i wright if it isnt how i would say it. This lead to alot of problems in school but i cant make sence of my wrighting if i get the grammer just riight. I just wanted to drop that in and see what you thought.
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I've had mild OCD for my whole life, and have plenty of contradictory behaviors. Some days it's not even noticeable, and other days I'll waste massive amounts of time on the most trivial things. I can usually function at 100%, but when nothing important is going on, it'll take a whole hour to square up and space every single thing on my desk. Sometimes I wash my hands every half-hour, but other days I can pick up change off of the ground without the slightest thought to sanitation. Once again, "C" does NOT stand for consistent.
Also, obsessions are often entirely contextual; if you view an object, say, for instance, sunglasses, simply as a random, meaningless object, you can entirely ignore the fact that those glasses are not just an article of dirty clothing, but also belong to the disgusting Natasha.
This is just my experience.
[Keep in mind that Hanners is a fictional character.]
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I want to think I have OCD but I'm not quite sure about it. It's more just everytime I clean myself I have to do the bathing motions in multiples of three, or start over the whole process. ie: I'm taking a shower so I have to wash my hair nine times, then my arm nine times, so on and so forth. Same with cleaning my hands. I also have a big problem with certain substances landing on me. I especially despise ketchup getting on my bare skin. If it does I'll probably have an anxiety attack until I can find my way to a bathroom and wash my hands.
To a lesser extent, I sometimes get weirded out about how things are arranged and will occasionally go ballistic on my room and reorganize everything for no reason in particular.
Also if I'm having an anxiety attack caused by the things mentioned above it helps me to calm down until a more permanent solution is resolved by tapping on things in multiples of three.
Jeeze Louise I'm retarded.
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Some compulsions make sense and some don't. I yell or swear when an embarrassing though enters my mind. That in itself can cause an embarrassing moment in a public place. But it makes some sense. It's a way to get the thought out of my mind quickly.
I saw this on the first page of this topic and immediately felt like I needed to post a reply. I have a few compulsive quirks, but my one genuine obsession-compulsion is that I can't embarrass myself, think about embarrassing myself, or watch someone else being embarrassed. It gets to the point where, if I'm watching a TV show and a character says something stupid, I cover my face with a pillow for the rest of the hour or just run out of the room. I distinctly remember watching comedies as a kid and rolling around on the carpet muttering to myself because I couldn't deal with it. It makes movie-watching with friends awkward sometimes. xD I've been writing since I knew how, and drawing, too, so looking back at old pieces of work amplifies the usual "artist's shame" to, literally, curl-up-and-shiver proportions. That one makes sorting through old note/sketchbooks a bit troublesome - it's on my mind because I just had to do some of that today. Bleh.
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I yell or swear when an embarrassing though enters my mind. That in itself can cause an embarrassing moment in a public place. But it makes some sense. It's a way to get the thought out of my mind quickly.
Thought I was the only one who did that, feels good to know im not alone. It still sucks knowing that at any moment I could start swearing like a drunken sailor with tourets syndrome who just stubbed his toe, but I still feel better thanks for shareing
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I have a few compulsive quirks, but my one genuine obsession-compulsion is that I can't embarrass myself, think about embarrassing myself, or watch someone else being embarrassed. It gets to the point where, if I'm watching a TV show and a character says something stupid, I cover my face with a pillow for the rest of the hour or just run out of the room. I distinctly remember watching comedies as a kid and rolling around on the carpet muttering to myself because I couldn't deal with it. It makes movie-watching with friends awkward sometimes. xD I've been writing since I knew how, and drawing, too, so looking back at old pieces of work amplifies the usual "artist's shame" to, literally, curl-up-and-shiver proportions. That one makes sorting through old note/sketchbooks a bit troublesome - it's on my mind because I just had to do some of that today. Bleh.
wow, this totally sounds like me!
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So, I've been meaning to check these forums to see if anyone had posted about Hanners and I'm not surprised to find how long this thread is ;)
I previously had a minor case of OCD (to the point where my therapist actually had to check the criteria to be sure it needed to be treated) which was diagnosed while I was recieving treatment for another mental illness. I'm glad a lot of people have covered the difference between OC behaviour and actual OCD, because I wouldn't want anyone turning into a hypochondriac for no real reason ;) Unless it causes you significant distress, you're not unwell. Just a little obsessive. Or compulsive :)
Some of the stuff here is unfortunately very familiar, and I'm glad to hear most of you deal with it fine. (needing numbers and repeated actions to add up to a multiple of 2 or 5, avoiding cracks or differently coloured tiles or bricks when walking, making things "match the pattern", obsessive cleanliness, inability to deal with embarrassment, (I hadn't even realised that was a compulsion until now! fortunately it's reigned along with the others) repeated pressing of buttons and flicking of switches, the obsessive need to make sure things don't fail "Is the remote really switched to TV?" "Did I sign out properly?", etc...) From what I remember, if you're actually suffering from the disorder, you're unlikely to just have one isolated obsession or compulsion.
What struck me about the depiction of Hanners is that recently she's begun to say she enjoys those activities. That's not exactly OCD as the whole reason it's a disorder is the anxiety caused by not wanting to trip your obsessions or compulsions. Other than that though, she's been a really good example of OCD and I'm always glad to see mental illnesses portrayed faithfully, not the least because it raises awareness. (Although OCD and depression usually get the most exposure, hopefully this will make people more aware of mental illness in general :) ) Hopefully you'll also consider the fact that some of you can recognise similar behaviour in yourselves without counting as having the disorder as evidence that those of us dealing with mental illness really aren't that different. :)
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I know that I'm not OCD by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just a little... weird.
It's really funny how tons of people seem to have the treading-on-cracks thing. I knew I wasn't the only one but I didn't know it was so common!
But then I also have a thing where I have to sleep with my blanket covering my head otherwise I feel like someone is going to stab me in the head or something. I keep telling myself that a blanket isn't going to provide much protection if someone IS going to try to kill me in my sleep but that doesn't really work. Oh well...
I also have the other common obsession (or is it a compulsion?) where if I touch one side of my face or something, I have to touch the other side as well.
I breathe funniily, too. Sometimes I breathe in time to a song that's in my head or if I breathe in, I have to breathe out the same amount of air. I don't even notice I'm doing it until suddenly I listen to myself breathing.
Also, I'm not sure if this counts as an obsession, but I also have to tuck my hair behind my ear all the time. I physically can't stop myself from doing it, even when my hair is tied back. Then when I untuck my hair again, because it looks better when it's loose, I immediately have to tuck it back behind my ear.
God, it's strange that I never thought I had that many quirks, but when I write them all down, it sounds like I have mild OCD (I don't; when I was about 8 I constantly washed my hands, but I've grown out of that).
Still, it's good to know that so many people have the same obsessions (or compulsions? Not sure which.) as me!
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I'll just go with the throwing tomatoes option :-D :-P
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It's oddly relieving to read so many other people's quirks. I wouldn't say I have bad OCD, but I definitely get bad cases of it when I'm stressed.
Holidays are horrible. I clean to gain control. Hell, there've been a few times where my mother deliberately upset me to set off a cleaning binge. Gah... those were pleasant. In regular life, if I start to feel out of control, if I start to worry or stress, I rearrange furniture. One week last year I completely rearranged my bedroom five times. My roommates didn't complain until I completely rearranged the common furniture.
At work, I cannot work until I get my desk into my pattern. I share a desk with two other people, so when I'm not there, they use the desk and usually leave it however they feel. I can't handle that. Whenever I get there after they've used my desk I have to clear the desk and start fresh. I file their things, I toss their trash, I wipe the desk with antibacterial cleaner, I spray the keyboard with canned air and then wipe the desk again, and then wipe the keyboard and mouse down, as well as the phone. At that point, I start setting up my pattern. I pull out my pen, my note pad, my files, and set them in their proper places. It completely freaks me out when someone uses my pen and puts it away incorrectly. I'm sure they use it when I'm not there, but I know when they put it away in the wrong spot. If I find my pen, or god help me, my files, in the incorrect location I have to disinfect them and then figure out who used them. Not so much the pen, but the files... I track down who used them, why, and make sure they know where the files belong. The worst thing is when someone takes my pen. Think Office Space and the red stapler. At the end of the day I put everything away in its proper space and do my best to make sure that the station is clean and ready for whomever uses it next.
Today, that general office need for order extended to our supply closet. I spent about two hours reorganizing a three by three room. I moved 70% of the things in the closet, wiped 90% of them down with disinfecting wipes, and removed and trashed about 20% of the things. It all started because someone left a box of pens in the wrong spot, which lead me to putting them in their proper location, where someone had misplaced felt tip pens, whose proper location was taken up by highlighters... and it went on. There are twelve shelves in our closet, I ended up relabeling most of them.
Gah... thinking about it now, and it looks crazy from the outside... let's just hope my supervisor likes the changes I made.
Anyhoo... I'm done rambling now about my crazy tendencies. Thank you all for sharing yours... it helped me. :)
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It's interesting that someone drew a correlation between Asperger's Syndrome/Autism and OCD. I'm diagnosed Asperger's (albeit very, very mild), and have always demonstrated obsessive and compulsive tendencies. I always just chalked it up to being highly neurotic. I might even have OCD, I don't know. However, since everyone else is sharing their quirks, I may as well.
I demonstrate certain compulsions, such as constantly checking the locks (This is the one; I'm constantly checking the doors and windows, and even the vents, to see if a thief or assailant could get in, to the point where it often keeps me up at nights; More on this below), and checking the burners. I crack my fingers constantly, have to have the lights at a certain brightness level, I bite my nails ridiculously short, at first signs of the slightest growth (and violently, vigorously attack hangnails), and I organize relentlessly.
My organization has been a bit of a problem. It only manifests in certain situations, usually revolving around entertainment, such as books, movies, and games. My desk is an absolute mess, but my video games and books are organized alphabetically by author/director/developer, and alphabetically by title, unless it's a series, which the series title is filed alphabetically, and the individual books/games/movies are organized by chronology of events (The Kingdom Under Fire games really threw me a loop; I traded them in without hardly playing them as a result), and all discs have to be rotated to the proper position (Text has to be upright). This pisses the hell out of roommates, as I'll refile their games and such, but it bothers me greatly when they aren't organized just so. However, that's the easy part to deal with. Whenever I go into a store's Electronics or Books section, I have to reorganize their products. I have to make sure every CD is level with every other CD, they're all pushed against the back of the case or hook, and alphabetized. This actually got me in trouble when I worked for Walmart, as they have a specific "zoning" system, which inconveniently requires everything to be pulled forward on shelves and and hangers. Blech.
The compulsions are fairly mild. With the exception of causing problems at work (I've mostly worked retail; See my comment on Walmart, as it goes for a decent few chains), it hasn't really affected my life very negatively, save for a few bloody cuticles and pissed off roommates. In fact, I can name one situation where the organizational compulsion helped; I once worked a temp receptionist gig at a place that had me reorganize their files. They loved my work. The real problems that I've had are the obsessions. See, I can deal with just the compulsions, but when I get obsessed, it usually revolves around a paranoid fantasy which makes me question whether it's not something a bit more serious than just OCD or Asperger's.
The first one I remember was The Dog. I once had a daydream as a child that a hulking, growling, slavering, beast of a Pomeranian was gonna break through my second story window and eat me. Typical childish nightmare, right? Nope. This fecking Living Monolith of a rat-dog stayed with me for six years, until we moved. Every night, Dad had to check to make sure the blinds were down and the curtains drawn, so the damned creature couldn't see me. I realized it was completely ridiculous, but it still kept me up nights.
After we moved, I was fine for a few years, save for the one obsession that never passed, an insane, crippling obsession with looking for signs of rejection and affront, that dominates my days, keeps me up nights, and has led to homelessness, job abandonment, and abandonment of friends and family (All based on paranoid delusions regarding each situation). However, I have my own suspicions regarding that, and very few of them have to with OCD. That's always been there, ever since I was a toddler. I didn't get my next real "obsession" until I was thirteen or so. That was when I played Resident Evil 2. Zombies were everywhere for two years, and I had to barricade my bedroom door and draw the blinds, and get up and check them every so often. I got over that one, and a new one crops up all the time, with each year or two usually yielding a new obsessive fantasy. Most of which revolve around locking and barricading my door and keeping the blinds and curtains drawn.
I don't know if it's OCD or OC quirks, or some other variety of fecked-up, or a mixture of any two of the aforementioned, but I figured I'd bring it up, since I completely relate to Hannelore.
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My twitch is when people refer to obsessive or compulsive tendencies as OCD. OCD stands for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It is a psychological disorder that was actually quite adequately defined earlier on in this thread. OCD should not be used as in the sentence: "Oh man, I am so OCD about my socks, they have to be organized in just this way."
For those of you who truly have to live with the disorder, my sympathies.
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I am rather late in approaching this thread (as per usual as I have only been actively posting for two days), but I just wanted to say that I am really glad that someone actually decided to discuss this topic, and that there have been many helpful posts to broaden the general understanding of the condition. Hanners is rad. I was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder at 12, and currently I smoke as well as have piercings and a tattoo. OCD manifests itself in many ways, and different people have different methods of dealing with it. I do like that Hanners does seem to be pretty consistent...at least I can identify with her.
As The EternalNOOb pointed out, it is kind of funny how many people think they have obsessive compulsive disorder based off of certain quirks they have in their daily behavior. In my experience, everyone has some vaguely obsessive behaviors. The point in which it becomes OCD is when you feel like you can't control it and it is enough to completely hinder your ability to function (for example, my family came home from a trip and my sister threw her dirty clothes in the laundry room without sorting them or putting them in hampers. I went into my room and passed out from exhaustion, but shortly afterward woke from a dead sleep in a panic because I realized subconsciously what had happened. I couldn't go back to sleep until I had done all of the laundry because it bothered me so badly. In case you hadn't noticed, I am big on organization, and that everything has a place and it should go there dangit!) I find it to be rather difficult to try and explain the disorder when so many people have a rather off-kilter version of the disorder stuck in their minds.
Anyway, I do agree that Hanners is fairly consistent with the reality of the disorder. She has he quirks, and I love her for them. :)
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I'm late to thread, too, as Trillian said - I finally made an account yesterday, after reading QC for over a year and sometimes stalking the forum.
Anyway, I agree with Trillian and Eternaln00b's posts - tendencies =///= OCD. I don't know anybody with serious OCD, but a lot of people I closely know do have some kind of compulsive/obsessive behavior.
Actually, I have a lot of compulsive behaviors. It doesn't affect my life (except for people staring/calling me weird), and it doesn't actually take up any time from my day, so it's not really OCD. Still, I feel really unbalanced if I don't follow them.
Does anyone else have a need to feel balanced, whether you have OCD or just an odd tendency? That's my main problem, though it really doesn't bother me. It's just little things like having to shut both doors of a cabinet or fridge at the same time. Or, I have to make sure my feet walk the same way. If one foot skids across the ground or slips, I have to do the same with the other foot. If one foot touches the ground toe first instead of heel first, I have to touch the ground toe-first with the other foot. It especially applies to cracks, where if my heel touches a crack, I have to touch the next crack with the heel of my other foot, but if I touch the crack with a different part of my foot, then I have to touch it with the other part on the first foot. And it goes on. Extremely confusing, but I do that most of the time. If I'm focused on something, I usually don't pay attention to the cracks or my feet, and I don't go back to correct how I step if I get to where I'm going, so it doesn't take up extra time. It's just kind of odd.
Oh, and if I turn in a circle, I have to turn back around the other way. Like when going up multiple flights of stairs, you're eventually turning in circles, so I turn the other way around after finishing a flight of stairs. Or when getting into a car, if sitting down would cause a circle, I'd have to turn around, and THEN sit down. Does that make sense to people? This is the only time that people actually notice anything, actually.
But, it doesn't bother me at all, and they don't take up any time. So it's really not a disorder because it doesn't actually cause any problems or anxiety. All it does is make me feel unbalanced or awkward for a couple of minutes, or until something grabs my attention. They're just very weird tendencies I have, and I've heard that they're a common compulsion for people who seriously have OCD. In the end, I'd rather keep my odd ways of doing these things, hahah. For those of you who seriously have a disorder, good luck to you.
But then I also have a thing where I have to sleep with my blanket covering my head otherwise I feel like someone is going to stab me in the head or something. I keep telling myself that a blanket isn't going to provide much protection if someone IS going to try to kill me in my sleep but that doesn't really work. Oh well...
I also have the other common obsession (or is it a compulsion?) where if I touch one side of my face or something, I have to touch the other side as well.
I breathe funniily, too. Sometimes I breathe in time to a song that's in my head or if I breathe in, I have to breathe out the same amount of air. I don't even notice I'm doing it until suddenly I listen to myself breathing.
Hey, I do those same things, too. I taught myself some weird ways of sleeping when I was a kid, and now I can't change them. No matter how hot it is, I REQUIRE having a blanket covering me, and my feet MUST be entirely covered. Otherwise I get that same "someone is going to kill me in my sleep" thing. Uncovered feet = death? Hahah. Kind of weird.
And... Hanners is awesome.
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Some compulsions make sense and some don't. I yell or swear when an embarrassing though enters my mind. That in itself can cause an embarrassing moment in a public place. But it makes some sense. It's a way to get the thought out of my mind quickly.
I saw this on the first page of this topic and immediately felt like I needed to post a reply. I have a few compulsive quirks, but my one genuine obsession-compulsion is that I can't embarrass myself, think about embarrassing myself, or watch someone else being embarrassed. It gets to the point where, if I'm watching a TV show and a character says something stupid, I cover my face with a pillow for the rest of the hour or just run out of the room. I distinctly remember watching comedies as a kid and rolling around on the carpet muttering to myself because I couldn't deal with it. It makes movie-watching with friends awkward sometimes. xD I've been writing since I knew how, and drawing, too, so looking back at old pieces of work amplifies the usual "artist's shame" to, literally, curl-up-and-shiver proportions. That one makes sorting through old note/sketchbooks a bit troublesome - it's on my mind because I just had to do some of that today. Bleh.
I saw this thread and just had to post. I know I'm not OCD, I won't even start to say that I am, but I definitely have an obsessive personality. I do the above as well, going so far as to turn off the tv when I'm watching my favorite movies, even when I know what's going to happen, I can't STAND to watch people get embarrassed. I can't go back over what I've written without going OMG this is horrible! I had a short story I wrote when I was in 10th grade, my teacher said was the best piece of fiction she'd ever read. I decided to try to type it up and couldn't because I thought it was just so amateur and I didn't know how to fix it. I never thought of it as being apart of my obsessiveness.
So, here's my list of things apart from that:
*I prefer things to be a multiple of 5. Anything ending in 5 or 0 is wonderful, I can divide it with no problems and it just feels more balanced to me.
*I have to break words down into syllables. Syl-lab-bls. They have to have the same number of letters in each syllable that are there.
*I have to force myself not to crunch leaves. I completely want to, and can feel them calling me to be crunched, but I refuse!
*When I do clean (laziness takes over my obsession for order) things have to be lined up JUST RIGHT or I go crazy. But once I use them, meh. No big deal.
*I have crazy thoughts about what it would feel like to stab myself with a knife. Never really felt compelled to do it, but I imagine what the pain would feel like. Sometimes I can almost feel it.
Not so weird after reading other stories about people with obsessions, but I tell you, I lost a lot of friends in school because I would become obsessed with them. My mom thought I was a lesbian for part of my life because of my obsessions over my friends. I've almost got control over that, but it is so...I don't know, I can't even begin to describe it.
It also doesn't take over my life, it's not time consuming so I know I don't have the disorder.
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does anyone here get panick attacks from their ocd? I do and it really sucks. like if theres a door open in school I can't just get up and close it so I just sit and panic until it gets so bad I won't be able to breath.
To top that off my parents don't believe in stuff like Ocd/ panic attacks/add so theres no real way I get any help. they always think I'm faking to get attention :-(
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I think OCD tends to be a trait of intelligent to highly intelligent people. I've observed this in a lot of people. Smart kids do really weird things. I don't consider myself OCD as such, though. I just have my superstitions.
Me, I have issues stepping on cracks because it causes an imbalance in the feelings between my two feet, so I have to step on another to even it out, and so on. When I was little I used to get into pattern fits if I accidently pressed my face to hard, and then had to balance it out, and then had to balance out the "well, that side was first last time so this side is first this time" kind of thing...
I also have to do things in odd numbers, because they seem more balanced that way. I mean, they have the lever in the middle on which to balance, as opposed to empty space. But it even goes out to candy and bubble gum and stuff. Odd numbers are comforting.
But sometimes I purposely deny myself, just to prove I can. So there. *grins*
On a similar note, I was watching Monk last night. Man, that show is excellent.
That was almost scary. The thing about being balanced, with the feelings in the feet? (Or hands, or face, or whatever) I used to have that all the time. Still sometimes, but not so much. Too much feeling in one, needs balenced, but the other foot's feeling is older, blah blah blah. It balances out with time.
I agree, odd numbers are better (again, I like the balance) but even has never bugged me, cause I can still fold it over and have symmetry.
When I work on homework at the kitchen table, I sit at the long side, and I move the chair to the middle, and the second chair behind me so I can concentrate. One behind, one chair on each side. I love symmetry. I totally know what you are talking about here. All done now!
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Golly, this is really interesting!
It sure is!
I am glad that those of you with OCD have been open enough to share your stories, I have found it interesting.
That said, I also agree with Near Lurker. Most of us don't have OCD. We are complex human beings and all have our odd quirks.
However, when quirks become obsessions is when it turns into a mental health issue.
I would also like to know if people who have OCD with a particular thing (counting in thes example) actually like doing the behavior as a job. I would think that if you have an obsession that you are trying to get over, then you wouldn't enjoy doing that obsession as a job. This is all theoretical though and just my mind pondering. I don't think that Jeph should have done it differently, because the fact that she is OCD about counting and has a job counting is entertaining.
Oh, and Hannelore is my absolute favorite character. I am filled with glee everytime Jeph puts up a strip with Hanners in it. If there ever was a QC spinoff, I'd love to see a storyline with Hannelore as the main protaganist. I might have a seizure due to overwhelming levels of awesome, though.
I love Hanners too, although she would have to be a bit more developed for a spinoff storyline to be created for me to be interested.
As with all obsessions/addictions they are only "bad" when they affect your life in a negative way. If obsessively counting stairs as you climb them interferes with your life then you have a problem. If obsessively counting stairs does not interfere with your life then it's just a quirky part of you.
It's a good thing I'm not OCD about spelling because I can't spell worth beans. :)
I agree on 3 accounts. I used to count stairs (even were better) and it didn't disrupt me at all, so I didn't worry about it. Hanners is only awesome because she only appears sometimes. If she was in every comic, she wouldn't be as fun. I can't spell to save my life. Really, spell checker is my best friend. However, I am pretty good about typos.
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Does anyone else have a need to feel balanced, whether you have OCD or just an odd tendency? That's my main problem, though it really doesn't bother me. It's just little things like having to shut both doors of a cabinet or fridge at the same time. Or, I have to make sure my feet walk the same way. If one foot skids across the ground or slips, I have to do the same with the other foot. If one foot touches the ground toe first instead of heel first, I have to touch the ground toe-first with the other foot. It especially applies to cracks, where if my heel touches a crack, I have to touch the next crack with the heel of my other foot, but if I touch the crack with a different part of my foot, then I have to touch it with the other part on the first foot. And it goes on. Extremely confusing, but I do that most of the time. If I'm focused on something, I usually don't pay attention to the cracks or my feet, and I don't go back to correct how I step if I get to where I'm going, so it doesn't take up extra time. It's just kind of odd.
Oh, and if I turn in a circle, I have to turn back around the other way. Like when going up multiple flights of stairs, you're eventually turning in circles, so I turn the other way around after finishing a flight of stairs. Or when getting into a car, if sitting down would cause a circle, I'd have to turn around, and THEN sit down. Does that make sense to people? This is the only time that people actually notice anything, actually.
But, it doesn't bother me at all, and they don't take up any time. So it's really not a disorder because it doesn't actually cause any problems or anxiety. All it does is make me feel unbalanced or awkward for a couple of minutes, or until something grabs my attention. They're just very weird tendencies I have, and I've heard that they're a common compulsion for people who seriously have OCD. In the end, I'd rather keep my odd ways of doing these things, hahah. For those of you who seriously have a disorder, good luck to you.
But then I also have a thing where I have to sleep with my blanket covering my head otherwise I feel like someone is going to stab me in the head or something. I keep telling myself that a blanket isn't going to provide much protection if someone IS going to try to kill me in my sleep but that doesn't really work. Oh well...
I also have the other common obsession (or is it a compulsion?) where if I touch one side of my face or something, I have to touch the other side as well.
I breathe funniily, too. Sometimes I breathe in time to a song that's in my head or if I breathe in, I have to breathe out the same amount of air. I don't even notice I'm doing it until suddenly I listen to myself breathing.
Hey, I do those same things, too. I taught myself some weird ways of sleeping when I was a kid, and now I can't change them. No matter how hot it is, I REQUIRE having a blanket covering me, and my feet MUST be entirely covered. Otherwise I get that same "someone is going to kill me in my sleep" thing. Uncovered feet = death? Hahah. Kind of weird.
I have the same thing with my feet. I was laughed at by my friends so much in high school for that. We took a trip to New York and we walked everywhere. Soo many sidewalk cracks. Or if my hand brushes against a wall, the same part of my hand has to touch the wall again. Everything has to be in even numbers for me. Except in some cases (I haven't been able to tell which cases yet) I can settle on 3 or multiples of 3.
And the circles. Ever since I was about 5 or 6 I always felt like there was a string attached to my back and I couldn't wind it around myself without feeling utterly dreadful about it. I would obsess so much about it. It still do it today, but I hate drawing attention to myself by spinning in circles, so I tend to tense up and kinda of shiver or twitch. The shiver/twitch actually happens whenever I can't make something "feel right." Sometimes it's overwhelming and I'll just sit there, randomly closing my eyes as hard as possible, slight open, immediate close, then shiver. It's really weird. And obnoxious.
I can't sleep if anything below my waist is uncovered or if my back is turned towards the closer edge of the bed. Closet doors have to be shut. And no mirrors can be visible.
Oh, and symmetry. I like to doodle randomly, but every design I don't end up throwing out has to be able to fold over at some point and be identical.
I bite my nails too. If there's any bit of growth, I'll find it and get rid of it. I've done that for as long as I can remember.
*I have crazy thoughts about what it would feel like to stab myself with a knife. Never really felt compelled to do it, but I imagine what the pain would feel like. Sometimes I can almost feel it.
I've been there too. I've actually cut myself before (don't begin lecturing), but not for any over dramatic teenage "I derserve it!!11!" reason. I wanted to know what it felt like. It was equivalent to a cat scratch, but it was killing me to not know what it felt like.
I've never been diagnosed with anything, but then again, my parents still believe I've been putting on an act for my entire life, so I've never been to a therapist or anything.
I'm kinda twitchy right now, so typing is rather difficult. I'll leave my problems at that for now. :-P
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I don't really have OCD but I thought I might as well share my quirks since this is the place.
I constantly make sure my computer is configured the way I like.example: I get angry when someone merely changes my screen alingment. I also hate getting liquids in contact with my skin, I'm agorafobic, I'm always stretching, and I stress all the time. I also have that zit compulsion. I'm trying to stop that.
BTW, Hanners is so cute but I prefer bipolar brunettes, says the scar on my arm.
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This probably wasn't the best thread for a hypochondriac to read. I have never been diagnosed with OCD, and I don't personally believe I have it. However, I do have some rather nagging issues with some things in my life.
When showering I have to do everything in a precise order and rhythm. If I don't then I have to step out of the shower, dry off, and then redo everything in the proper order. If the water pressure isn't strong enough I have to shower until I feel I'm clean enough. If I go a day without showering because I'm sick, I have to do everything twice to get the second layer of dirt and germs off.
If I mispronounce a word I have to repronounce it correctly several times, putting emphasis on the part I mispronounced initially.
If I see anyone crack their knuckles I have to do it too.
I have to balance everything in my life, even my bad habits. When I chew on my lip I have to do it in a number ending in zero or five and once I'm done on one side I have to do the same on the other side.
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If I see anyone crack their knuckles I have to do it too.
Back in high school I broke my wrist jumping over a bush (yes, all teenaged males are retarded. Period). Now, if I move my hand right it goes clickclickclickclick. If I ever have to stop you taking over the world, I know how. Mwa ha ha ha ha ha!
About Hanners' smoking. Any of you ever heard of David Sedaris? He's a humorist with OCD. Every once in a while he feels the compulsive need to touch something. Then he will very, very carefully do so. In one of his books he describes his mother and elementary school teacher bonding over his oddities, describing him with his tongue between his teeth, inching his finger forward until it touches a book. Or taking his shoe off and touching the heel to his forehead. Or touching someone on the back of the head.
In college, Sedaris discovered the joy of cigarettes. Not only is nicotine addictive, but cigarettes defused his OCD. Whenever he felt a compulsion he'd just light up and ahhhhhh.... no more compulsion. Plane rides became torturous for him because... imagine you're sitting in 14f and you just have to touch the back of the head of the fat guy sitting in front and to your left... and you know the only way you're not going to be in an incredibly mortifying situation is if you light up... but you CAN'T because you're on an AIRPLANE.
So I can understand Hanners smoking. It totally chills her out.
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I have a symmetrical form of OCD, not the cleaning form...
When I do things, they need to be even. It's not that it has to be, but it nags me until I make them even. For example, I've hit the spacebar like 50 times with my left thumb so far this post, and I need to press the spacebar that many times with my right thumb in order to feel right. Whenever I touch something with one hand, I try and have the same part of my other hand touch something else.
When I scratch my itchy beard-thing, I have to scratch on both sides simultaneously and symmetrically or else I slowly start twitching.
When walking home from school, I try to take exactly 2 steps on every square -- 1 with my left foot, 1 with my right foot. I try never to step on the lines between them, but if I do, I have to do the same with the other foot.
I always thought I was just insane (well...more insane than I actually am) until I read this thread. I'm not alone!
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I guess everyone has obsessive (or compulsive) quirks. One of my friends, once reaching the bottom of a glass, will refuese to drink the last bit. She doesn't even know why, she just finds it, for want of a better word, icky.
Myself, I'm nowhere near OCD either, but I do have a slight thing with symettry, particularly with my jaw or my arms. My top and bottom teeth don't quite fit together at the back which really annoys me, and if I notice a particularly thick hair on my arm I have to pull it out because it doesn't look right. I also like to line up things with straight sides against the side of the table. Sometimes I'll do it with glasses too, using my finger as a kind of T-square to make sure it's right up against the edge.
Book series and DVD boxsets in particular have to be in the right order, although I like to alphabetise individual things too. Recently I alphabetised my DVD collection for the first time and it felt great, hehe.
I also have a thing about the toilet. If I'm going on a journey of half an hour or more I pretty much always have to go to the toilet beforehand, because there's no toilets in a car or a bus, and what if I have to go while we're driving? It's almost the same with trains - they do have toilets on them but what if I'm in there and I miss my stop?
I'm not really a clean-freak but I do like the kitchen to be in order. I have to stack up plates and saucepans etc. next to the sink if they've been used then left. Also the kitchen cupboard in our house will invariably end up how I like it because it just looks messy to me otherwise.
See what I mean. Everyone has quirks.
In other news: Hanners is really cool. I'm not really up on the ins and outs of OCD but by all accounts Jeph has a provided in Hanners a pretty realistic OCD character.
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I was thinking about this last night after I went to bed. One of my cats stepped on my leg to sleep on my bed (and it turns out, between my knees...wow), and I could feel the same place in my other leg just begging to be stepped on. It was very...disturbing...
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This is a great topic to make my first post in! I really like Hanners, I relate to her because I have mild OCD, and her symptoms are amusing to me because they're real enough to be believable but just exaggerated enough to still be funny. Bravo, Jeph!
Anyway, my little ticks are that if I touch something with one hand, I have to touch it with the other hand because I can put it down or walk away from it. I constantly look at the clock in an attempt to make small math problems out of the numbers by adding signs, parentheses, negatives, or other things like. I'm even making a list. And lastly I can't walk on uneven planes (like slopes, or up/down hills, etc) without getting dizzy and wanting to sit down.
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I am not sure if I am OCD, and I think a lot of people label themselves as such just because it's "cool". Nevertheless, each night before I go to bed, all cupboards and drawers must be shut to their tightest capacity. I can't sleep if I have not touched each cupboard or drawer. I also must check my lock before and after I turn out my light at night.
...now that I type it out it really just seems like a routing to me.
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I've got the same thing as Darcy/Joe who posted here. Everything's got to be even. If I crack my knuckles twice on one hand, has to be the same on the other hand. If I step twice, once with my right and once with my left foot, on a block of cement, I have to do it on the next one exactly the same way. Then it changes from the cement to something else and I get thrown off.
It's become less pronounced recently, or maybe I've just stopped noticing it and it's become normal to me, and to everyone else I look ridiculous doing the piano-tapping thing with my hands.
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Back when I used to play Yugioh, I used to play with those little duel mat things, and I always used to try and get the cards to line up perfectly with the outlines :lol:
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Back when I used to play Yugioh, I used to play with those little duel mat things, and I always used to try and get the cards to line up perfectly with the outlines :lol:
Anything like that bugs the hell out of me. I can NEVER make it perfect, no matter how much patience I have.
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Yeah, whenever I play any game where cards are put on the table, like poker or go fish, they have to be in perfect piles all the time. Hard to do on carpet.
I never did understand Yugioh. They kept releasing the 'ultimate card,' and then a month later there would be a new 'ultimate' card and the old 'ultimate' card wouldn't be special anymore.
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:lol: It was always a weird game. I just love my deck because it has THE best card in it I could possibly want.
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Might want to point out that I have been diagnosed with OCD.
So...yeah. Still not too keen on the whole "psychiatry" thing.
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Good psychiatry is enlisting somebody else to help you with something that you're struggling with.
It doesn't have to be all confrontational and negative, and you're under no obligation to see somebody a second time if you don't feel a connection or rapport with them.
My first therapist took a swing and a miss: I told her I'd just had a heart attack, was on a bunch of new meds, and was feeling depressed, which is not an uncommon post-cardiac-event experience.
"Great, so... tell me about your childhood. Were your parents home a lot? ..."
I'm kinda looking at her like .. "You have got to be kidding me. This isn't childhood trauma, I promise."
I didn't have to go back; I didn't go back.
My second therapist explained it as "Look, you're paying me to help you with whatever it is that you tell me is 'a problem' for you."
Incidentally, he was a psychiatrist with an MD as well as his PhD, not an LMFT. The depression, unsurprisingly, turned out to be a side-effect reaction to one of the cardiac drugs I was on, combined with the sudden face-to-face with mortality and some other things going on in my personal life at the time. Getting off the drug, and dealing with the mortality question got me to a point where I could be productive about the other issues instead of depressed about them.
So, not too related to OCD, but it was a neat example of bad therapy, good therapy, and the fact that the patient is in control, which too often is forgotten in our modern mental image of psychiatry.
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I don't really have OCD but I thought I might as well share my quirks since this is the place.
I constantly make sure my computer is configured the way I like.example: I get angry when someone merely changes my screen alingment. I also hate getting liquids in contact with my skin, I'm agorafobic, I'm always stretching, and I stress all the time. I also have that zit compulsion. I'm trying to stop that.
BTW, Hanners is so cute but I prefer bipolar brunettes, says the scar on my arm.
You Play Kingdom of Loathing?!
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yes, why?
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I have some mild OCD but it's usually only little things that I do. But god help me if I don't do them, like if I'm wearing jelly bracelets I have to be wearing ATLEAST 3 red ones or I feel off balance and I won't be able to use that hand until I take them off. And when cutlery or dishes are in varying sizes I have to put them in either ascending or descending order depending on what day it is. I also can't touch stair railing, which sucks when I'm really sick so if I start passing out(which happens alot because of my disease) I just have to kinda hope a friend is there and doesn't let me fall down the stairs. Which hardly ever happens but I haven't been injured yet so yay I geuss.
But I think it's worse when I sleep walk, I turn everything in my room to an angle(it has to be the same angle) and it only happens when I have my door closed. It used to scare me when I woke up but I figured out it was because the door was closed and started opening it before I went to sleep.
I could probably go on about little things that I do but that would be annoying and I don't like walls of text very much...
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I also have it.... tho extraordinarily week it is....
I order my washing up... and wear my socks properly... I like eTidying my computer files, and when I make stuff it has to be PERFECT....which means i dont make much LOL
Joe
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I have it bad.
But it has almost NOTHING to do with cleanliness. (for me)
Its all about numbers, walking in circles, touching my face, thinking the correct thoughts, doing the right things, self denial, etc.
I think Hanners permanently haggard disorientation is what makes her OCD so perfect.
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I'm not exactly sure if what I do qualifies as an OCD, but my quirk is my bookcases. They aren't in any order other than size, smallest paperback/Left----->Largest hardcovers/right. Genres and authors are all mixed, just arranged by size/width. I didn't do it when I was younger even though I had bookcases, but the more books I managed to get the more the pattern emerged until it annoyed me when I saw them all uneven and close together.
Zeeper Creepers - We all love the Dom. (http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n150/Phishilips/domy1.jpg) And the Rui(Even if its from Hanakimi). (http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n150/Phishilips/GTFO2.jpg)
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@Case, please copy your wonderful first-hand accounts and descriptions here.
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BY ALL THAT IS ONE WITH THE FORCE, TEN YEARS!
Okay, so that pointless exclamation was posted simply so that I can follow this thread.
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Errrhnope - I live with (I refuse to say "I suffer ...") a neurological disorder called ADD ("predominantly inattentive subtype" - though there's controversy about the usefulness of the whole subtype-idea, here I'll use "ADD" as meaning the former, "ADHD" as meaning "predominantly hyperactive/impulsive subtype" and "AD(H)D" when I refer to all three subtypes) since my birth (hence the 'congenital'), and have been wrestling with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) for more than two decades (though it's been a while since I last experienced acute 'Brainlock'; these days it's more like general anxiety and what is called "ruminations" - and with the SNRI's I get for that one, the anxiety is manageable).
ADD is a congenital (neuro-)developmental disorder (language disorders, learning disorders, motor disorders and autism spectrum disorders, ADD/ADHD ...) and people who were born with those specific flavours of borked headmeat are referred to as 'neuroatypical' (as opposed to the 'neurotypical', i.e. the rest of humanity. "Born this way", so to speak ... :-D). Contrary to what many people in the 80s believed (including my family's physician), AD(H)D does not only afflict children - roughly one third of those diagnosed with AD(H)D in childhood "continue to experience significant symptoms into adulthood", and I am part of that third.
OCD, too, can by traced to a dysfunction of a part of the brain called caudate nucleus (in my understanding, the CN is part of the brain's internal 'taskmanager' - the part that adds a "done"-flag to a thought-process. But that's layperson-talk), so all the talk about neurosis notwithstanding, the root of OCD is also organic, i.e. neurological. Furthermore, I vaguely remember reading about speculation that when AD(H)D and OCD appear together, the former sort of 'induces' the latter - makes sense to me, since my most long-lasting intrusive thoughts revolve(d) around functioning and executive functioning, which touches on the areas where I'm "non-standard" -> "Am I even talented enough to understand math?" was a longtime tormentor companion (After the second advanced degree with high honours, it started feeling a little out of place, I guess :evil:), more recently, it's cousin "You really sure there's no sign-change in that exponent? You only checked three times - maybe spend another three weeks checking the whole thing with Mathematica?" is applying for "resident torturer", despite my insistence that the position is no longer available ("Thank the Lord for Serotonine re-uptake inhibitors!")
ADD is basically about focus control : Nothing wrong with my ability to focus - in fact, like many people with ADD, I can access hyperfocus (and with medication, I can 'control' that state ... in the broadest sense of 'control'). The problem of the ADDer is controlling focus - my 'gaspedal' basically only knows the settings 'idle' and 'flank speed ahead' (and 'Are you nuts?', sometimes), and the latter highly depends on factors like 'interest in the topic' and carefully balancing eustress and distress (Trouble is that most employers don't really appreciate 'This stuff is simply too boring for me to perform well' as an explanation for underachievement, even if it's the literal, scientifically proven truth). I'm basically built for "panicked last-minute binge-learning", because anxiety is stimulating, which kicks in the hyperfocus. But that's kinda hit-and-miss, too: Miss the "stress-balance", and instead of "alert & driven, but not yet paralysed by fear", you end up really focussed on how royally screwed you are. That 'system' worked in school and the first semesters of Uni, but brute force sprint-learning simply doesn't cut it past a certain point - not to mention that it's not by any means enjoyable, even for a young person. I used to call that particular semiconscious mindgames-with-myself-but-pretending-not-to-notice "getting before the breaking wave", like a surfer getting into a 'tunnel' - with the implication that you'll be treated to a good trashing at best if you miscalculate and fall behind. There is a theory that AD(H)D might be related to an evolutionary adaptation in hunter-gatherer societies; I get where they're coming from (afaik, lots of folk with ADHD seriously enjoy extreme sports), but that one always felt a little too neat for me - either way, that's about as 'enjoyable' as that strategy of 'freaking yourself out just short of panicking' is: Like hunting a (dangerous) animal. When it works, it's a blast for a few seconds, but the rest of the time, it means constant anxiety to keep the guilt and self-doubt company (Nice to fantasise that my neurology would make me Mr. Big-swinging-cod-Mammoth-hunter in a stone age tribe - trouble is, it's not the Holocene anymore ...).
The only other thing that works longtime is stimulant medication - and tons of therapy for the OCD and the after-effects of decades of guilt, anxiety and crippling self-doubt (One of the nasty things about ADD is that you know that you underperform, but you have no proof in the form of grades, and as much as any parent would like to believe their academically struggling offspring that they're really much smarter than their grades ... which struggling student wouldn't like to believe that they're much smarter than their grades? I have been dismissed by a psychiatrist as "giving myself ideas above my station/intelligence" when I was 12 and seeking help - sadly, that sick asshole is dead, so I can't make him eat a copy of my PhD-evaluation along with his words. Before reporting him to the "Ärtztekammer" ...)
And OCD ... well it's not called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder because it's conducive to a regular and steady working/learning style, know what I mean? The resulting working/learning style I ended up with is ... not really standard. I have to use the tools I was given, I can't simply be someone I'm not. Stimulant medication for ADD doesn't make the ADD go away, it's more that it "makes the ADD go all the way until it works" (that's the way it feels, at least). And I'm still kind of a obsessive/compulsive character, even now that I'm "kindasorta cured".
Part of that strategy is "slow down to go faster" - painful, straightforward working against the disorders (e.g. like forcing myself to "think slowly and step by step" which my ADD-brain isn't really fond of. I've gone as far as making myself copying/extending a lecture in longhand just to force myself to "slow down") and part of it is trying to kind of 'harness' the strengths implicit in the disorders where they're useful: Sticking to rituals e.g. is really soothing, even if they're not the rituals your OCD wants to force you into - like tricking a kid by sweetening medicine that tastes bad. Especially when aided by medication, adhering to step-by-step "slow thinking" and simultaneous documentation has the side-effect that I can keep the whole calculation in my long-term memory (ADD is associated with weakened working memory) - at which point my proneness to associations and intuitive leaps turns from a weakness (association + weak short-term memory => distractability/loosing train of thought) into a strength (creativity, being good at making connections, seeing stuff that others overlook). But I need either medication for that, or meticulous, long-term preparation. I've heard that Actor Jim Caviziel, one of the "no meds, just working out and working through it"-faction, operates in a similar fashion: Meticulous preparation, in all levels of detail. Makes sense to me: I'm really, really bad at prioritizing, but when I 'simply' work through all the details, I have a mental model I can 'walk around in' and my ADD becomes an advantage. Sort of "Your working memory is weak and your shit at realtime prioritizing? That sucks. Here's pen & paper - your long-term memory is perfectly fine, and you don't need to prioritize in real-time if you write it all down". It's a strategy that nobody with a neurotypical brain would even think of trying - but there's tasks where this method not only compensates for the disorders, but actually gives me an edge.