Obsessive Compulsive HABITS, Paranoia or just plain dumbness?

[Renal Shutdown]

Hey

First thing's first..

Now, the reason for that elipse? Simple.  Something bad will happen if I didn't post it.  You see, at four am this morning, I woke up to see a man-sized version of n3tgraph's avatar swing open my bedroom door and tell me that I had to do it.  Yea, so it was a dream, a very odd dream, but a dream none-the-less.

However, knowing it was just a dream doesn't help, and I have the gut instinct that I *need* to post that pic.  If I don't, then I've convinced myself either the Mittens flight will crash or my dog will die.  Now it's posted, both disasters have been averted.  There's no way I want to be responsible for offing Britain's finest (and Farl).

The reason I have this "saving the world by stupidly" thing going on, dates back to the fourth of July, 1999.  Me and two friends were in San Fransisco, on holiday.  Jamiraquoi (spelling's probably way off) played a free concert in Union Square.  Me and a friend bought T-shirts to commemorate the occasions.  Now, I have the paranoia that I *have* to wear it on the fourth of July, every year.  In 2001, I forgot.  A plane crashed.  I blame myself.

This got me thinking, tho.  It's not the only paranoia I have.  For instance, if I touch something with my left hand, I'll have to touch it with my right hand.  Often, this ends in a complicated yet, ultimately symmetrical pattern, with me touching the thing the same amount of times with each hand.  This is dumb, I know, but I feel uneasy if I don't do it.  It the same with spinning around, equal spins clockwise and anti-clockwise/counter-clockwise.

Toilet paper.  Another nightmare, this time involving me using exactly the same amount of sheets each time.  If it rips, I have to throw it away and get a new bit.  I don't know why, maybe I'm scared that my ass my fall off..

And sofas.  If I lay on a sofa, my feet have to be towards the left, and my head on the right.  When I tried it the other way round, I felt nauseous and started to freak out.

I have trouble walking nowadays, not from arthritus or anything valid, but because I'm always looking at the floor to see where I put my feet.  I've been known to walk back down a road, purely to step on a certain paving slab that I felt I had missed earlier.  Since I'm usually nocturnal, I end up walking in the actual roads, just because there's less cracks for me to avoid.

I'm sure I have many others, but off the top of my head, I can't think of them.. but, I am worried.  I'm getting worse.  It's not long before I either turn into the poor man's Howard Hughes, living in a hermetically sealed bubble, where everything is symmetrical..  or in a mental hospital, rocking back and forth, crossing and uncrossing my fingers and toes, worrying that the world will fall apart if I don't do it right.

Also, I've found my mother has a paranoia, walking across certain parts of roads, she'll make sure that both feet touch a certain part of it, otherwise she won't feel comfortable.  She always does it, but has only noticed it recently when I was discussing some of my habits.  When I asked her what would happen if didn't do it next time, she didn't know, but got kinda worried about it.

So, I have two questions.  One, what paranoias/Obsessive Compulsive Habits/whatevers do you have?  I'm pretty sure you have at least one, even if you don't realise it at first..  And two, what do I have to do to get rid of these short of a cocktail of psychiatric counselling and prozac?

Hugs
Iqu

Fear not Mittens people, thx to the "green elipse at jaunty angle" you journey will be safe.

[Squinky]

I used to do this thing where I had to check a locked door about ten times, then it turned into doing this with both hands, and as time went on I felt I had to jiggle that knob more and more times...

Same thing with alarm clocks, I checked it so much it was ridiculous, and I always worried it was set wrong and I would miss work....I did other things like this too, but I can't remember them. needless to say I've always been a "double-checker" at least...

One day, I decided I needed to stop, because I knew the door was locked and the alarm was set. It really bothered me, and there were some nights I couldn't sleep, but I'm used to it now....

Weird huh?

[Robert Eric]

Same here.  I never step on cracks and avoid coming into contact with people in public places.  I also sit on my couch listening to the door and the windows wondering what the hell those sounds are.  They're coming for me, I swear.  One of them is going to stumble out drunk and out of control with a gun or knife or something.  Then, I have to know exactly  where my cat is at all times and what she is doing.  Each drink that I drink is lined up in my pantry according to date, size, and the particular kind of drink.  The have to be cleaned first.  My house needs to be cold at all times.  I will not allow the temperature to reach over 50.  Whenever I step on the floorboards, I just know that one more step will end up with me falling through the floor and into the downstairs tenent's bathtub.  And woman.  I hate it when they touch my things.  They get it out of place and then I have to put it back in the right spot.  My alarm clock MUST be ten minutes fast, or I will have lost precious time.  I keep a tarp over my car so no birds can shit on it.  If I had my shotgun, I'd blast those winged freaks out of the sky.  They wait until you're away, the spew their white showers onto your prized beauty.  And those drunks can't fucking drive at all.  They swerve down the road and speed out of their driveways and I just know that one day they will hit my house.  Everything in my dresser is neatly organized.  Shirts, shorts, pants, socks, etc..  Nothing can be out of place.

Sorry.  I guess I got out of hand a bit...

[evenwolf]

Heh, Robert- some of those are just pet peeves.  I know I have OCD somewhere in my daily routine, but nothing about organization. I'm very unorganized and somewhat trusting, regarding locked doors.

As of late, however, I have had weird routines of going places I don't even need to- simply driving downtown, walking up and down the street where all the people are going into bars,  not go inside any of them, and then drive to a super market, walk the whole store 8 times and buy nothing, and then go to a coffee shop and not talk to anyone.   I find this routine more preferred to my old one of staying inside all night.  But this is less of OCD and more likely social anxiety.

[Trapezoid]

That sort of thing I've grown out of... Walking at the mall, I'd always make sure I was stepping inside the square tiles without stepping on the edges. But I managed to notice this and would try to stop, so it eventually went away. Not much, but that sort of thing is just a weird habit. Ever throw away food because someone touched it or something, even though you can't see anything wrong with the food, and know that you won't taste anything wrong? I used to, but I noticed and decided to simply start being more lax about it.
I think it was either Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett who said something along the lines of "The strongest force in the universe is force of habit"... or something. Anyway, I think it's true, and I think it can be used to your advantage. If you're used to one thing, you can get used to something else.

[M]

I used to do this thing where I had to check a locked door about ten times, then it turned into doing this with both hands, and as time went on I felt I had to jiggle that knob more and more times..

Yeah, I got the locked door thing. Maybe not 10 tens but I do stand there and jiggle the handle a few times to make sure its locked, then I walk off and wonder if I really did lock it properly. I used to do some other obsessivey-type stuff but I've forgotten them right now.

[Nacho]

Hey! Thanks for posting TEH GREEN ELLIPSE... I am going to take that flight. But, it was necessary to mention your bathroom habits? I have a very good visual imagination, and I´ve imagined a giant pink pirate defecating and counting the sheets of ass paper... wow...

As for my paranoias... I have allways shut up and concentrate during a minute before the whistle sounds in the football matches I play... I look to my rivals and I imagine them as my enemies. I suppose I do it because I play better when I´m in rage. My favourite tactic is to imagine them as the Nazi soccer players in that "Pelé" film.

I allways inflate my tyres before a cycling race... and I allways sprint with the elbows in a very "opened" position (That´s not really a paranoia... It works for avoiding dangerous bike contacts at 60 kms/h.)

As you can see... nothing really serious... Your is worse... You remember me Jack Nicholson in that film with Helen Hunt.

Good luck!

[evenwolf]

You remember me Jack Nicholson in that film with Helen Hunt.

:o :o :o :o

I always doubted, but also always hoped.. that Jack Nicholson would one day join our community here at AGS.  Welcome Jack, feel free to speak as a commoner here- we respect you and shall never exploit your reputation.  By the way, I LOVED you in that movie!  You and that gay guy played off of each other so brilliantly.

[Robert Eric]

And here I was, thinking that JACK was the gay guy.

[Squinky]

Holy crap, Farlander is the waterboy.... and now that M says he did it, I feel a littel better bout myself...Maybe we should create a ags group of all of us with ocd's or whatever you call em, heh...

[Nacho]

Holy crap, Farlander is the waterboy...

Why do you mean by that? As a non native English speaker, there are some sentences I couln´t understand... Well, the human body has 80% of water, but that doesn´t make me being specially waterboy...eeeer... nevermind.

BTW... I would be happy to join the AGS paranoids Club. I have a plenty of rituals before a bicycle race... I could tell to you all guys in the oppening ceremony of the club.

[Renal Shutdown]

Hey, Farl..

I think he likening you to Adam Sandler.  Which isn't exactly a good thing.

The Pelé film: Escape to Victory.
The greatest escape film ever.  It had Bobby Moore, Michael Caine and Sly Stallone in, too.  An unmatchable combination, even today.

The Club.  Count me in.  As long as it's germ free..  and symmetrical.

Hugs
Iqu

[Barcik]

Hmm.. I remember seeing in a show that Howard Stern had a similar problem, and that it isn't physical but phsycological.

[Nacho]

Ahhh! So, I´m Adam Sandler... I know why Squinky said that, yeah, I´ve seen the film... And, yeah, I need to rage for playing better, I´m no offended with that funny comparision  

And, yes, I knew the name of the Pelé´s fim, but I don´t feel very secure when translating the names of the pictures I´ve seen in Spain because sometimes the translations have nothing to see with the original names (For example, Die hard in spanish is "The crystal Jungle", would you understand me if I talk of the Crystal Jungle, lol, I think not...)

BTW... my german teacher told me once... Hey! you´re Simon, the fag!... because of a resemblance he find with Greg Kinnear in As good as it gets... I think this thread is now about three movies...

Escape to victory (crazy guys who preffer to play soccer during 45 min. than freedom)
As Good as it gets (A crazy man who travels with a waitress and a gay)
The Waterboy(A crazy football player).

This i s a very insane thread...

[SSH]

Warning... heavily edited quote

I used to do this thing where I...
both hands...
I had to jiggle that knob more and more times...
there were some nights I couldn't sleep

Most teenage boys have this  

[Paranoia]

I’ll be in the club to, I’m agoraphobic so I might have problems getting to the meetings tho, I can see why Iqu posted the eclipse, 3 times in my otherwise boring life some one has sed “I hope you fall off your bike” 3 times I’ve obliged within 48 hours! One of which I was hit up the ass on a 3 lane motorway and ended up doing  the old ground, sky, ground, sky thing across 3 lanes :'(
the bike's on the road in a few weeks, therapy for the phobia i just hope no one sez....

Paranoia

[Renal Shutdown]

I had to post it.  If I didn't bad things would happen.  I have prevented them.  Lives have been saved.

Yea, if I hadn't posted it things might have been the same, but I'm not reckless and daring enough to test that theory.  Ergo, my mental deficiency has made me a hero.

[TheYak]

I've got a couple peculiarities that fall into the above-mentioned types.  However, I can trace most of them to some point of origin.  For instance, I have a tendancy to eat foots in even bites, evenly distributed between right and left sides.  This began when I was about 6.  I figured that even with brushing and flossing daily your teeth would still rot in the meantime.  So,  I started chewing food primarily on one side, favoring my right side for cavity-prevention.  However, as time went on, I realized that I would look ridiculous with no teeth on one side and a full set of shiny whites on the other.  So, I started making sure I chew the same amount of food on each side.  It's a habit I can't really shake as it's become instinct by now.  

Now both my in-laws actually have forms of OCD.  My father in-law is a compulsive collector that won't allow anything to be thrown away.  He still has advertisements from 1965.  My mother in law is compulsively clean in the kitchen but everywhere else feels the need to prevent any sort of cleanliness.  

At least your not totally alone in your peculiarities.

[Renal Shutdown]

Hm..  Collections.

I've just realised I do the same.  I've never thrown a magazine away, rarely chuck newspapers, have every single toy from when I was a kid (these will *never* leave), have bits of blank paper that used to be receipts about ten years ago but all the ink has faded and keep every bus ticket, cinema ticket and travelcard I've ever used.  I think I've got some other people gave me which were already out of date.

I also have a 5kg bag of pasta a friend won four years ago.  It's use-by-date was 2001.  I'm too scared to chuck it.

I have a broken TV and VCR from the eighties.  I think I even have the keys to the old locks on my old house somewhere.  I have a used lollipop (popsicle) stick collection somewhere, too.  Also, all the schoolwork I've ever done since I was 4.

Hugs
Iqu

[Shattered Sponge]

I think he likening you to Adam Sandler.  Which isn't exactly a good thing.

*mumble*, *mumble*, Punch-Drunk Love, *mumble*, *mumble*.