Your routines that border on superstition/OCD

I don't know where to begin talking about these. I have so so so many.

I crack my knuckles or my neck about once every two or three minutes.

I post on ILX.

I make meta ILX references on ILX.

I tend to actively force myself from falling into these habits.

One real OCD thing I do is click lock on my car keychain at least three times.

I click mine twice. I need to hear the horn honk to know it's locked. I never did this before my car was stolen a couple years ago, though.

As I close the door in the morning when I leave for work, I say to myself, "I am locking the door" and then I hold the key in my hand until I reach the car/train to remind myself, just in case I forgot or start to doubt, that I did indeed lock the door. If I don't do this, I have to go back and check at least once. That's the most normal one.

i check my mailbox a lot, even if i know that the mailperson has already filled the boxes and i didn't get anything.

One real OCD thing I do is click lock on my car keychain at least three times.

Yes! And then once more for good measure.

I count the steps it takes me to walk from the front door of my office building to the bagel shop. 255!

This has actually become really annoying but I can't help it.

I have to pour water into and out of my drinking glass at least twice before I will drink water from it. It's not like I don't rinse thoroughly when I wash the dishes or anything! I still have to do it before I drink.

I don't have to do this with any other liquid - tea or juice or anything - just water.

Short of hand-washing and lock-checking I'm a walking OCD machine. Gives me a fantastic memory. Last week I remembered a 10-digit account number that I never use and isn't even active anymore.

Yeah I do that multiple-rinse thing as well Kate :) For me it's a holdover from science classes where we had the "rinse 3 times" thing drilled into us with beakers and whatnot. For some reason I translated that to the drinking glass.

I never have the TV volume on 13. I always put my left shoe on first. If I spill salt, a bit gets surreptitiously flicked over my left shoulder. I'm not even superstitious really, its weird.

I tend to actively force myself from falling into these habits.

-- Michael White, Tuesday, August 12, 2008 1:39 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Link

As you should do! I resent people who think OCD is cute.

(not directed at this thread!)

Last week I remembered a 10-digit account number that I never use and isn't even active anymore.

How is that an OCD thing?

It's the consequence, not a symptom.

two that have cropped up in the past year or so:

If I go somewhere by one route, I have to return by a different route - I can't retrace my steps (well, physically i can, but it makes me really mentally uncomfortable). I kind of suspect I've been doing this unconsciously for quite a long time and only recently recognised it.
On my way out of the house, I check my bag, and say 'keys money phone', touching each of the three while I say it. I don't have to touch them in the same order as the words, but I have to touch one per word.

I'm pretty disappointed in myself for developing these - the bag thing is I guess kind of useful for not forgetting those three fundamentals, and the never-retracing-steps thing means I sometimes end up finding interesting new places, but I had hoped I'd grown out of all of this stuff.

i do the keys-money-phone "idiot check" every time i leave the apartment, but that's really more of a preventive measure against me being a spaz.

I have to pour water into and out of my drinking glass at least twice before I will drink water from it. It's not like I don't rinse thoroughly when I wash the dishes or anything! I still have to do it before I drink.
i thought this was normal?
i have so many, at work if a blind isn't straight, i have to sort it as it'll annoy me, a lot!

Used to do in high school: add up the numbers in a street address (e.g., 1234=10) and also translate every word I could into trumpet finger positions as best as possible (e.g., the word "age" was (I think) fore and middle finger/open/open).

I don't like to stare at people so sometimes I get flinchy or anxious. I like watching riskay stuff around most people.. my expanded definition of riskay applies to certain situations.

I don't* like watching riskay stuff around most people

or just hearing something that reminds me of something riskay or taboo will make me more flinchy and noticeable of my actions - which doesn't help with the flinchyness

risque

brusque

no "smell yo dick" for mr. lorax then...

Is *that* where it comes from Trayce? My god, you're probably right. I was such a science geek I'm sure I absorbed it without realising where it came from.

For the past six years or so I've been wearing a black sock on my left foot and a white one on the right. It just started because I could never find matching socks and decided that, y'know, fuck it, but now it feels very, very strange not to have it that way.

If I take a drink of water I don't drink right to the bottom of the glass, but pour out the last couple of centimetres, even if I then go on to fill and similarly drink a second glass.

I tap my toothbrush twice on the basin after rinsing it.

you're a really interesting and unique person if you have OCD or just say it's like OCD that's interesting

also interesting when people type I am an X geek or especially I am such an X geek

I don't like watching numbers on LCD clocks click from 2 to 3, or 12 to 13, 22 to 23, etc. I look away while it's still a 2 at the end.

When I make a drink with a teaspoon, I have to tap drips off the teaspoon afterwards, and I have to tap some sort of rhythmic phrase.

As I close the door in the morning when I leave for work, I say to myself, "I am locking the door"

I also try to do this, but half the time I *still* have to go back and check the door because I find that I can't remember if I remembered to remind myself that I locked the door!

I worry about forgetting my keys somewhere ... almost every time I leave my office, even if it's just for a minute, I tap my pocket to hear the sound of the keys inside. In the past few months, I also find myself checking that I still have my keys and cell phone when I get off the train -- even if I never removed them from my bag or pockets at any time. I worry that I might forget to close a zipper on my bag (which actually happens from time to time) and that things will fall out (which has never happened yet, at least to my knowledge).

If I go to lunch at that bakery-deli on Clark St., I always walk along the river to get there and return via Kinzie -- never the other way around, and even though it would arguably be faster to take Kinzie both ways.

I do this too but it's common sense. I know that if I take a short cut, I'll be there later. How so? Cause I'm a complete moron when it comes to orientation. I'm deadsure that with the TomTom in my car, I'll get lost. It's crazy. :-(

I have OCD but I suppress it slightly. :-( When I was single I had OCD with even organizing my day.

When I'm driving I read the registration plate of every car I pass and try to make up acronyms/mnemonics for them.

I never have the TV volume on 13.

I just remembered I do this, and it's especially annoying as 13 is generally the best volume for my stereo. I also do this on the machines at the gym, even though 13 is a good running/cycling speed.

i never carry a yellow cigarette lighter.

Oh yeah, I would never have anything on 13. Or end a post with number.

everytime i drive anywhere, i have to drive on the right side of the road

i have lots of wacky little habits, but i always assumed most people do... examples:

when i make more than one hot beverage, anything with sugar in it goes on the left, and the more sugar, the further to the left it has to be. i get kind of pissed off when my boyfriend makes tea and puts sweetened cups on the right.

i have to take a glass of water with me to bed. i almost never drink any of it, but i can't go to sleep unless i know it's there on the bedside table.

i absolutely cannot stand it when my boyfriend takes the washing off the line and leaves the pegs on the line, rather than taking them off and putting them in their little basket. if he does that, i have to go out and take them all off. it's usually easier if i just get the washing off the line myself.

probably because at my last job the elevator was a steaming p.o.s., but i always hit the button for my floor three times.

If I go to lunch at that bakery-deli on Clark St., I always walk along the river to get there and return via Kinzie -- never the other way around, and even though it would arguably be faster to take Kinzie both ways.

I think I just realized a potential psychological basis for this. The deli is a block away, on a street parallel to the street my office is on. On my way there, I take the route that gets me to the street the deli is on faster; on my way back, I take the route that gets me to the street my office is on faster. In both cases, however, the walk along the destination street is longer.

Similarly, another place I go for lunch is the food court at Merchandise Mart, a building that has several entrances/exits. I go in the entrance closest to my office, and I leave out the exit closest to the food court; in the former case, I think I just want to get inside as quickly as possible, and in the latter case, I want to get outside as quickly as possible. It feels more efficient, even though it isn't.

one night, ten years ago, before going to bed, for whatever reason, i rapped lightly with my knuckles on my bedpost 37 times, then another 37 times, to make an even 74, then I went to sleep.

There was some impetus or reason for this that I can no longer remember, but every night since then, I've done the same thing...and if I don't do it, my subconscious keeps me awake and prevents me from sleeping soundly until I do.

I always risk it all in the video game version of Jeopardy! on both Daily Doubles and in Final Jeopardy. Even when I know doing so will nullify my score! I have been doing this for ten years as well. It hasn't really interfered with my life because no one will play video game Jeopardy! with me anyway.

I would never do this if I played actual IRL the game show Jeopardy! of course.

Aw man I would LOVE to play video game Jeopardy! with you.

"What is a fucking awesome thing of ENBB to say?"
"You are...correct!"

(Second dialogue spoken by prerecorded video clip Trebek.)

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lkm1hzne6o1qdmv0so1_500.gif

lol Abbs

I am totally digging the sweater of "Bro" which looks like some Dale of Norway/cover of Help mashup.

This is what I was looking for--not actual OCD, but certain weird routines. Was thinking about two of mine when I was at the gym this afternoon:

1) I use something over there that's not an excercise bike but involves pedalling. I don't know what it's called. Anyway, I'm on there for either 35 or 40 minutes. I quickly set the level at 2.5--not sure what that means, either--then, at either the 15- or 20-minute mark, I start going up in increments of 0.1. If it's the 15-minute mark, I go up every three minutes till I reach a level of 3.0 at 30 minutes; if the 20-minute mark, I go up every two minutes till ditto. Then, at 30 minutes, I reverse that, going back down to 2.5, 0.1 every one or two minutes. And I make sure to finish on a calorie count that doesn't end in 0 or 5.

2) Online Pogo Scrabble. Periodically, I decide to take a break. But before I do, I have to win two games after logging on, I have to score 500+ points in both games (500 exactly doesn't count), and I have to make the last play. If I score 640 points but the computer makes the last play, that doesn't count. If I don't do all of that, I just try again next time I log on.

I know a music writer who, when he used to send me stuff for a fanzine, had a thing about "widows" (which I'd never he heard of till he pointed it out); he wouldn't have a sentence carry past the right margin for two or three words on the next line. He'd fix the sentence, make it longer or shorter, so it would end close to the right margin. Not sure if he's still particular about that.

When I look at digital time displays I often check to see if the numbers can viewed as an ordered numeric sequence (e.g. 11:11, 7:53) or reframed as a simple equation (e.g. 7:29 becomes 7+2=9). If so, I get a little endorphin lift.

I get the weekly email from Allmusic.com each Friday. I never read it until I’m getting fish and chips and read it while they’re being made.

I don’t do it very often but if I ever get a newspaper I read it back to front and I’ve done that since I was eight

I was wondering, as per the thread title, about the relationship between superstition and these kinds of behaviours--if they're one and the same or it's more a case of overlap. Was also thinking that completism--and I've got a touch of that, too--falls somewhere on that spectrum.