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This isn't really a compulsion, more of a little quirk, but almost all of my thoughts are in conversation form. I'm constantly planning out conversations in my head, even if I know I will never have them in real life, and if I do have them in real life, I get so distracted with remembering my plan that I fuck it all up.
I do this too, and apparently I move my lips when I do it because someone at work the other day saw me talking to myself.
This isn't really a compulsion, more of a little quirk, but almost all of my thoughts are in conversation form. I'm constantly planning out conversations in my head, even if I know I will never have them in real life, and if I do have them in real life, I get so distracted with remembering my plan that I fuck it all up.
I do this too, and apparently I move my lips when I do it because someone at work the other day saw me talking to myself.
that shit was embarrassing.
Ugh. I do that. All the fucking time. x.x
Me too. Although when I'm alone I'll actually vocalise, albeit quietly. I did it in a public bathroom once and when I went to wash my hands a guy emerged from the stalls. Mortified.
Except I use even numbers for my mp3 player, as sticking to a multiple of 5/10 would cause my music to either be too loud or too quiet on that.
I use multiples of 5/10 for video games, like potions in Pokémon, for example.
I keep my desk at work neat. I always have a huge stock of anti-bacterial wipes as I eat at my desk (no lunch room). Everything has its place. Sometimes my co-workers mess with me by approaching my desk and moving bits around and then laughing at me as I have to put everything back in its right place. I like things to be straight, so sometimes they'll just un-straighten everything.
I play games with myself, ranging from the usual don't-step-on-cracks-in-the-pavement to hiding from people coming out of the bathroom, to setting myself mini-goals, such as if someone is in the bathroom, can I run downstairs, pick up a book and get back into my room before they flush the toilet?
I don't like mirrors at night-time. If I have a mirror in my room I usually turn it over when it gets dark so that the mirror part faces the wall and I can only see the back.
I have to fall asleep facing a window or the door.
Sometimes when I use a knife I have to really control an urge not to cut myself out of sheer curiosity. I actually really don't like pain so I've always managed to convince myself not to try it out so far.
I don't just hold conversations in my head, I create people in my imagination and then converse with them. Each character usually lasts 2-4 years before I grow bored of them. I have a pretty vivid imagination and think in words and colour to the point that I can walk for half an hour and not realise it. I'm usually acting out scenes from imaginary movies in my head.
Naturally, it goes without saying that things like DVDs and books are organised aphabetically, that I have to have periodic clean-outs and get rid of anything that displays imperfections (unless it's a really rare book, then I value the story more), etc. etc.
I too read shampoo bottle on the toilet. I too check what the result of said visit to the loo has resulted in (WHY? To make sure I didnt loose an organ? I dont get it...) I have full on conversations and debates with myself. I sometime "practice" certain conversations and ways of explaining things (I have to do this a lot at work) - I can be seen talking to myself.
I had a friend who, when hanging out his socks to dry, HAD to make sure that each pair was held with the same colour peg.
I try to have as little contact with door handles as possible with my hands. I usually end up pulling a handle at the point deemed less likely to have been touched by others, and when opening a door I do it with my fist, so my knuckles are the only point of contact.
I don't just hold conversations in my head, I create people in my imagination and then converse with them. Each character usually lasts 2-4 years before I grow bored of them. I have a pretty vivid imagination and think in words and colour to the point that I can walk for half an hour and not realise it. I'm usually acting out scenes from imaginary movies in my head.
I do the same thing! I totally thought I was alone!
Foxy_Roxy on
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RaakamToo many years...CanadalandRegistered Userregular
edited September 2007
I'm sure a lot of people do this, but I hate walking on lines on the floor. As in, if the floor is tiled, I have to walk on the tiles, not the separating lines. If they are big tiles and require multiple steps, I always try and walk the same number of steps on each segment. If by mistake I don't notice the floor and see that I've walked on the line, then I have to walk on every line that's separating the tiles. I guess that's byproduct of playing THE FLOOR IS LAVA or something.
Raakam on
My padherder they don't it be like it is but it do
Food on my plate has to be rearranged, so there are no fries under the fillet (for example).
I still will pick all of the stuff up together, but it has to be separated on the plate.
I don't just hold conversations in my head, I create people in my imagination and then converse with them. Each character usually lasts 2-4 years before I grow bored of them. I have a pretty vivid imagination and think in words and colour to the point that I can walk for half an hour and not realize it. I'm usually acting out scenes from imaginary movies in my head.
I do the same thing! I totally thought I was alone!
I must admit...I do this too. This is a GREAT thread...GREAT. I actually imagine that I have a camera on me at all times, and think that I always have to "be on".
I can't go to sleep at night unless I check all the doors and windows to make sure they are locked...which is normal, but then I go to walk away, and have to check about 3-4 more times. Then when I get into bed, my wife asks me if I locked everything up...I HAVE TO go check again. I just don't trust myself I guess.:|
I have to keep my finger nails trimmed right down to the quick. I have a big fear that they might get caught on something and get torn off otherwise.
I have to face the outside of the bed when I sleep, and have to have everything covered except for my feet.
I too have to read SOMETHING...ANYTHING when I'm on the toilet. I smartened up and keep my Calvin and Hobbes books on the back of the toilet.
I find anyone playing music near me absolutely intolerable. Restaurants, people in other rooms, whatever. It winds me the fuck up, because it distracts me from whatever music is going on in my head. For similar reasons I absolutely can't be in a room with a ticking clock.
I have to keep my finger nails trimmed right down to the quick. I have a big fear that they might get caught on something and get torn off otherwise.
Just to reassure you, I never go bowling anymore unless I've just clipped my nails. I'll leave that up to your imagination.
I have to face the outside of the bed when I sleep, and have to have everything covered except for my feet.
Same.
It's refreshing to see that I'm not the only one who has these odd tendencies...I love you guys.:)
I thought of this when I started reading this thread...(I realize that these little tendencies are not OCD, but still thought of it) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L2168-ums0
This isn't really a compulsion, more of a little quirk, but almost all of my thoughts are in conversation form. I'm constantly planning out conversations in my head, even if I know I will never have them in real life, and if I do have them in real life, I get so distracted with remembering my plan that I fuck it all up.
I do this too, and usually get really worked up if it's an argument I'm imagining.
Just to add my 2 cents into the mix...
These little things we do I would consider "obsessive" but not "obsessive compulsive". A friend of mine works in a home for people with disorders, and he says that people with OCD seriously cannot help themselves. He told me about this one guy who couldn't leave a room unless he first turned the door knob 20 times both ways. He would freak out if they didn't let him. When they got back from going out, he had to do it again.
I once was bored and I read the back of a bottle of Tre'Semme (er whatever it is, that shampoo they sell in the blackbottle) and apparently they were making a big deal about how it was french...and you know from France. Yeah on the back of the bottle it said it was made/bottled in Mexico.
And I don't know why that was significant to me at all.
I wear the same thing to work every day. Black business shirt, black pants, shoes. I only own two black business shirts that look any good, so I wash them both on Tuesday night for Wednesday and Thursday. Then Friday is casual dress day, the cause of much anxiety. Today I just wore what I wear every other day. I even wore the fancy business shoes instead of sneakers.
Same here. At my old workplace, it blew people away once or twice a year when I'd show up not wearing black. At my new job, my other co-workers liked it enough they made "black" the unofficial uniform of the reference department.
Another one of my little quirks is my complete dislike of phones. I hate answering them, and I hate making calls even more. If I have to call someone other than my girlfriend or my parents, I have to plan out exactly what I'm going to say. This can sometimes take an hour. Then I'll go and dial the number and hang up right before I hit the final digit and plan out the conversation some more. If I have to make a bunch of calls in succession, though, I'll usually be fine after making the first one.
I hate phone calls. I'm fine if they have a purpose but fuck phoning for a chat. I'm really rude about it too, people should know by now.
"hi, how's things?"
"fine, what do you want?"
"oh you know, just calling for a chat"
"call back when you have a subject in mind"
*click*
Another one of my little quirks is my complete dislike of phones. I hate answering them, and I hate making calls even more. If I have to call someone other than my girlfriend or my parents, I have to plan out exactly what I'm going to say. This can sometimes take an hour. Then I'll go and dial the number and hang up right before I hit the final digit and plan out the conversation some more. If I have to make a bunch of calls in succession, though, I'll usually be fine after making the first one.
I'm better at answering now - I have to do it for work - but I still try and avoid making calls whenever possible. My housemate shocked me by casually getting quotes from three different people over the phone when she wanted her garden to be turfed. I couldn't do something like that.
The internet is fantastic; nearly everything official can be done online now.
All my games, movies, all that stuff. Has to be in chronological order.
I think in my head like I would post on a blog. I don't even have a blog!
There's more, but I can't think of them now.
I hate phone calls. I'm fine if they have a purpose but fuck phoning for a chat. I'm really rude about it too, people should know by now.
"hi, how's things?"
"fine, what do you want?"
"oh you know, just calling for a chat"
"call back when you have a subject in mind"
*click*
I've developed a technique of having an ever-so-slightly expectant tone that lets people know that although I'm exchanging the usual pleasantries, I want to know what they're calling about.
I hate phone calls. I'm fine if they have a purpose but fuck phoning for a chat. I'm really rude about it too, people should know by now.
"hi, how's things?"
"fine, what do you want?"
"oh you know, just calling for a chat"
"call back when you have a subject in mind"
*click*
:^:
although I'm a wuss and just answer in increasingly vague and bored tones until they get embarrassed and fuck off.
I'm trying to think of weird things I do, but ehhh... I'm not really OCD about anything. Oh, except clothes. There are some days where I've just left the house, and I'll turn around and go back to find something else to wear because I just don't feel right.
Oh! Another really weird thing that I do... It's not so much a compulsion, I think, but rather a habit that stems from having AS. I think that's the reason, because it relates to numbers and patterns and autistics (a vastly more severe, and more commonly known condition) are known for that sort of thing.
Whenever I get bored, and start to pace, I'll often just sort of turn around in circles. Not really circles, though, but a sort of octogon. I sort of imagine a grid around me like a clock, but with 8 numbers instead of 12 (With 8 being the north point). With me so far? Good, cause it gets a little weirder.
Mind you, I only do this as a form of pacing or fidgeting when my brain has to focus on. I'll basically turn, taking steps while skipping two numbers each time. I'll start at facing number 8, then move to to 3, then to 6, then to 1, and so on. This pattern pops up when I'm doing all sort of things, including laundry. Like, if I'm tossing a load of my shirts into the washer I'll place one in at point 8, then 4, then 7, and so on. I also do this when, say, cooking meat on a skillet; I'll work at all corners of the pan using those same angles. It's extremely weird, but I just sort of started doing it maye 5 or 6 years ago for no apparent reason.
I remember one time, after doing this at my therapist's office, I'd left a few markings in the carpet because of my circular pacing. Nothing permanent, just something that could be rubbed out without a trace, but still pretty noticable. It was kind of embarrassing to explain. >_>
Oh, and I'm very much the opposite when it comes to people calling me on the phone. I love chatting about nothing as long as me and the other perseon on the line has something interesting to talk about. Of course, when I'm contacting someone who I know to be overly busy (Like an artist friend of mine who works 3 jobs) I feel very discouraged to contact them unless I have a good reason to. It's like I subconsciously think they'll be mad at me for wasting their time.
I'm trying to think of weird things I do, but ehhh... I'm not really OCD about anything. Oh, except clothes. There are some days where I've just left the house, and I'll turn around and go back to find something else to wear because I just don't feel right.
I've done this before. I need to be comfortable, otherwise I get grumpy and irritable.
I also can't leave if I haven't taken a shower within two hours. I'm fine once I get out, but I don't actually shower until I know I'm about to leave. If I take a shower and wind up staying in for the day or something, but then need to/want to go out a few hours later, I have to shower again. It's not a cleanliness thing as much as it is just a comfort thing.
I always have to sleep with a running fan. It keeps my mind from being too distracted.
White noise. After years of sleeping either a fan during the summer months, a computer on in the room, or even just an open window with the ambient noise outside, I find trying to sleep in a perfectly quiet room to be... well, difficult. It's never anything super loud, but I'm sure another person would wonder how in the hell I can fall asleep with a computer running not 10 feet from my bed.
I guess the only truly weird quirk I have is that when eating at home, for some reason I don't like my food touching apparently. It was eventually pointed out to me by my mother. If we're having meat and a side dish like noodles or something, the meat goes on a small plate, and the noodles into a small bowl, rather than both onto a large plate. My theory when I was younger was that it's easier to clean 2 small dishes than one large one. And oddly enough, this doesn't kick in if I'm eating out. Meat and potatoes at a restaurant lumped on one plate? Fine and dandy. Meat and potatoes at home. Plate and a bowl.
The Wolfman on
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
I guess the closest thing I have is in the first couple hours after I wake up I really like to be left alone. Make myself breakfast, read the paper/watch tv/surf the net or play a video game. If anything bugs me during this time, I'm much more likely to be snappy. If I have to I'll wake up and go some where and do something right away, but I'd rather not.
Heh, my flatmate is like that. Refuses to respond to anything in the morning.
I'm kind of the opposite. I don't typically think in words. I have no inner monologue the vast majority of the time.
Sometimes people don't believe me when I say that.
My inner monologue is usually in third person and berating me. dothisdothatgofastergetsomefoodwhatthefuckdomorethingsyou'retooslowandstupidandyourhairlooksawful
I have conversations with myself in my head, because I tend to approach all situations from as many viewpoints as possible so I can come out with the best outcome.
In regards to the phone thing, I've already mentioned the fact that I hate people not introducing themselves. I also hate people blathering on with pleasantries, especially co-workers who have already talked to me earlier in the day.
I can understand asking once to get a general sense of how things are, but if I've already spoken to a person in the company once today, asking me on successive phone calls is just silly! It's not uncommon for me to speak to various people in the company 10+ times a day via mobile because of the amount of information that needs to be communicated between us. I don't want to have to tell you I'm fine 10 times a day.
And I hate people who can't collect their thoughts when they are on the phone. If you've just rung me, you need to have all the questions ready in your head. If I ring you and ask you a question, that's fine to have a bit of time to think. If you ask me a question, I answer and you don't talk for ages while you get your brain in gear, I'm likely to just hang up.
I'm sure a lot of people do this, but I hate walking on lines on the floor. As in, if the floor is tiled, I have to walk on the tiles, not the separating lines. If they are big tiles and require multiple steps, I always try and walk the same number of steps on each segment. If by mistake I don't notice the floor and see that I've walked on the line, then I have to walk on every line that's separating the tiles. I guess that's byproduct of playing THE FLOOR IS LAVA or something.
I love playing the floor is lava at work. Except for I opt for the much more childish version of the game, like when you'd leap from the chair to your bed to avoid touching the floor. One time a customer walked in as I was crouched on top of a table, building up my courage to leap for the next. Awkward!
I also do the whole, have a conversation with myself, and sometimes out loud, but only if I am sure I am alone. If I need to make a big, logical decision soon I find it really helpful to have to vocalize each side and have them argue against each other. Some things that made a lot of sense as a thought in my head really start falling apart when I have to put them into sentences, so it makes some decisions a lot easier.
I have conversations with myself in my head, because I tend to approach all situations from as many viewpoints as possible so I can come out with the best outcome.
I have conversations with other people in my head. I just subconsciously figure out what they're likely to say to anything I say. For example, if there's something I need to discuss with my boss, I have that conversation in my head first and usually get angry with her even before actually talking to her. I also had long and heated fights with my ex in my head.
Add me to the list of weirdos who repeatedly checks whether doors are shut. Especially the fridge-freezer, for some reason.
But in my defence other members of my family repeatedly left essential doors open or unlocked, so hey, maybe my psyche is just trying to counteract that in a suitably irritating way...
Talking of stepping on things, I do that tile line thing sometimes (god knows what inspires me), but what really messes me up is stairs, and actively thinking about how many I'm taking at a time. Generally I go for two, but then I'll suddenly ask myself why I'm always going for two and find it surprisingly hard to walk without looking like a lurching zombie.
This isn't really a compulsion, more of a little quirk, but almost all of my thoughts are in conversation form.
I'm kind of the opposite. I don't typically think in words. I have no inner monologue the vast majority of the time.
Sometimes people don't believe me when I say that.
It's not so much an inner monologue as an inner dialogue for me. Like, I'll constantly be making up conversations all day. For example, I was thinking how exactly to phrase this post as I walked over to the water cooler for a cup of water. Including that last sentence. And that one, and this one.
I have to fall asleep facing a window or the door.
I'm the exact opposite. I have to sleep facing the wall. If a bed is not up against the wall, like in a hotel room or something, it makes me uncomfortable. That's only if I'm in a bed, though. I can generally fall asleep on any surface.
flamebroiledchicken on
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KalTorakOne way or another, they all end up inthe Undercity.Registered Userregular
edited September 2007
Spoiler'd for gross re: acne:
When I had bad acne I loved popping big pimples in front of the mirror. I loved it when you got that *pip-gush* sound and hit the mirror with a splat of pus. One time (why the hell do i still remember this) I popped one and it shot a stream of blood and pus across the bathroom for a couple seconds. Best pop ever.
Of course I always washed whatever I splattered afterwards. I'm not some gross person >_>
I do the "don't step on cracks" thing, but with a twist. If I do have to step on a crack, then I need to "balance" it by stepping on another one of about the same size with the same part of the other foot. So like on a sidewalk where some cracks are wider than others, if I step on one that is thin, the other foot has to step on a thin one, or if I step on a thick one with the second foot, I need another thin one with the first foot so they "add up" to the one I stepped on with the second foot. This leads to a self-feeding loop, since they never "add up" quite right.
Clothes in my closet are all facing the same direction, with the hangars all pointing in. Like someone said early on, that's the way it's supposed to be... but I also did some retail work growing up, so I expect that's related. I do have my closet organized by pants vs shirts, then within the shirts by sleeve length (long, 3/4, short) and then within that by whether they are more casual or dressy, because that way I can have all of my options together for a given day. (Does the temperature indicate long or short sleeve? Do I feel like something casual or dressy? OK, what's in that section?) I don't understand organizing them by brand, though... what's the point? Do you actually go to get dressed in the morning and think "I'm in the mood to wear something from GAP today?"
I'm better at answering now - I have to do it for work - but I still try and avoid making calls whenever possible. My housemate shocked me by casually getting quotes from three different people over the phone when she wanted her garden to be turfed. I couldn't do something like that.
The internet is fantastic; nearly everything official can be done online now.
I used to be super, super shy. I would never talk in class, and something like going inside a store and asking someone there for directions would terrify me. Fuck calling someone on the phone and asking for a quote. No way I'd be touching that shit.
Not so much anymore though. I have to answer the phone at work, and sometimes make outgoing calls, so that's definitely helped, but over the past two years I've just gotten less and less shy in general, to the point where I really don't consider myself a shy person anymore (although I also would definitely not consider myself outgoing).
The only time I feel a compulsion to wash my hands is after I touch the handrails on the NYC subway. Do you know how many people touch those things? That shit is gross! I always try not to touch them if at all possible; I will always try to sit down or lean against the doors. If I can't avoid it, whatever, but afterwards I don't feel "clean" until I wash my hands.
I have my compulsive things but I don't think they are unique.
However I think my way of eating oreos or any similar cookie is different. I open them up, but I don't lick the cream, I think thats gross, I bite the cookie/cream combo softly, enough to detach the cream from the cookie but without actually breaking the cookie, after I eat the whole cream this way I eat the cookie. it can take some time, you have to make small bites to get the cream to fall off, biting right in the middle won't work.
Posts
Ugh. I do that. All the fucking time. x.x
Me too. Although when I'm alone I'll actually vocalise, albeit quietly. I did it in a public bathroom once and when I went to wash my hands a guy emerged from the stalls. Mortified.
I'm kind of the opposite. I don't typically think in words. I have no inner monologue the vast majority of the time.
Sometimes people don't believe me when I say that.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I think in cartoon, so you're not so weird.
Except I use even numbers for my mp3 player, as sticking to a multiple of 5/10 would cause my music to either be too loud or too quiet on that.
I use multiples of 5/10 for video games, like potions in Pokémon, for example.
I keep my desk at work neat. I always have a huge stock of anti-bacterial wipes as I eat at my desk (no lunch room). Everything has its place. Sometimes my co-workers mess with me by approaching my desk and moving bits around and then laughing at me as I have to put everything back in its right place. I like things to be straight, so sometimes they'll just un-straighten everything.
I play games with myself, ranging from the usual don't-step-on-cracks-in-the-pavement to hiding from people coming out of the bathroom, to setting myself mini-goals, such as if someone is in the bathroom, can I run downstairs, pick up a book and get back into my room before they flush the toilet?
I don't like mirrors at night-time. If I have a mirror in my room I usually turn it over when it gets dark so that the mirror part faces the wall and I can only see the back.
I have to fall asleep facing a window or the door.
Sometimes when I use a knife I have to really control an urge not to cut myself out of sheer curiosity. I actually really don't like pain so I've always managed to convince myself not to try it out so far.
I don't just hold conversations in my head, I create people in my imagination and then converse with them. Each character usually lasts 2-4 years before I grow bored of them. I have a pretty vivid imagination and think in words and colour to the point that I can walk for half an hour and not realise it. I'm usually acting out scenes from imaginary movies in my head.
Naturally, it goes without saying that things like DVDs and books are organised aphabetically, that I have to have periodic clean-outs and get rid of anything that displays imperfections (unless it's a really rare book, then I value the story more), etc. etc.
I too read shampoo bottle on the toilet. I too check what the result of said visit to the loo has resulted in (WHY? To make sure I didnt loose an organ? I dont get it...) I have full on conversations and debates with myself. I sometime "practice" certain conversations and ways of explaining things (I have to do this a lot at work) - I can be seen talking to myself.
I had a friend who, when hanging out his socks to dry, HAD to make sure that each pair was held with the same colour peg.
I try to have as little contact with door handles as possible with my hands. I usually end up pulling a handle at the point deemed less likely to have been touched by others, and when opening a door I do it with my fist, so my knuckles are the only point of contact.
man, this is like therapy!
they don't it be like it is but it do
EDIT: To Foxy_Roxy...if there's one thing I've learned, it's that on the internet, you are never alone.
I still will pick all of the stuff up together, but it has to be separated on the plate.
I must admit...I do this too. This is a GREAT thread...GREAT. I actually imagine that I have a camera on me at all times, and think that I always have to "be on".
I can't go to sleep at night unless I check all the doors and windows to make sure they are locked...which is normal, but then I go to walk away, and have to check about 3-4 more times. Then when I get into bed, my wife asks me if I locked everything up...I HAVE TO go check again. I just don't trust myself I guess.:|
I have to keep my finger nails trimmed right down to the quick. I have a big fear that they might get caught on something and get torn off otherwise.
I have to face the outside of the bed when I sleep, and have to have everything covered except for my feet.
I too have to read SOMETHING...ANYTHING when I'm on the toilet. I smartened up and keep my Calvin and Hobbes books on the back of the toilet.
Just to reassure you, I never go bowling anymore unless I've just clipped my nails. I'll leave that up to your imagination.
Same.
me.
It's refreshing to see that I'm not the only one who has these odd tendencies...I love you guys.:)
I thought of this when I started reading this thread...(I realize that these little tendencies are not OCD, but still thought of it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L2168-ums0
.
I do this too, and usually get really worked up if it's an argument I'm imagining.
Just to add my 2 cents into the mix...
These little things we do I would consider "obsessive" but not "obsessive compulsive". A friend of mine works in a home for people with disorders, and he says that people with OCD seriously cannot help themselves. He told me about this one guy who couldn't leave a room unless he first turned the door knob 20 times both ways. He would freak out if they didn't let him. When they got back from going out, he had to do it again.
.
And I don't know why that was significant to me at all.
Same here. At my old workplace, it blew people away once or twice a year when I'd show up not wearing black. At my new job, my other co-workers liked it enough they made "black" the unofficial uniform of the reference department.
Another one of my little quirks is my complete dislike of phones. I hate answering them, and I hate making calls even more. If I have to call someone other than my girlfriend or my parents, I have to plan out exactly what I'm going to say. This can sometimes take an hour. Then I'll go and dial the number and hang up right before I hit the final digit and plan out the conversation some more. If I have to make a bunch of calls in succession, though, I'll usually be fine after making the first one.
My Backloggery
"hi, how's things?"
"fine, what do you want?"
"oh you know, just calling for a chat"
"call back when you have a subject in mind"
*click*
I'm better at answering now - I have to do it for work - but I still try and avoid making calls whenever possible. My housemate shocked me by casually getting quotes from three different people over the phone when she wanted her garden to be turfed. I couldn't do something like that.
The internet is fantastic; nearly everything official can be done online now.
All my games, movies, all that stuff. Has to be in chronological order.
I think in my head like I would post on a blog. I don't even have a blog!
There's more, but I can't think of them now.
I've developed a technique of having an ever-so-slightly expectant tone that lets people know that although I'm exchanging the usual pleasantries, I want to know what they're calling about.
:^:
although I'm a wuss and just answer in increasingly vague and bored tones until they get embarrassed and fuck off.
I'm trying to think of weird things I do, but ehhh... I'm not really OCD about anything. Oh, except clothes. There are some days where I've just left the house, and I'll turn around and go back to find something else to wear because I just don't feel right.
Whenever I get bored, and start to pace, I'll often just sort of turn around in circles. Not really circles, though, but a sort of octogon. I sort of imagine a grid around me like a clock, but with 8 numbers instead of 12 (With 8 being the north point). With me so far? Good, cause it gets a little weirder.
Mind you, I only do this as a form of pacing or fidgeting when my brain has to focus on. I'll basically turn, taking steps while skipping two numbers each time. I'll start at facing number 8, then move to to 3, then to 6, then to 1, and so on. This pattern pops up when I'm doing all sort of things, including laundry. Like, if I'm tossing a load of my shirts into the washer I'll place one in at point 8, then 4, then 7, and so on. I also do this when, say, cooking meat on a skillet; I'll work at all corners of the pan using those same angles. It's extremely weird, but I just sort of started doing it maye 5 or 6 years ago for no apparent reason.
I remember one time, after doing this at my therapist's office, I'd left a few markings in the carpet because of my circular pacing. Nothing permanent, just something that could be rubbed out without a trace, but still pretty noticable. It was kind of embarrassing to explain. >_>
Oh, and I'm very much the opposite when it comes to people calling me on the phone. I love chatting about nothing as long as me and the other perseon on the line has something interesting to talk about. Of course, when I'm contacting someone who I know to be overly busy (Like an artist friend of mine who works 3 jobs) I feel very discouraged to contact them unless I have a good reason to. It's like I subconsciously think they'll be mad at me for wasting their time.
I've done this before. I need to be comfortable, otherwise I get grumpy and irritable.
I also can't leave if I haven't taken a shower within two hours. I'm fine once I get out, but I don't actually shower until I know I'm about to leave. If I take a shower and wind up staying in for the day or something, but then need to/want to go out a few hours later, I have to shower again. It's not a cleanliness thing as much as it is just a comfort thing.
White noise. After years of sleeping either a fan during the summer months, a computer on in the room, or even just an open window with the ambient noise outside, I find trying to sleep in a perfectly quiet room to be... well, difficult. It's never anything super loud, but I'm sure another person would wonder how in the hell I can fall asleep with a computer running not 10 feet from my bed.
I guess the only truly weird quirk I have is that when eating at home, for some reason I don't like my food touching apparently. It was eventually pointed out to me by my mother. If we're having meat and a side dish like noodles or something, the meat goes on a small plate, and the noodles into a small bowl, rather than both onto a large plate. My theory when I was younger was that it's easier to clean 2 small dishes than one large one. And oddly enough, this doesn't kick in if I'm eating out. Meat and potatoes at a restaurant lumped on one plate? Fine and dandy. Meat and potatoes at home. Plate and a bowl.
Heh, my flatmate is like that. Refuses to respond to anything in the morning.
My inner monologue is usually in third person and berating me. dothisdothatgofastergetsomefoodwhatthefuckdomorethingsyou'retooslowandstupidandyourhairlooksawful
its no wonder I'm irritable...
In regards to the phone thing, I've already mentioned the fact that I hate people not introducing themselves. I also hate people blathering on with pleasantries, especially co-workers who have already talked to me earlier in the day.
I can understand asking once to get a general sense of how things are, but if I've already spoken to a person in the company once today, asking me on successive phone calls is just silly! It's not uncommon for me to speak to various people in the company 10+ times a day via mobile because of the amount of information that needs to be communicated between us. I don't want to have to tell you I'm fine 10 times a day.
And I hate people who can't collect their thoughts when they are on the phone. If you've just rung me, you need to have all the questions ready in your head. If I ring you and ask you a question, that's fine to have a bit of time to think. If you ask me a question, I answer and you don't talk for ages while you get your brain in gear, I'm likely to just hang up.
I love playing the floor is lava at work. Except for I opt for the much more childish version of the game, like when you'd leap from the chair to your bed to avoid touching the floor. One time a customer walked in as I was crouched on top of a table, building up my courage to leap for the next. Awkward!
I also do the whole, have a conversation with myself, and sometimes out loud, but only if I am sure I am alone. If I need to make a big, logical decision soon I find it really helpful to have to vocalize each side and have them argue against each other. Some things that made a lot of sense as a thought in my head really start falling apart when I have to put them into sentences, so it makes some decisions a lot easier.
I have conversations with other people in my head. I just subconsciously figure out what they're likely to say to anything I say. For example, if there's something I need to discuss with my boss, I have that conversation in my head first and usually get angry with her even before actually talking to her. I also had long and heated fights with my ex in my head.
But in my defence other members of my family repeatedly left essential doors open or unlocked, so hey, maybe my psyche is just trying to counteract that in a suitably irritating way...
Talking of stepping on things, I do that tile line thing sometimes (god knows what inspires me), but what really messes me up is stairs, and actively thinking about how many I'm taking at a time. Generally I go for two, but then I'll suddenly ask myself why I'm always going for two and find it surprisingly hard to walk without looking like a lurching zombie.
It's not so much an inner monologue as an inner dialogue for me. Like, I'll constantly be making up conversations all day. For example, I was thinking how exactly to phrase this post as I walked over to the water cooler for a cup of water. Including that last sentence. And that one, and this one.
I'm the exact opposite. I have to sleep facing the wall. If a bed is not up against the wall, like in a hotel room or something, it makes me uncomfortable. That's only if I'm in a bed, though. I can generally fall asleep on any surface.
Of course I always washed whatever I splattered afterwards. I'm not some gross person >_>
Clothes in my closet are all facing the same direction, with the hangars all pointing in. Like someone said early on, that's the way it's supposed to be... but I also did some retail work growing up, so I expect that's related.
I used to be super, super shy. I would never talk in class, and something like going inside a store and asking someone there for directions would terrify me. Fuck calling someone on the phone and asking for a quote. No way I'd be touching that shit.
Not so much anymore though. I have to answer the phone at work, and sometimes make outgoing calls, so that's definitely helped, but over the past two years I've just gotten less and less shy in general, to the point where I really don't consider myself a shy person anymore (although I also would definitely not consider myself outgoing).
The only time I feel a compulsion to wash my hands is after I touch the handrails on the NYC subway. Do you know how many people touch those things? That shit is gross! I always try not to touch them if at all possible; I will always try to sit down or lean against the doors. If I can't avoid it, whatever, but afterwards I don't feel "clean" until I wash my hands.
However I think my way of eating oreos or any similar cookie is different. I open them up, but I don't lick the cream, I think thats gross, I bite the cookie/cream combo softly, enough to detach the cream from the cookie but without actually breaking the cookie, after I eat the whole cream this way I eat the cookie. it can take some time, you have to make small bites to get the cream to fall off, biting right in the middle won't work.