I've been developing some strange ritual like habits.
36 replies, posted
[b]DISCLAIMER: I live in the United States and I do not have the time nor the resource to visit any kind of health professional, nor am I requesting a Facepunch Psych Evaluation™. I do not believe I have any form of disorder, I'm just sharing these oddities that have been happening recently to see if anyone has some insight/similar experience.[/b]
So anyway, for the past month I've been performing some tasks repetitively consciously or subconsciously, among other strange behavioral patterns. [b]I would pair it most closely with some form of OCD, but it isn't sever enough to even be called that nor am I self-diagnosing myself.[/b] It's all just been very strange. An example that seems most prominent is whenever I go to sleep at night I lock my bedroom door just because it makes me feel more secure. The past few weeks, though, I'll end up climbing out of my bed about 10 times over the course of like 2 minutes to check and make sure my door is still locked. I don't feel paranoid, and I know it's going to be locked, so I don't know why I keep doing it. Another strange example is that I never like having my phone off the charger, like ever. I get bothered when the battery life is under even 90%. I have a long ass USB connected to my phone charger than reaches every corner of my room because I like my phone to be plugged in as much as possible. To name one more, any time I leave my house I check my pockets for my phone, wallet, and keys. When I'm about to leave my room, I check. When I'm at the front door, I check. When I walk into the yard, I check again. When I sit in my car I check again, and when I finally start my car, I pull everything out of my pocket one more time to make sure it's all still there.
None of these habits are very worrisome or set off any alarms. The thing that confuses me is they've all come on in probably the past month or so when I never had any behavior like this before. No lifestyle changes, no big events, no schedule changes. They've just started happening and I don't even realize I'm doing it till after the fact. Am I a paranoid schizophrenic with OCD Facepunch? Have aliens taken over my mind? In all seriousness though, does anyone have any idea what these subtle changes could be stemming from? They are enough and frequent enough for me to have noticed.
It doesn't have to be a severe issue for it to be diagnosed as OCD.
[editline]9th September 2014[/editline]
[quote=Wikipedia]Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear or worry (obsessions), repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the associated anxiety (compulsions), or a combination of such obsessions and compulsions. Symptoms of the disorder include excessive washing or cleaning, [B]repeated checking[/B], extreme hoarding, preoccupation with sexual, violent or religious thoughts, relationship-related obsessions, aversion to particular numbers and nervous rituals such as opening and closing a door a certain number of times before entering or leaving a room.[/quote]
[QUOTE=xxncxx;45935914]It doesn't have to be a severe issue for it to be diagnosed as OCD.
[editline]9th September 2014[/editline][/QUOTE]
I thought OCD was something you were born with though and would have shown your whole life?
[editline]9th September 2014[/editline]
[sp]It's probably cancer.[/sp]
Did you move to a new location recently? I do the same at uni.
you are summoning the dark lord, soon your faucets will emit blood and any mirrors in your house will become a gateway to the under realms, which demonic entities will enter through to your house from
Everything you described is more or less normal. If you're concerned about something, your mind will keep thinking about it.
You should probably try to relax.
How old are you OP? You might have a milder form of late onset OCD.
Have you considered joining a cult?
You've got mad OCD bra.
At least I am not alone because I also check fucking everything before I leave because there is nothing but the fear of going for my phone in my pocket then realizing I left it on my bed.
[QUOTE=Wolverunder;45935984]I thought OCD was something you were born with though and would have shown your whole life.
[editline]9th September 2014[/editline]
[sp]It's probably cancer.[/sp][/QUOTE]
OCD tends to flare up in the adolescent and early adult years. You can manage it yourself if you're so inclined and can deal with the anxiety, or you can go to a therapist or get medication for it.
OCD also sucks alot when you let it get out of control, I have it and am still not sure if it's even possible to get rid of it entirely.
I tend to have a few of those habits myself, though I don't feel much anxiety with most of them. That said if I am home alone, I will indeed check the locks on all the doors at least once before going to bed, and sometimes the settling of the house is sometimes enough to spark me into "grab a piece of wood and search the house" mode, in which I recheck the locks, check every room for anyone (or anything) hiding in the shadows, then go back to bed.
In such a circumstance I also close my bedroom door, giving me a precious second or two more to react and go full-on [B]RULES OF NATURE![/B] on whoever or whatever decides to try and raid my room rather than nab the TV downstairs and just leave. It's just survival instincts, setting up some semblance of security so I can sleep when there's no-one else home.
I've had these slight tendencies, albeit more habit than compulsion, for years now, though if yours have cropped up in the space of a month there may definitely have been some changes going on, however subtle they may have been.
OCD is very manageable and I would recommend seeking help if you feel like it's getting worse.
See now you guys are making me paranoid.
"Yeah you probably have OCD op."
Would I go to a regular doctor to get that checked or what?
[QUOTE=Wolverunder;45938073]See now you guys are making me paranoid.
"Yeah you probably have OCD op."
Would I go to a regular doctor to get that checked or what?[/QUOTE]
Well, it's not like it's a deadly contagious disease or fatal illness. and you're probably going to end up being reffered to a psychiatrist, though I'm not sure how it works where you're at. At worst, you may have this for the rest of your life, but can be managed by either seeing a psychologist to help you learn not to be bothered by the things you are doing and just accepting them as a way of life.
For the record, leaving your phone plugged in when it's fully charged hurts the battery life.
[QUOTE=Mort Stroodle;45938579]For the record, leaving your phone plugged in when it's fully charged hurts the battery life.[/QUOTE]
Maybe if he was using a very old phone that used trickle charging which would accelerate in corrosion
Most new phones fully charge (100%) for a brief moment, then after which the battery management system allows it to slowly dip down to around 90%. Leaving the phone plugged in overnight does not make a difference: the phone only uses the wall current to maintain a partial charge state. So if you see a drastic change in your phones percentage it's actually just the battery gauge telling you a different story than what you want to hear. I am phone.
If it helps you OP, your phone is actually never fully charged, only partial. Please stop charging your phone think of the energy.
[QUOTE=Wolverunder;45938073]See now you guys are making me paranoid.
"Yeah you probably have OCD op."
Would I go to a regular doctor to get that checked or what?[/QUOTE]
Regardless of whether it's technically OCD or not, ask yourself: Are these symptoms things that are impeding on your daily life? Is wanting to have your cell phone charging 24/7 or getting up a few times to check that your door is locked (I used to do the same thing with my car by the way, it's normal) ever going to cause you real difficulties in life?
The purpose of seeing a mental health professional is usually to help you find the root cause of problems so you can solve them. The purpose of diagnosing a mental disorder is being able to find a common pattern in your behavior and treat it using methods that have been proven reliable with others dealing with the same issue. It doesn't seem like you have any real [i]problems[/i] that are impeding on your life, just quirks that you happen to know are related to OCD. Knowing you have OCD isn't going to benefit you because it's not inconveniencing you to begin with.
I repetitively check that my wallet, phone and keys are in their designated pockets. One thing I've noticed myself doing is checking my SAT NAV, even when its not on or on its stand. I got so used to using it and looking at it when driving during my work that when I'm not using it and not at work I keep looking at its direction for information.
Mostly I'd recommend you talking to a psychiatrist ASAP. OCD can be a possibility, but the thing is no one knows what could be the detonator of it, specially if you don't really know which was the detonator of all of that.
Normally a mental disorder comes by any psychological circumstance or origin, like a trauma or something.
I used to do the same shit as you, but leaving for work.
I'd check I'd got my uniform in my bag, all the badges etc like twice before leaving, then at least halfway down the street.
I used to get like that about locking the door, it's like i'd get 10 seconds down the road and I couldn't remember if i'd locked it and would go into mad panic.
[QUOTE=NorthernFall;45940240]I used to do the same shit as you, but leaving for work.
I'd check I'd got my uniform in my bag, all the badges etc like twice before leaving, then at least halfway down the street.
I used to get like that about locking the door, it's like i'd get 10 seconds down the road and I couldn't remember if i'd locked it and would go into mad panic.[/QUOTE]
Well, I tend also to do the same ritualistic crap on my routines most of the time. Except it's not necessarily OCD or anything, it's just how I'm used to do things.
I used to get something like this when I was walking to my HS, where I'd think I'd forgotten to lock the door and didn't have enough time to go back and check. The way I got around it it is to just accept that, were the worst to happen, things would probably still be alright.
I'm no psychiatrist, but I have taken a 1st year class in it. And one of the things emphasized by my professor is that you don't have a disorder until it impedes your way of life. At most you have obsessive tendencies, which are less serious and you can probs handle them on your own. (That said, if you're caught in fire drill or evacuation of some kind and you cannot bring yourself to leave unless your phone is fully charged, seek help immediately.)
If you want to gauge how bad your tendencies are, try leaving your bedroom door unlocked (unless you live in a dorm) or try not to charge your phone for a day and gauge your anxiety. If you use your phone as much as I do, and you enjoy the peace of mind of sleeping in a secure room, then these habits are probably just your mind trying to avoid the breaking down of your lifestyle.
Then again for all I know you could be batshit insane for I know, I'm no doctor.
EDIT:
[video=youtube_share;aX7jnVXXG5o]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX7jnVXXG5o[/video]
Don't worry about it op it's not that bad. Almost everyone has ocd to SOME degree, almost non existant or somewhat there, for some people it's bad but yours I'd say isn't bad at all.
I do similar things in the way of checking, checking and rechecking. E.g: I had to pick up my parents from the airport the other day so I checked the car tire pressure about 4 hours before I went, again a couple of hours later and again just before I left. I knew that they wouldn't have changed but it just eases my mind to know that I am sure. I've never really thought about it as obsessive or anything, I just like to be sure of things. Sounds like a similar kind of thing to me. I don't lock my door when I sleep (though I probably would if I had a lock) but I do shut it. It just makes me feel secure. When I'm alone in the house I always lock and recheck the front door several times before I go to sleep because again it just stops me laying in bed wondering if I did.
But yeah basically I do similar things and I'm sure a lot of people do, it doesn't really sound alarming to me unless it is interfering with your life.
I get naked when I poop in my house
everyone have some habit
[QUOTE=Wolverunder;45935888][b]DISCLAIMER: I live in the United States and I do not have the time nor the resource to visit any kind of health professional, nor am I requesting a Facepunch Psych Evaluation™. I do not believe I have any form of disorder, I'm just sharing these oddities that have been happening recently to see if anyone has some insight/similar experience.[/b]
So anyway, for the past month I've been performing some tasks repetitively consciously or subconsciously, among other strange behavioral patterns. [b]I would pair it most closely with some form of OCD, but it isn't sever enough to even be called that nor am I self-diagnosing myself.[/b] It's all just been very strange. An example that seems most prominent is whenever I go to sleep at night I lock my bedroom door just because it makes me feel more secure. The past few weeks, though, I'll end up climbing out of my bed about 10 times over the course of like 2 minutes to check and make sure my door is still locked. I don't feel paranoid, and I know it's going to be locked, so I don't know why I keep doing it. Another strange example is that I never like having my phone off the charger, like ever. I get bothered when the battery life is under even 90%. I have a long ass USB connected to my phone charger than reaches every corner of my room because I like my phone to be plugged in as much as possible. To name one more, any time I leave my house I check my pockets for my phone, wallet, and keys. When I'm about to leave my room, I check. When I'm at the front door, I check. When I walk into the yard, I check again. When I sit in my car I check again, and when I finally start my car, I pull everything out of my pocket one more time to make sure it's all still there.
None of these habits are very worrisome or set off any alarms. The thing that confuses me is they've all come on in probably the past month or so when I never had any behavior like this before. No lifestyle changes, no big events, no schedule changes. They've just started happening and I don't even realize I'm doing it till after the fact. Am I a paranoid schizophrenic with OCD Facepunch? Have aliens taken over my mind? In all seriousness though, does anyone have any idea what these subtle changes could be stemming from? They are enough and frequent enough for me to have noticed.[/QUOTE]
Everything but the door checking is normal.
You arent a paranoid schizophrenic, and the door checking seems more like some weird habit instead of diagnosed OCD.
Could just be a little passing anxiety.
[QUOTE=Wolverunder;45935888]To name one more, any time I leave my house I check my pockets for my phone, wallet, and keys. When I'm about to leave my room, I check. When I'm at the front door, I check. When I walk into the yard, I check again. When I sit in my car I check again, and when I finally start my car, I pull everything out of my pocket one more time to make sure it's all still there.[/QUOTE]
Sounds like a normal thing I'd do because I'm a forgetful asshole.
I wouldn't worry about it.
I always have a nasty habit of going downstairs at night multiple times to make sure the refrigerator door is closed.
[editline]11th September 2014[/editline]
And checking to make sure I have the door locked when I leave home, and I have my phone.
OCD isn't something to worried about. In all honesty though, its probably just a habit you have put yourself into. I have the same habit of checking myself for phone, wallet, puffer, keys. Many times. Don't worry yourself about it until it starts to become a serious life altering issue.
I have something very similar. Everytime I leave my apartment i have to check that the iron isn't plugged in, that the oven is turned off and that all of the windows are closed. I usually go back and forth like 2-3 times and take mental notes just to be sure. Same thing happens when I lock my door. I have to check multiple times just to make sure it's locked. I had mild OCD when I was younger though (which I've overcome) so that might explain it.
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