Letter/word counting and other OCD Behaviours...

[mrlmonroe]

Hello to this board!

I am new to realizing I am OCD. I have a psychiatrist that I see for my bi-polar disorder, and I wanted to tell her some things that I do - and she believes I am OCD.

 

The most annoying habit I have is spelling words in my head and counting the letters. In a conversation, when the last thing is said, and I am in my head, I will break up the sentence by counting the letters, and grouping the letters in 3's or 4's or 5's or 7's. Most commonly in 3's. I'm always excited if I can do it more than one way. If it doesn't work out, I add a dot, and other things. I can't think of what they are as when I try to think about what I do, it escapes me. I know I say dot as a letter though for sure. Could be more than one time in the sentence. Of course when I do that it doesn't feel as good as I know it's not genuine. When listening to music I also do it........It's constant, morning noon and night, whenever I am in my head, that's what I do. Very annoying.

 

Another thing I do is obsessively listen to music. If I like a song, I will listen to it hundreds of times in a row. I obsessively watch tv shows and movies, if I like it, will watch over and over and over. I research things online ridiculously. I think of a topic, and search it continuously, until I am " done "....whenever that is. Can be weeks or months.....a lot of the time it's serial killers, death, macabre, whatever is awful...sounds terrible.

 

I also am an animal activist, so I am nutso about the details of the suffering of animals, and I discontinue whatever I did that I think will hurt an animal. No meat, leather, wool, puppy mills - so no buying from pet stores, dogs in hot cars makes me crazy. In the summer time I can hardly think of anything else.

 

I dance, so I watch dance videos and research it to death.

 

That's just what comes to mind - I'm sure there is more.

 

I don't feel it really disrupts my life, just me on the inside. It does bother my husband, some of the things I do - on the computer and with TV. The letter stuff he doesn't even know I am doing...maybe I am more distracted than I would be if I didn't do it.

 

I just wanted to put this out there to see if anyone relates, and to validate the diagnosis - if you think I qualify.

 

Hope you are all having a great day! Any feedback will be hugely appreciated.

 

Darcey

Edited August 5, 2011 by mrlmonroe