I'm grown up now but i can remember doing this

[at71]

i dont even think my parents were aware that something was wrong with me.

 

i was telling my kid one day that i was weird as a kid and i could remember needing to balance movements of the left side of my body with the right side of my body and how the urge was so strong that i wouldnt be able to stop thinking about it until the 'ritual' was complete.

 

i'd touch something with my left hand and no matter how hard i tried, i couldnt stop thinking that i had to touch it with my right hand also .. until i did it.

 

it was a huge part of my childhood, so powerful ... always counting and making sure it was even.

tap so many times with the left foot, now has to be the same # of times with the right.

 

so my kid yells "I HATE YOU, THAT'S WHERE I GET IT FROM"

 

i was shocked to learn that it was something genetic..... we laughed at our weirdness...... but i just assumed it was some sort of ocd and since i had eventually beaten it, and he said he rarely does it anymore, i wasnt concerned about it.

 

so in an emal today, im telling a friend about my weird habit as a child and how now, i still feel like i need to balance things but not so much physically, it comes out in other ways..... aesthetically -- i do web design and it has to have a balance or it will jangle my nerves.. . or if i'm writing an article, there has to be a certain structure of balance throughout the article.... but the power behind the compulsion is still pretty strong.... i cannot allow the website to remain unbalanced looking..... it will just pick at me, i'll see it in my head and its not right.

 

i'm sorry i havent done the proper research through the forum to see if my question was already answered but im a lil freaked out and i did try but i'm afraid i dont understand all the medical terms and their meanings.

 

nobody ever said anything to me.. maybe i learned early to hide it because i dont remember feeling like any of the adults thought there was something wrong with me... i was mostly described as bratty but nobody says weird

 

so now there is something wrong with me ?

it might come back or i still have it but its different or i deal with it better ?

i dont want it to overpower me again like it did when i was a kid ... it was totally thought consuming and so hard to resist

[Chemar]

Hi

 

sure sounds like OCD. Both my hubby and son have it, and me to a lesser degree and yes, it can be genetic

 

I so identified with the need to "balance"things! That is a BIG one with me

Many of the other things you mention are OCD symptoms too

 

here are some OCD resources that may be helpful to you

http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1963

 

our family uses diet and nutritional supplements to keep the OCD from overtaking things, and my son had tremendous benefit from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

 

if you do an advanced search (top right) on my name and the keyword OCD you will find some info, and I also have documented some of the things that helped my son's OCD as well as his Tourette Syndrome

http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=687

 

hope that helps a bit

[at71]

Hi

 

sure sounds like OCD. Both my hubby and son have it, and me to a lesser degree and yes, it can be genetic

 

I so identified with the need to "balance"things! That is a BIG one with me

Many of the other things you mention are OCD symptoms too

 

here are some OCD resources that may be helpful to you

http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1963

 

our family uses diet and nutritional supplements to keep the OCD from overtaking things, and my son had tremendous benefit from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

 

if you do an advanced search (top right) on my name and the keyword OCD you will find some info, and I also have documented some of the things that helped my son's OCD as well as his Tourette Syndrome

http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=687

 

hope that helps a bit

 

yeah it does thanks.

 

i am just coming to realize that maybe i still do things ... and just never acknowledged it to myself.

so i can say it never overtakes me anymore but maybe it does

now that im aware, i think i will probably catch myself

 

i am lucky that the urges were silly and harmless

but if the urges are still in me, im scared they could change and i want to be able to resist if they do.

 

all of a sudden i feel like i can identify with horrible people because i remember how powerful the urges were

 

i remember fighting them as a child and sometimes winning but there was no satisfaction in the win because if i acknowledged it to myself, it would come back . . so i just had to forget about it completely

 

i dont lke doctors or medications

ive been wanting to learn yoga so i think that is best for me

 

and on the bright side we'd probably kick *ss at feng shui

[guy123]

When I was young, like 5, I remember telling my mom that if I spun around one way, I had to spin around the other way to balance it out. She was like "whatever, ok."

 

But recently I told her "remember when I asked you that? Ha! I've been OCD my whole life!" She was still like "whatever"