I can’t go to sleep if the closet door is open. And I have to make sure the toilet paper is inserted the right way. Yes, there is correct way. Oh, and if I one hand or foot gets wet, I have to wet the other hand or foot. If I don’t, I get really uncomfortable, almost to the point of feeling pain.
These are my OCD (obsessive compulsive) tendencies. I think there are more, but I don’t want to seem too weird.
La Pregunta: What are your OCD tendencies?
Lotería Chicana 
I get annoyed, like wake up in the middle of the night and redo the sheets annoyed, if the bed sheet is not properly aligned with the blankets. Normally this is not an issue because I make sure they stay aligned…but when I have a chica spending the night it can sometimes become an issue.
Garage door. Have to check three or four times to make sure it’s closed. Will leave the house, drive down the hill, and have to come back, because I don’t feel sure that I’ve closed it. Also, leaving keys in the door. Have only done it once in ten years, but it’s a constant thing I check.
I cant go to sleep without flossing if I do then I’ll eventually wake up and floss. I have the tendency of washing my hands after every time i touch my feet. Once I crack one knuckle I have to crack the rest of them. Oh and when i put on deodorant its gotta be an even number of swipes on each side.
I’ve developed couple that seem to be beneficial. For example, before I leave my house I check for keys, phone and wallet. Even if I’m going in and out constantly.
when i was younger i actually had full-blown ocd, and to say it is no fun at all would be a vast understatement. coincidentally, i watched ‘the aviator’ for the first time last night, and watching ld’s representation of hh’s issues was an uncomfortable experience because i knew exactly how he felt. i wondered while i was watching how other people viewed those scenes. i think it’s probably next to impossible to understand without having been there.
anyway, with respect to the kind of idiosyncracies you’re talking about, i like my money to face in the same direction. if i’m walking with someone i like to be on the left side. but if those conditions aren’t satisfied immediately i don’t have the same sense of urgency about it. oh, i refuse to let people with ugly handwriting write on my calendars or papers because seeing it later makes me mad. lol @ hp’s comment.. i have a bedroom non-negotiable that falls into this category, but i can’t hardly even bring myself to cuss on this blog, much less talk about all that. we’re probably all better off that way anyway. =P
i think of them as preferences…
i have a cobalt blue ceramic mug and plate that i love to use for breakfast, the exact same set is in my frisco kitchen, my parents home, think there is even one still floating around east la…
i like to have music on all of the time: i have been able to sleep without music but i prefer not to.
i dislike when people mix uses; for example washing kitchen towels with bathroom towels, taking their reading material from the wc into the rest of the house, if i washed my own floors i would even have a separate mop for the restroom and the kitchen. These sort of gross crossovers that my family did not grow up with- freak me out!
Walking around the house before leaving for work making sure that appliances are unplugged so that nothing catches fire (e.g. stove, my wife’s curling coffee pot, etc).. I often forget if I locked the front door. The signs were there when I was younger and would forget if I closed the garage door. Too often I would make a U turn to make sure. The worst part is that it is justified by the 1 rare time when I do actually forget to these things. “This is why I check”, I tell myself. Have you read Freud’s article on OCD?
Every time I go up a staircase I have to count each step as I go up; I don’t count stairs if I go down. Also, sometimes when I’m riding in the car or on the bus, I count every driveway on each side of the street to check if they’re even on both sides. When I run on a treadmill at the gym I count my steps to 60 and then I start all over again… it makes the time go by faster when I forget my ipod.
I don’t know about OCD, but I think I’m just anal in a lot of things. I don’t count or need to do anything in any specific order, but the end result must be a certain way. What in the world does that make me? hehe
I’m a stair counter. I am a dust bunny fanatic and will be totally distracted if I see dust bunnies. I am the only one allowed to touch my laundry because I have to fold it a certain way. 🙂
i like my chair to be aligned with my table/desk–and that my laptop is aligned too. when i do work at coffeeshops where there are square tables, i can’t work until i adjust the table–circle tables are no problem. and also, when i go to spinning class, i have to make sure my bike is either aligned with the wood slats on the floor or completely out of alignment with them. i’m sure i have other quirks too! 🙂
i do the garage thing too…sometimes I drive back to check that I closed the garage door..argh!