Cassandra says:
Sat, 12th Sep 200912:24 pm 

I HAVE to put my left shoe on first. always. as far as I know, i have never put my right one on first.

A.C. says:
Sat, 12th Sep 20091:03 pm 

I eat all of the cereal out of Lucky Charms, and then eat the marshmallows in order of the song. You know, hearts, stars, horseshoes…It takes me 20 minutes to eat a bowl of cereal, but I can't make myself eat it any other way!

sara says:
Sat, 12th Sep 20091:40 pm 

The volume always has to be on an even number for me… and i do the same thing at the gym! I increase the speed at regular intervals, always on the dot.

Maggie says:
Sat, 12th Sep 20092:45 pm 

Just so you know, it's kind of offensive when you call OCD symptoms weird and think that it's funny to list off your weird quirks as OCD habits. I actually have OCD and trust me, it's not quirky, it's not weird, & it's not funny. If you're going to list off your weird habits, go ahead, but please don't imply that they're related to OCD. I know that you probably didn't mean any harm by it, but it's not fun to always hear people say stuff like, "Omg, I totally have OCD" when they don't.

Beth says:
Sat, 12th Sep 20092:56 pm 

I have OCD myself. Used to be a compulsive hand washer, but was able to overcome it. I count EVERYTHING, and it has to come out to an even number. If I get an odd number, I count it backwards. I check that the front door is locked several times before I go to bed. If I step on a sidewalk crack with my right foot, then I have to step on one with my left foot too, and it has to be the same part of my foot, ie heel or toe. That's just some of the crazy things I do! And no, I don't think it's offensive to say the symptoms are crazy or weird, because, well, they are!

Bunny says:
Sat, 12th Sep 20093:05 pm 

Also, agreed with Maggie, disagreed with Beth. They arent wacky, weird or funny to a sufferer. They are terrifying and embarassing.

also, melissa, i just re-read the post and you say you get OCD after watching a TV show about it? that would be laughable if it wasnt seriously offensive to some people.

Amanda says:
Sat, 12th Sep 20093:18 pm 

I add numbers on license plates and digital clocks. Then, with the product of that I will do anything to get it to equal 1.

Like if it's 4:09 on the clock it will be:

4+0+9=13

Then 1+3=4

Then 4×5=20

Then 2+0=2

Then 2/2=1

I literally cannot move on to anything else until it equals one. That's why I have a post-it over my clock on my computer and why I can't look at license plates when I drive.

Anonymous says:
Sat, 12th Sep 20094:05 pm 

I haven't been diagnosed with OCD, but I'm pretty sure I have it as everything relates to the number 4 for me. It affects most things in my life starting when I get up in the morning: the alarm clock has to be set to a time where all the digits add up to a multiple of 4 (like 7:36 adds up to 16). I have a radio alarm clock and the volume has to be set to a multiple of 4 as well (12 to wake me up then down to 8 while I get dressed).

I also totally relate to what Beth said about stepping on cracks in the pavement. And if I'm going from an area with one type of floor to another (say one room has a green carpet and the next has brown), I have to make sure I've taken a multiple of four steps on the green carpet with each foot before I can go onto the next colour carpet. Stairs drive me batty because they tend to come in odd numbers for some inexplicable reason. Like our house has 13 stairs. Why didn't they make them bigger and have 12 instead? 13 is a weird number.

As for you thinking that the "cleanliness" type of OCD would be useful, not at all. I've heard of sufferers scrubbing their hands raw over it, so I'm pretty glad I don't have that particular obsession. My fixations aren't harmful, just inconvenient and although I get anxious if I can't do them, it's not major anxiety as I don't get panic attacks over it. Probably because I'm already on medication for depression & anxiety – last year I started having panic attacks every time I went to class and ended up a bit agoraphobic. Fortunately since I failed all my courses, I had to change universities and they're much more supportive here. The tablets took a while to work but they've kicked in now and although I still get nervous, I don't have panic attacks any more.

Ness - Sheridan says:
Sat, 12th Sep 20094:19 pm 

I'm sure this post wasn't meant to offend anyone, and I don't think this post is belittling those who do suffer from diagnosed OCD.

I feel the same as the poster. I have various OCD-like habits, some worse than others. When I write anything down I have to go over it twice (not so fun when you're in class), volumes and timers have to be set to a :-5 or :-0 number. I think this kind of behaviour might be boarderline-OCD, but as was mentioned in the post — until it effects living life or our relationships with people, it's more of just a quirk.

Casey says:
Sat, 12th Sep 20096:53 pm 

OMG A.C. I do the exact same thing! My friends think I'm insane!

Bunny says:
Sat, 12th Sep 20098:03 pm 

I highly doubt any of you have OCD unless
A) you have been diagnosed with it
or
B) you have smoked copius amounts of cannabis (and i don’t mean the odd joint every day, i mean cannabis on the hour every day for like, several years, i’d estimate about 5-7, because THC is recognised to manifest OCD and many other mental disorders, in large volumes)
Seriously. Vapid teens/adolescents say this all the time and it really pisses me off.
Humans DO get into routines, yes, but it DOESN’T mean its OK to generalise OCD to your routines. It’s like Megan Fox saying she’s Schizophrenic because she thinks she’s got multiple personalities (which also really pisses me off but I’m not going to divulge any details about knowledge on that particular disorder, and i don’t even want to dignify her statement with any solid fact.)
I can thankfully say I don’t suffer from OCD, but i know someone close who does, and it is hell. Hell for me, hell for them. And it’s not even an “extreme” or even anything other than a mild case. Trust me though – It. Is. Fucking. Horrible.

(at this moment, i’d like to ask you politely if you could remove the statement “And why aren’t I obsessed with something useful like cleanliness or staying organized? Or avoiding cake/chocolate/all things fried?” because that is a serious belittlement of people who actually suffer from things like organizational/cleanliness OCD. And no I’m not saying that the person I know has that particular “strain” but i understand how sick that statement could seem to a sufferer)

If you are worried, get yourself checked out. But seriously, unless you can’t leave until you’ve completed an obsessive tendancy, and it gets progressively worse and worse with anxiety constantly, panic attacks and can eventually lead to agoraphobia, it’s just human being routine. (We all have little tendancies toward mental disease, but if you convince yourself you’ve got it it could manifest into either imaginary or real problems, as far as I’m aware. And no, I’m not some Google-Doctor who looks everything up to dispute it, i don’t know for sure much about OCD except this personal experience and many phsychology books out of interest and caring.)
There is NOTHING glamourous about proclaiming your self-diagnosed disorder to the world. Sufferes would give ANYTHING to not have this disorder, or to keep it hidden (which is espeially hard for OCD sufferers, you catch on quite quickly when you realise you are waiting on someone who has a deathly fear of missing out something obsessive and has panic attacks if they don’t complete the obsessive cycle.)

Not meaning to be terribly offensive.

Casey says:
Sat, 12th Sep 20097:08 pm 

I also eat ALL my food in order from either what I like least to what I like best, or what gets cold fastest (I always eat fries first if I get them) and I don't ever take a sip of my drink before I finish all my food, even if it's something spicy. When I eat candy, especially chocolate, I'll eat all of the chocolate first then the filling/ cookie/ peanut butter/ etc. or with candy either the filling or outside first depending on which I like better. I have a lot more weird food tendencies. I've never really considered them "OCD-like" or anything, just weird things that I do. It's a bit odd that it's only with food though.

When I was younger I used to do weird things like walk on tiles only stepping on one color if they were checkered. or walking on cracks or in squares of tiled floors. I'd always have to hug the poles in stores (which was probably more cause my mom would point them out and tell my sister and me to go hug them whenever we were annoying her while shopping) I just figured all kids did stuff like that though.

Maria says:
Sat, 12th Sep 20098:02 pm 

Not really OCD, but I do have the odd habit of grocery store tiles of different colors having to be stepped on in a pattern. And facing all labels in the grocery store correctly. Pictures have to be straight or i WILL fix them. stickers much be straight or so effed up that it is aesthetically pleasing. all cupboards and microwave doors MUST be closed. My boyfriend's microwave has nearly all its safety features broken-including closing. i spent twenty min trying to close it, not to cook anything, but to just close it. in front of him and my cousin. i finally taped it closed. then boyfriend took the tape off and closed it for real in one try.

Mostly just small things, but i think they are kind of hilarious after the fact.

J says:
Sat, 12th Sep 200910:28 pm 

I don't know if this has been addressed or not, but in OCD sufferers not only follow habits but also have irrational fears linked to them. For instance, a person may need to touch a door handle 10 times because if they don't they feel their mother may die. When I was a kid (it followed me into my teens and twenties but has decreased dramatically) I used to perform my habits always in fear a family member would die or be injured if I didn't do them. I think people need to understand that we all have quirks and habits, and even if they do seem extreme, people need to realize that OCD goes much further.

john says:
Sat, 12th Sep 200911:58 pm 

I masturbate 10 times everyday. I have to. If not, I will die.

Zoe says:
Sun, 13th Sep 20092:14 am 

Hahaha at John Never displayed any OCD like symptoms – I don't have that kind of acute attention to detail

Star says:
Sun, 13th Sep 20098:30 am 

I had OCD when I was younger and it was a nightmare. I also did develop some of my habits after watching TV shows where people mentioned they had certain habits and were afraid their parents would die if they didn't perform those habits. Then I became afraid MY parents would die if I didn't obsessively walk through doors or count things a certain number of times. I have those under control now, but it makes it harder in college because I really want to keep doing my homework over and over and I have to make myself stop or I'd never get it done.

By the way, if anyone here is suffering from OCD you might try reading the book "Brain Lock" by Jeffrey Schwartz. Even if you don't have OCD, it can help you overcome any obsessive or anxiety habits. My therapist recommended it to me a few years ago.

Lindsay says:
Sun, 13th Sep 200910:25 am 

If you’ve ever taken an intro to psychology class, you know that when it comes to diagnostics of psychological diseases that nearly EVERYONE in the class has at least one. Granted, these are sometimes people who just recognize one or two symptoms on the list & may lump themselves into the category, I’m sure without the intention to offend- just the curiosity of what may be an explanation as to why they are a certain way. I am in no way saying that blatantly saying you have a disorder is justified if the person in question does NOT have it, but self-diagnoses are common and are usually a help when it comes to treating a disorder. (Or at least that’s been my experience.)

I wouldn’t go as far to say that I have my own rituals, but there are some things that I can’t stand if they aren’t done right…

Eating. I have to have an even number of food. Always eating on my left side of my mouth first, then my right. If there does happen to be an uneven amount, (I usually count it beforehand) I end up giving the odd numbered morsel to a friend if they’re there, or I split it evenly in my mouth. (I’ve actually found the good in this one – there’s usually an even amount of wear and tear when it comes to cavities, or so my dentist says.)

Walking. Sometimes while walking, if I’m not thinking about something very important, I’ll just start counting my steps – all the way up to the number 8, then I start over again. I think this may have come from 3 years as a hurdler, but if you know anything about hurdling, 8 steps between 100m hurdles is a lot. And it’s a rhythmic step – trying for the same distance and amount of time my foot is on the ground. If I realize I won’t get to the number 8 by the time I go into a building (where I, oddly, do NOT count my steps), I’ll either quicken my pace or elongate my stride.

Germs. I feel like I’m thinking on the microscopic level a lot of the time. If a toilet seat is up (the seat, the cover or both), I MUST close it, but with the intention to avoid getting germs, I have to lightly tap it with my foot (yeah, weird) until it bangs shut. I wash my hands or use antibacterial foam often (I hate the gel for some reason) because I just feel it necessary. I’ll get up in the middle of a meal to wash my hands if I feel like they aren’t very clean. While I’m eating, my knife can’t have any traces of whatever I just cut left on it. (Usually being a sauce of some kind.) I try avoiding holding door handles at school by opening doors just a bit until I can fit my shoe in there and swing it open.

Locks. I MUST check that I have every door locked in my house when I’m ready to leave. If there are 3 locks total, but only two are locked, I will unlock those two to lock the third. If I don’t have time to check on whether or not the locks are locked, I have to visually check regardless. I don’t live in a bad neighborhood by any means, but I’ve watched too many scary movies (where they end up getting their house broken into) to not check.

Symmetry, right angles, pushing chairs in, and straight lines are a few of my favorite things to be a little obsessive about. Of course there are exceptions to these (my messy room being one of them), but majority of the time I’m very big on making sure these are required of wherever I am at the time. I was at IHOP once & their flavored jellies were all thrown off. As usual, there were orange marmalade a-plenty while strawberry & grape were close to extinction. I’ll figure out some way to ensure that the four pillars of condiments all match up, and if not, I will be using whichever one messes it up. I love having things at right angles and it’s un-settling when they aren’t. I HATE it when chairs aren’t pushed in, so whenever I get up at a restaurant, if I happen to pass it on my escape route, I’m pushing in the chair, regardless of whether I sat in it or even at the table. Math was always a challenge when it came to graphing – if there was ever a crooked line, however so slight, I would go back & erase it to make a line that was straighter. I’m sure I could have nipped this one in the bud by using a ruler, but that was nerdy and I never had one handy.

I am by no means saying I have this disorder, but I feel like whenever I tell people about these symptoms, I get strange looks as though it’s not part of their everyday routine. I think that might be it for now.

J says:
Sun, 13th Sep 20097:52 pm 

I have an obsessive desire to beat people who are obsessed with pointing out how much better they are at others at being politically correct, especially when they (not having a disorder) tell someone (who does have a disorder) that she is not correct in the assessment of her own OCD.

I'm getting a little better at restraining myself everyday. See? I'm not beating anyone while reading these comments.

I also have a grammar tic, having a long history as an editor. My eye twitches whenever I see an absent comma or a dangling preposition. I avoid pointing out mistakes to people unless they ask, so as not to be rude. In my head, though, my mental red pen is always at work.

bunny says:
Mon, 14th Sep 20099:41 am 

Ha.

Hahaha

You must lead such a happy life.

Annie says:
Fri, 13th Nov 20094:16 pm 

I forgot one. This one's weird because usually I try to MAKE patterns out of everything. But I HATE HATE HATE patterns of answers on a test. Like when the answers are A, A, B, B, C, C, i had a test like that today. Sometimes on a really "obsessive" day, I'll even put the wrong answer If it'll break the pattern.

Annie says:
Fri, 13th Nov 20099:09 pm 

ONE) I can NEVER let the microwave beep when my food is done. I always have to either open it or press off before it beeps, and it has to be at a multiple of 5. I will only open it at either 5, 10, 15, 30, or 45 seconds even if my food is burning.
TWO) When I’m walking home from the bus stop, I have to step 2 steps in a block and i can’t step on a crack. And i only care when I’m walking home from the bus in the afternoon, in the morning I couldn’t care less. And aslso in the afternoon, I count the number of steps it takes to get home, it’s normally somewhere from 85-95.
THREE) I have to bubble the answers in on a test perfectly. If I get outside the lines I’ll spend as long as I need to make it perfect.
FOUR) I always have to walk on people’s right side, I’m not comfortable if I’m looking to my right to talk to someone.
FIVE) Sometimes before I write something, I have to tap the pen on the paper as many times as I need before Im ready to write.
SIX) I randomly press/pull down on the skin on the top of my fingers by my fingernail, to make it feel like it’s kind of stretching, just unitl I feel like I’ve done it to every finger the same number of times even though i don’t normally count.
SEVEN) I don’t know if this counts, but I pick my fingernail if I see one getting long, they all have to be super short.
EIGHT) I count the stairs I walk. I have 15 stairs in my house. In the staircase I use at school, it has 2 flights, all together 12 steps. So in the middle landing I have to walk 3 steps to make it 15 all together.
NINE) When Im walking, the time length of all my steps(the time my foot is touching the ground before I pick it up again) has to be the same amount for each foot by the time I am done walking. If it’s not, I’ll remember which foot had a shorter step and go out of my way to make it equal. If i feel like i took a little too long on the “makeup step” I’ll keep going back and forth between feet until it’s equal. And to end it, ill jump and land on both feet at the exact same time to make sure i won’t end my walking on one foot and just let it sit there, the time accumulating. HHAHAH! Im serious, this is probably my worst OCD habit. I only do this one when I am alone though.
TEN) When I’m putting on blush, I have to have the same number of brush swipes on each cheek.
ELEVEN) When brushing my hair, if i feel like I missed a spot I’ll go over it again, but just the tiny spot I missed. If I feel like I’ve “overlapped” brushing a spot, like I brushed it twice, it drives me crazy for a while. I don’t try to make it all equal on this one because I know it’s impossible, and if i try to fix it, it will just be more uneven. I only do this one when I’m alone, too.

My life actually isn’t confusing or anything, all of this stuff is just habit now, i don’t usually pay attention that I’m doing them. And there’s more that I either can’t think of or don’t feel like writing down.

sarah says:
Mon, 23rd Nov 20099:39 pm 

you should have named the article "I'm kinda, sorta a douche bag"

It doesn't matter if the article wasn't meant to be offensive, because it is offensive. OCD is not something you joke about.

I hate it when people are always like, "Ohhhh I'm so OCD!" when they talk about wanting to have a neat room or color coding their notes.

Having a couple obsessive quirks is totally normal. When those things take up your whole life and keep you from doing anything remotely meaningful, then it's a problem.

Amy says:
Wed, 24th Feb 20107:17 am 

I respect everyone's opinions who disagreed with the "correctness" of this article, but I have to say that "Bunny" is completely out of line. It is not okay to say that someone who actually has OCD is wrong when you yourself do not have the disorder. It's rude, disrespectful, degrading, and completely out of line. Not only was this particular thing rude, but you were just rude in general.

Also, I think that there can be many different levels of OCD, just as there can be different levels of physical diseases. With a cold, you can just have a runny nose, or you can be sneezing constantly and completely miserable. Both would be described as "having a cold." With me, everything has to be completely right at all times. (Things have to be in rainbow or alphabetical order, and things must be straight.) I am definitely not saying that I have OCD on the same level as someone who must count tiles and touch things a certain number of times, and I have not actually been diagnosed, but I wouldn't say that I am being politically incorrect to say that I have some level of OCD.

Please comment with your opinions. I do not mean to disrespect anyone with OCD or any of the above commenters. Except for Bunny.

Yo dawg says:
Fri, 5th Mar 20104:29 am 

Yo dawg I heard you like OCD so I put some OCD in your OCD so you can OCD while you OCD