How does OCD start off?

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OCD is all mental right? Does it start off as a little annoyonce with something and then builds up?

I have it. Apparantly it stems from anxiety a lot, and is used as a way to cope with anxiety or stress.

Then i think im starting to get OCD or something. Because its really weird i have to see everything in my room neat and clean. I HAVE to clean my room every weekend because i cant stand the sight of dust settling on anything or dust floating around. And whenever im going to use the computer i have to clean my laptop so it has no smudges or anything on it. It kind of stresses me out when i dont do this and it bothers me untill i have to do it. And everything in my room has a place for itself, and i can't leave my bed undone. I don't know what this is but i know its not normal..

my dad is just like that. i am to but in a different way. i always put water on my hands and when i use the bathroom i always have to use soap or else i freak out. but my dad is a neat freak. and iam not at all enless its other peoples houses i dont know way though. like at my cuosins house if his room isnt clean i freak out and claen it all up, but with my room it has to have close on the floor and the bed can not at all be made ounce in away my mom will make my bed but then i go into my room and mese up my bed. im really artsy and stuff so i think for me its just the way i was made, but i dont know why i always have to keep other peoples house clean.

eh I used to be like that. I always used to HAVE to push ALL the chairs in after every class last year and had to be the last person to leave the room. If all the chairs weren't pushed in their desks it just pissed me off. When I had nothing else to do, I'd look at some uneven things and I'd have to straighten it out. Sometimes, even a napkin overlapping on itself might bother me. Basically things that weren't "perfect." But recently, I thought, screw it. It's not going to make a difference what position it's in - it's still what it is. But there's still that needless urge...

My friends have amoungst themselves decided i have mild OCD , its mainly because of my Cd's and Dvd's i have around 200 of each and they are all perfectly ordered, if someone messes it up i get really upset and agitated have to pull the whole lot out and order it again even if its only one out of order, I also have to have pictures hung perfectly , this is a bad one because i tend to do this in everyones house that i go to! i try to do it when they aren't looking , like i pretend to be looking at it wait till they turn around and then wham its straight !!

Originally Posted By: katonsuiitoneh I used to be like that. I always used to HAVE to push ALL the chairs in after every class last year and had to be the last person to leave the room. If all the chairs weren't pushed in their desks it just pissed me off. When I had nothing else to do, I'd look at some uneven things and I'd have to straighten it out. Sometimes, even a napkin overlapping on itself might bother me. Basically things that weren't "perfect." But recently, I thought, screw it. It's not going to make a difference what position it's in - it's still what it is. But there's still that needless urge... Its not just the being organized thing, its like my room has to be clean. You should see me doing vacuum, i even vacuum up the air so i can pick up dust particles floating around, thats sad. I just feel dirty and uncomfortable if i see dust floating around or settling.Im just worried this is going to get worse later on in life.

Perfunctory cleanliness and neatness do not equate to OCD. That just means you like things orderly in your life, or, as is more often the case, you want this one part of your life in order.

Im somewhat there, not monk like, but close to howey mandell in some aspects.I cant fly, UNLESS I touch the outsid eof the plane first. if I dont everyone is dead.true? nope, noone touching that planes outside will keep it from crashing but the anxiety of not touching the outside walking in through the boarding door is worse than crashing. I dont eat anything with out a fork, I simply can not touch food and stick it in my mouth, pizza burgers, it doesnt matter whta it is I eat it all with a fork, or I dont eat at all. I also cant touch unfinished wood or anything dirty with out gloves on.The sensations of unfinished wood against my skin ar too much to handle, and to touch wood ro say a metal pole thats got dust all over it ? cant fucking do it, have to have gloves on. I have to wear latex glove to work on a car, I cant stand the even think of touching that greasy oily dirty fucking engine block with out some protection for my hands.Nothing started out this way, ti all built up. It fucks with my life to some degree, but it hasnt taken total control yet.I acn bait hooks, gut fish or large animals and be covered in blood to my shoulders from crawling inside an elk to cut that windpipe as high in the throat as possbile, doesnt bother me at all but to pick up a 2x4 with no gloves and have ti touch my skin? Id rather be hit in the mouth.

cleanliness and neatness do not equate to OCD

I agree but if it.. "stresses me out when i dont do this and it bothers me untill i have to do it." then I think one leans toward OCD

True, I didn't retain that part. I guess I need to actually read the thread rather than read through it.I'm OCD. Always have been but it's gotten worse lately, like all my other mental problems. Some of the shit I do. I have to exit AutoCad by typing in quit, rather than just "x"ing out and the screen still has to be open. Otherwise I have to restart the program open the screen and then type in quit. I have to drive a certain route to work, it takes longer and is out of the way but I have to go that way, even if it makes me late, which it often does. So, to compensate for that I get up earlier and leave the house with the extra time to go out of my way. I have to look at a certain grave on the way to work and even when I do I worry that I didn't and have to circle the block to make sure I did. I've been know to drive by it 3 or 4 times some mornings. When I say block I'm talking country block, so it ends up being 5 and 7/10 miles out of the way. I've done it enough I know the exact mileage.Worse still is that my last words to my wife have to be "Be careful, I love you." and I have to say it twice. This one is particularly harmful for me. I'll get 30 miles from home then have to turn around and go back just tell her that shit. She doesn't even know it cause she's still asleep. I've been know to do this twice in one commute to work. Even after I drive all the way back I'll worry till I see her again if I said it twice, or were the circumstances right, was already getting to light outside, and so on and so on. That one has made me hours late to work, many, many times. It got so bad that now I get up and come to work very, very early so that when I do have to turn around and go back home I can still beat everyone into the office. This one causes me to lose an hour and half of sleep a night, when I generally never sleep more than 5 or so hours a night anyway, so it pushes me back to about 4 hours.I do a bunch of other shit but most of it's pretty mundane and not nearly as intrusive into my life.

I have ADHD and OCD, which is not a good combination if you ask me. I usually describe myself as nut job on crack because of the effects it has on my life day to day.  Quote: Worse still is that my last words to my wife have to be "Be careful, I love you." and I have to say it twice. I do something very similar to that. If I'm leaving my parents house, I have to stop and make sure I've told them that I love them and I have to hear them say it back before I can walk out of the house. I also have to say "I love you, bye" before I can get off the phone with someone (parents, siblings, and so on), and if I don't say it (or think that I didn't) and hang up I'll fret over it and I have to call them back just to say it (you know, just in case). I have a thing with making lists and giving people a play by play of what I'm going to do. I have to make lists of all the things I need to do and half the time I don’t even follow them, but I have to make them. When I say that I give people play by plays, I mean I will literally tell someone (who ever I’m around, family, friends, co-workers, whoever) exactly what I’m going to do. For example, when I’m at work, I’ll tell my co-worker “Okay ******, I’m going to shave some meat for our sandwiches. Then I’ll take out the garbage and then I’ll start stocking and zoning the shelves.” I don’t know why I do it, there’s really no need, but I have to do it.I hate going out to eat at restaurants or eating over at a friend’s house because of the way I have to eat my food. Well, I don’t really hate it, but it does make me uncomfortable when someone points out the quirky things I do while I eat. I can’t help doing it because it’s just something that I feel I have to do and it can be difficult explaining it to people. I’ll give you an example, when I eat a sandwich, I have to make it a particular way or I will not eat it. This is really weird because if I don’t see it being made by someone else, I’ll eat it, but the bread has to be humpy side up if I’m eating it whole (I normally cut it into fourths). When I make a sandwich for myself, it has to be wheat bread (the humpy side up on both slices, and they have to be laid side by side for me to make it), miracle whip spread lightly on both sides, a leaf of lettuce, two small slices of tomato with a tiny sprinkle of sea salt, a few slices of pickles with a tiny sprinkle of sea salt, a little but of onion with a tiny sprinkle of black pepper, a slice of mild cheddar cheese, a little bit of meat (normally turkey or bacon) all on one slice of the bread and then I’ll close it up and cut it into fourths. I don’t cut it in a cross so it’ll be like little squares; I have to cut it in an ‘X’ so it looks like little triangles. Eh, okay, I'll just stop right here because I'm sure you all get the point... I'm a whacko with issues. I could go on and on about all the stuff I obsess over, but I wont bore you guys any more than you already are!!

Iv got the triangle sandwitch thing going as well do you count every step? If you ask me when I hit the bottom or top of a stair case I can tell you how many steps there were, and I hate odd shit.like if I get gas and I need 20 bucks to fill it and I hit 20.01, Ill fucking take that to a 2 cent because I cant deal with it being a odd number.stupid, stoopid shit. assanine shit that doesnt matter is what I get hung up on.I cant just go take a shower, I have to scrub the shower out first, and then again after, but the after is a spray on soak and hose off scrub, the pre shower scrub is fucking stiff brushes and comet cleanser. If Im just cleaning the bathroom and need to scrub the shower its toilet bowl cleaner I use in it (but not the toilet brush!) and the bathroom and kitchen and fridge have to be checked with a black light to make sure its safe to use before I can call it complete,With out teh black light its just shining shit, its got to be fucking clean!Its sort of a pain in the ass to live with but then the rules only apply part time too.I go camping, I can eat shit with my hands, or food tha got dropped in the fire can be retrieved and brushed off of hot coals and put in my mouth, I can bait fish hooks to fish and never once think to wash my hands before I eat a sandwitch. The rules only apply in normal life, at some times they dont matter at all.The good side is my will be wife likes me to shower! I shower at night so its always clean before she gets in in the morning. Dishes can only be washed in the morning or afternoon, I have no explanantion for that one. I wash them all by hand then put them in the dishwasher and it wil sit till morning if I do it at night, then turn it on when I leave the house.They can be run in the afternoon too, just not after dinner.I have no rational or even percievable reason for any of it, I dont make the rules, I just am forced to follow them.

At everyone... Well aren't we just a bunch of fucked up freaks. Knocks on monitor Hello, are there any mentally healthy people on this board. LoL

Quote:do you count every step? If you ask me when I hit the bottom or top of a stair case I can tell you how many steps there were, and I hate odd shit.like if I get gas and I need 20 bucks to fill it and I hit 20.01, Ill fucking take that to a 2 cent because I cant deal with it being a odd number.stupid, stoopid shit. assanine shit that doesnt matter is what I get hung up on. Yes! I'll admit it, I'm guilty of that as well! I don't count my steps every where I go, I'll only do it in specific places. Like how many steps it takes to go from the living room to the bathroom, or how many steps it takes to go from one side of the store I work at to the other (my mom counts how many steps it takes to get from the porch to the front gate, and she calls me crazy lol).I have this thing with keeping my hands clean. I cannot stand for them to be dirty!! It will drive me freaking insane if I’m somewhere and I cannot wash my hands if the urge strikes. I have to keep them clean, no ‘ifs,’ ‘ands,’ or ‘buts’ about it, I have to do it! I can’t believe I’m about to admit this, but when I was a little kid (around the age of eight or nine) I started wearing socks on my hands because I was so afraid of getting my hands dirty. I would literally freak out if something I considered ‘unclean’ touched my hands or arms. I would walk around my house with tube socks (or any kind of clean sock I could find) on my hands because I truly believed that they would protect my hands from getting dirty. I guess I thought of it as a shield against germs lol My parents tried and tried to get me to stop doing that, but I just had to eventually grow out of it on my own. So yeah, I don’t wear socks on my hands anymore, but I do wash them all the time. Yeah, I'm nutty Heh, when I get home from work I'm sure I'll post more crazy crap I do...

there are 14 steps from my room to the kitchen, 7 of those end at the front room the other 7 go up to the hall way, there are 7 steps from my computer in my room to the bottom of the steps, 10 steps down the hall to my 4 yearlds room, 8 from the top of the stairs to the entry way to teh kitchen, but only 4 if I make a left and head for the bathroom, there are 13 steps from the top of the stairs to the bottom of the forth level.its 3 steps from my bed to my bed room door, these are numbers i know by heart.I dont count ever step I take outside of he house, but I do unconsiously count stairs that I walk up or down, no matter where i am.we go out and my kids fuck with me.hit the mall, piss on the elvators, crowded and slow take the stairs, at random points along the way its "how many stairs so far dad?"its a fucked up thing, but like I said I dont make the rules, I jsut am forced to live by them.EDIT:when you walk say from the front room to the bathroom and count steps, lets say its 11 steps, do you do a double half step to make it come out even on both feet or just figure it works out even in the end if you walk back to the same spot?I do the double half step to get in the extra so ti works out even.

You guys are weird... LOL

The oly time I really feel tha odd is likme istting in a resturant and people looking at me like im an idiot for eating a burger with a fork like i said, I dont make the rules iM just forced to live by them.

Well i guess i dont have it like that, but im afraid it might get that bad, but i doubt it..At what age did you guys start doing these things?

Quote:when you walk say from the front room to the bathroom and count steps, lets say its 11 steps, do you do a double half step to make it come out even on both feet or just figure it works out even in the end if you walk back to the same spot?I do the double half step to get in the extra so ti works out even.I’ve got issues with numbers as well, I hate for things to end up being odd. I’ll usually stop where I am walk back to where I started and do it again in order to make it come out even… it gets kind of frustrating.When you walk beside someone do you have to make sure you are both in step with one another? Quote:At what age did you guys start doing these things?I really can’t pin point an age I started doing any of this, I’ve just done it for as long as I can remember. I never really realized that I did many of the things that I do until someone pointed it out to me. I was just so used to doing all these whacky things that I never thought of them as being a bit unusual.