When people I don’t like or that I find unattractive walk past me while indoors I exhale when their “wind” hits me because I don’t want to breathe in their nasty humors or something. I do the opposite for people that I do like or that I find attractive. I have no idea when this started or why I do it.
Lately also I’ve taken to trying to pronounce all signs and such that I see while driving backwards. Totally compulsive and no good reason for that one either.
ETA- No, I’m not driving backwards. I try to pronounce the words on signs backwards while driving. That makes more sense than that horrid first sentance did.
My dog has been deaf and blind for the last 2 years and I still talk to him all the time and make hand gestures even though I know that he can’t hear or see me. It drives my partner nuts because he assumes that I’m talking to him and stops what he’s doing to say “What did you say? I couldn’t hear you.”
I have a habit of pretending that whatever song I’m hearing is my soundtrack…regardless of what the song is…and then I have to come up with a reason why this song would be playing on my soundtrack.
If I’m drinking a bottle of water with a cap, I have a tendency to put the cap back on constantly. Even if I’m just sitting here drinking it. I take the cap off, take a sip, put the cap back on, and set it down. Over and over and over again.
If I’m aware I’m doing it I’ll try to stop. And then I’ll start doing it again when I forget.
I definitely do that–even when driving. Why not leave the cap off when the bottle is in the cupholder anyway?? It’s more of a distraction to have to remove the cap!:smack:
I don’t know about your cupholders, but I wouldn’t trust mine to hold a coin, let alone an open bottle of water. The cap goes on because things go flying out of them with an alarming frequency. Forget that car key brouhaha from yesterday, I want some of the auto dopers to explain why cup holders can’t be made that don’t allow the cup to fall over. It’s an upholstry cleaning union conspiracy!
The clicking sound of a car’s turn signal sounds like a drum beat. When I’m at a stoplight, and I have my turn signal on, I invent songs in my head that use the “drum beat” from the turn signal.
This too. Cracking especially. It’s all about symmetry!
I don’t blow out, I hold my breath. Why? Because I used to work with a fat lady who fucking stunk, that’s why! And now I hold my breath around REALLY fat people.
I compulsively pace while on the cell phone. Like walking around the yard, or the middle of the road, or even better, if I’m on a tile floor, I have to move like a knight in chess. Back and forth throughout the tile floored room, only in that fashion. The tile floor thing isn’t limited to phone calls. Anytime I’m on a tile floor, it’s the same.
I call it “heavy feets” and I need it. My fiance doesn’t understand it at all. I don’t feel comfortable/at ease unless my feet have something heavy on them (except in the heat of summer) and my shoulders are covered by a sheet. Yes, just my shoulders in the summer. But dammit, they WILL be covered!
It’s fascinating to see what wide varieties of obsessive/compulsive behavior go on amongst the teeming millions that doesn’t rise to the level of actual OCD. Very interesting.
QtM, who does wet the toothbrush before and after putting toothpaste on it.
I have to sweep the kitchen floor before I can cook.
I have to be wearing underwear to be able to sleep. I think this comes from my Mom always insisting that we girls wear our panties, no matter what !! Even under dance leotards.
I do that counting thing with my steps, or other things (like clicking turn signals). I won’t notice it at first.
When I set the alarm on the digital clock, it has to be on a multiple of 5, never in between, like how much of a difference can it make if I it goes off at 6:05 or 6:07? And the snooze alarm is for 9 minutes, not 10, so I’m really getting up at 6:14 (or 6:23, sometimes even 6:32!). Sometimes I think if I really want to get up at 6:15, I should set it for 6:06, but never do.
When I walk past someone who just sneezed or coughed or looks particularly dirty I do a combo of both. I hold my breath when I’m by them as I walk past, then once in the clear I blow out as much as my lungs will let me. Keeps me clear of the cooties!
Also I have to have something over my ears when I sleep. Usually I just use the blanket or my hair. Otherwise bugs will crawl in my ears!
I always sniff the milk too, but I don’t regard it as weird. Nothing more stomach-churning than a snort of sour milk.
I won’t turn a tv off unless it’s on channel 2.
Whenever I pass roadkill in my car I hold my breath until I’m well past it. I once told a co-worker that I did it so the animal’s soul wouldn’t enter my body. I never told him I was kidding.
I actively look for behaviors like this in myself and try to eliminate the ones that make no sense…which is kinda just another form of the same behaviors, I think
I double wet my toothbrush and sniff the milk too.
I have to put my left sock and shoe on first because when I was 17 I read it was good luck. I’m not normally superstitious but that one stuck in my head.
I’m certain there are more but I can’t think of other examples at the moment.
I read this right after panache45’s post W/O realizing at first you were talking about toothbrush wetting. For a split second, I was pretty :eek::eek::eek:
I do the toothbrush wetting thing too & it is necessary. The first makes it easier for the paste to adhere to the brush. The second pushes the paste onto the brush (if it doesn’t knock it off).
