# What are your OCD tendencies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 9, 2016, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458 "2016-07-09T06:05:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/21 "2016-07-10T15:17:45Z")
> [@ASGuy](#): > > (1) I use wood (not drywall) screws for smaller carpentry projects that require disassembly for maintenance or adjustment. When I disassemble them I always _make sure_ to put the screws back in the same hole they came out of. I often make temporary screw holders for the screws to ensure they go back where they came from. Even I think this is nutty but I can’t stop doing it. I do the same when I dismantle gear for repair. Part of this is practical in that laptops and such often do use six different screws to hold a plate on, and mixing them up can lead to disaster. But I will keep identical screws in a row in a mag holder and put them back in exact order. Just cuz. CDO, y’know. The other trait I share with my sister, who is also an accomplished crafts and handyperson, is that if I drop a nail or screw while building something, I have to retrieve it and use it in that one spot. It drives me crazy to watch (more efficient) builders just let the drops lie there and use another screw, eventually picking up all the lost ones. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/22 "2016-07-10T16:08:14Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > Things that were installed crooked or out of sequence bug me. Facebook is full of the “you had one job!” examples of tile done poorly, and I used to have a dentist that may have had an inner ear disorder as every picture in their waiting room was tilted the same amount off level. I can spend forever aligning a picture or painting on a wall. I can be watching tv and my eyes will drift over to the picture and I’m like - ok wait, that’s just a _smidgeon_ off… or actually…maybe it’s not, and for the next five minutes I’ll go back and forth like that. > [@mixdenny](#): > > I once dated a woman with OCD so bad it eventually broke us up. Just like it did with her previous boyfriends. When I started dating her she told me that if I ever wanted to break up, just tell her. All the others just left in the night and never came back. I became one of those. > > I vowed never to be like that. I think the only quirk I have is that I don’t like to see two shoes setting beside each other the “wrong way”, i.e., the left and right reversed. > > Dennis Any examples? To bear my own soul on the matter - I nearly lost someone because how I like things not just clinically clean but also zippo nada clutter anywhere. I tried to convince her that the less clutter there is one’s environment, the less clutter, accordingly, there is in one’s mind. We sorta eventually met half-way on the matter. > [@Sahirrnee](#): > > The only thing I get a little OCD about is paying bills. > I have to pay them online, and after I pay them I log out of the site and log back in to make sure it has been credited. Then I check my bank balance to make sure the money has been taken out and applied in the right place. > The places that have a bit of delay in the steps drive me crazy until I can see that everything is processed correctly. Yeah, all my bills are _immediately_ taken care of online. I don’t log out/log back in, but I always check the “transaction confirmed” page. And then compare account levels from a year previously to confirm I’m always earning at a currently higher level. Logging in to the same three websites (email, news, etc), and then for the last few months this place has been the fourth. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/23 "2016-07-10T16:17:13Z")
oh and typo/omissions drive me crazier than anything, like in my previous post, where it should say “…the less clutter there is IN one’s environment…” ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/24 "2016-07-10T17:20:00Z")
[pedant]Everyone has some OC tendencies. But it doesn’t rise to the level of OC **D** until it causes significant disruption in the life of the individual with the tendencies. That’s what makes it a _disorder_. [/pedant] ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/25 "2016-07-10T17:23:29Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > You might like something like Quicken, or even just an old fashioned Check Register. As you make a payment (of any kind) from your checking account, you record it. Every few days you check your online bank balance to see what’s cleared and check those off in your register. Anything not checked off after a reasonable amount of time needs to be investigated. Also, I always copy and paste the confirmation number over to Quicken. I’ve never, once, ever needed a confirmation number for anything like that, but just the fact that I have it there in the memo tells me I probably did, in fact, make the payment and it just hasn’t gone through yet. If I don’t feel like going to that company’s website, logging in and finding the place to see if I actually did make the payment, I know I’m probably safe to wait another day or two and check again. Every few days? The first thing I do every morning is check my bank balances. I get a text message every time one of my debit cards are used. I have three accounts, one for all things house, one for all things car, and one for everything else. Actually makes it convenient if I need to find something, because I know which account I need to check. After I pay a bill online, I copy the receipt and send it to myself in an email, and I only file the email after everything has cleared the way it should. I have a few I have to pay by phone and everything is noted on the bottom of the bill. Mailing in a bill is not an option for me, because I stress where the bill is until the check has cleared, \*and \* I get the next statement showing me the payment was made. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/26 "2016-07-10T19:41:34Z")
I play trivia in an online chatroom (it’s a continuous game that you can join and leave at any time) and I don’t like to leave the game when my score is an odd number. Even if it’s really late and I need to go to bed, I’ll keep playing until I can get another point to make my score an even number. ---
**Author:** ![jasnooks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f4b2a3/32.png) [@jasnooks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasnooks)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/27 "2016-07-10T21:21:44Z")
I keep my campfires “organized”. I can’t stand it when wood starts falling towards the side. I also burn the "ugly"wood first ---
**Author:** ![jasnooks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f4b2a3/32.png) [@jasnooks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasnooks)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/28 "2016-07-10T21:26:36Z")
Also, I’m a counter. For example when i check to make sure the stove is off before going to bed, or leaving the house, i count the knobs. 12345, yep it’s off… sometimes I have to do this twice. Also before leaving the house, i visually check, and smell the kitchen garbage can too make sure i didn’t throw a lit cigarette there, which i never do ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/29 "2016-07-11T03:49:15Z")
Tennis pro Raphael Nadal has this goofy configuration of placing his water and juice bottles next to his chair, between games. They have to be placed at just the correct 45 degree angles from one another, which he takes great pains to carry out. And goosing himself is another tic that has GOT TO FUCKING GO. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/30 "2016-07-11T04:15:33Z")
You mean rearranging the underwear from the back? Some guys just got to doing that because their mothers would scream bloody murder if they did it from the front. And it’s Rafael 😛 Raphael is the singer who turned the motherfucking little drummer boy into an international hate-target. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/31 "2016-07-11T13:01:49Z")
I don’t know if this is part of OCD but I recently realized that I have a subconscious obsession with doing even very minor tasks in the most efficient manner possible. And the thing is, that being subconscious, I don’t even realize that I’m doing it. So I might be dawdling in getting started at some minor nothing - say, getting dressed - and not realize that this is because somewhere in the back of my mind I’m sorting through which order I should do the various steps in so as to be the absolute most efficient that I can be. Not something affecting my life in any significant way, and certainly not something anyone else would notice, but it seems to me that this is occurring. Though it seems to be fading now that I realized I’m doing it. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/32 "2016-07-11T13:15:06Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > We have a hallway outside of my bedroom. At one end of the hallway is a light switch to turn the hall light on or off and at the other, opposite end, there is another light switch that does the same thing. > > However these two light switches are connected in a way that one will turn on the light and then: 1. Either the same one will turn it off again (duh) OR 2. The other one will turn it off again…which means that it requires you to flip the switch UP to turn it off. > THIS means (try to stay with me here, folks) that both switches would be up at this point, although the hall light would be off and to turn it on again, you’d have to switch one of the switches down, then, when you’re done with the light, you have your choice again: Either flip the other one down so that they’re both down OR flip the first switch upward again so that they’re both up and the light is off. > > … > > NOW that I’ve gotten all of that out of the way: For some reason, it bothers me whenever both lights switches are up and yet the light is off. I wouldn’t consider myself having huge OCD or being that way about much, but whenever I KNOW it’s like this (or pass by and see it like this), it just feels…extremely unnatural to me. I HAVE to flip that switch down, turn the light on, and then run to the other side and flip that one down too, resulting in the light only being off when both are down. > So yeah, if anything about me is OCD, this is. 😛 Right now the light is off due to both switches being down, not up, so that means that–for now–all is right with the world. > > Oceans may rise, asteroids may fall, Donald Trump may become president…but dammit, those switches are down and the light is off, like it should be, Both switches being down and the light being on OR/AND both switches being up and the light being off is…an…AN ABOMINATION! I’m not at all OCD, but I grew up with a hallway like this, and it seemed irrational. But the fix was easy: I became the self-appointed Switch Cop. An unnecessary hike to the other light switch is a small price to pay for Order In The Universe. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/33 "2016-07-11T13:57:45Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > A few of the above mentioned ones, but my big one is forgetting if I closed my garage door. And just to be clear, it’s that I don’t remember if I closed it, not that I’m going back 10 times to check on it. I’ll drive away and nearly always circle back around my block to make sure it’s closed or double check before I go to bed to make sure it’s closed. So I am not the only one. I usually look back as I leave the driveway to make sure, but at least once a week I don’t and have to go back to check. Not OCD as far as I know, and most of the above seem to be quirks and figits we’ve picked up from life and/or experience (IMHO. YMMV). Mine is when I back into a parking space, no matter how well I’ve done it, I need to pull forward and ‘re-adjust’. And then when I am parked, I critically examine how the car fits between the lines and if I am not satisfied, I get back in and re-adjust it. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/34 "2016-07-11T15:32:40Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Wallet, keys, knife. I tap my pockets when ever I move from one place to another. I always catch myself checking my fly when I’m leaving the bathroom in the same way. It’s certainly OCD, but I can’t leave the microwaves in the work breakroom with either the clocks unset or with any time left on the timer. Apparently most of my co-workers happily use it blinking “12:00” constantly, and consistently leave like 30 seconds on the timer after they’re done using it. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/35 "2016-07-11T16:32:44Z")
Don’t know if it’s really OCD, but the loading-animation on [imdb.com](http://imdb.com) when you load a trailer a) isn’t quite round, and b) spins slightly off-center. Drives me bonkers. You’d think they could get some intern to shop together something that doesn’t make me want to strangle my monitor, but it’s been there quite a while now. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/36 "2016-07-11T17:08:13Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > When I’m in the car with the radio on and someone mispronounces a word, I correct the radio. Out loud. Oh god. I keep hearing a commercial on the radio for a local business whose name includes the abbreviation, “Etc.”, and the announcer doing the voiceover keeps pronouncing it “ec-setera”. If I owned that business, I’d be demanding my ad money back. ---
**Author:** ![Buttercup\_Smith](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buttercup_smith/32/473_2.png) [@Buttercup\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buttercup_Smith)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/37 "2016-07-11T21:13:01Z")
I count the stairs at my home. I don’t intentionally do it but catch myself doing it all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/38 "2016-07-11T21:46:00Z")
I’m reminded of a poem. > [@](#): > > ‘I have to sort my books!’ she cried, > > With self-indulgent glee; > > With senseless, narcissistic pride: > > ‘I’m just so OCD!’ > > ‘How random, guys!’ I smiled and said, > > Then left without a peep - > > And washed my hands until they bled, > > And cried myself to sleep. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/39 "2016-07-11T23:40:23Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > There were times when I even drove back from several miles away. In all those times, I think the garage door was _maybe_ open once. Oh, and to make it worse, if I doubled back past my house and decided to run in and grab something, then I’d end up doing the whole thing over again. > Anyways, the perfect solution to all this…I put a webcam in my garage. Now, when I’m a mile and a half away I can just pull it up on my phone and say ‘yup, it’s closed’, and I do that nearly every single day. > > But, as I remind people, **I don’t have OCD** [?], I just have a terrible memory and if leave my garage door open anyone can just walk right into my house… Ummm, why not lock the door to your house if you don’t want people “walking right in”? If I leave the garage door open, the worst thing that’d happen is that someone (those Have-Nots who are apparently patrolling the 'hood looking for open garages) can only steal an old tarp or a hedge trimmer. ---
**Author:** ![ERON](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ed8c4c/32.png) [@ERON](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ERON)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458/40 "2016-07-12T01:45:56Z")
> [@Sahirrnee](#): > > You’d go seriously crazy in my house **Idle** > My kitchen light has three switches. > > The only thing I get a little OCD about is paying bills. > I have to pay them online, and after I pay them I log out of the site and log back in to make sure it has been credited. Then I check my bank balance to make sure the money has been taken out and applied in the right place. > The places that have a bit of delay in the steps drive me crazy until I can see that everything is processed correctly. Yea that’s not really OCD. You are just making sure you have paid all of your bills and don’t want to get charged late fees, or double pay, etc. That’s normal. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-ocd-tendencies/759458.md?page=3)