There are some people, who after stubbing one toe, will try to stub the other one with equal force. Or feel the need to spin counter clockwise in a swivel chair after spinning clockwise, or bump a wall with their left side after accidently running into the wall with the right side of their body. Is there any reason why they feel the need to “even things out” or “undo” something? Is it a form of OCD or something?
Okay, that’s a horrible title, but I couldn’t think of a good way to explain what’s going on here. I hope someone knows what I’m talking about here.
Yes. Or at least, I can’t think of any other explanation.
It does seem that a pain seems to lessen when you have it on both sides of your body, or when it’s closer to the center. Maybe that’s psychological but I’ve found it to be true. But that doesn’t “justify” causing injury on the opposite side of your body.
Well, if you spin one way in a chair and then spin the other way, you make yourself a lot less dizzy tha you’d otherwise have been. At least, it works for me.
IANAPsychologist, but I’m pretty sure that this sort of thing can be one of the symptoms of OCD-like conditions; AFAIK, trying to ‘get things just right’ is a pretty classic manifestation.
That sounds like splendid therapy to me, but there can be some difficulties…
If, for example, you’re a right handed batter, and a fastball shatters your left jaw, will the rules permit you to immediately switch to the other side of the plate so that the pitcher can do the same to your right jaw?
Or must you wait til your next at bat?
How many attempts is the pitcher entitled to, in order to hit the mark for the evening-things-out therapy?
If you’re a sissy and insist on immediately going to the hospital with your left jaw hanging by a thread, when is the evening-things-out therapy implemented - the first game you’re back, or the first game in which the original pitcher pitches against your team.
If you’re killed in the first event, is the undertaker obliged to even things out with a sledge hammer to your right jaw?
I won’t be able to sleep until these questions are answered. Please hurry.
:eek: :eek: :eek:
I also used to do that sort of thing, and I suspect that I had a bit of OCD about me. At some point as a kid, however, I learned about averages, and I realized that on average I’d stub my right and left toe equally (and if this isn’t true, please don’t tell me!) and that enabled me not to worry about such matters. Once in awhile, like right now, I start thinking about it again, and the urge to behave symmetrically (e.g., I’m now trying to hit the space bar an even amount of times with my right and left thumbs, which really slows down my typing) crops up again.
I’m surprised to see this as labelled OCD-like behavior - not that it is or isn’t, but it just seems so small. For me, it seems like the nerve sensations are less distracting if they come symmetrically. I’m not going to, for example, break my left arm to balance out my right (hypothetically) - but knuckle-cracking, toe-stubbing, shoulder-against-wall-bumping (??) are OK. Feel free to analyze all that.
On Thanksgiving, my cousin brought a friend over for dinner. When the friend was coming into a room, he was walking too close to one side, and accidentally bumped into the archway. He stopped, backed out a bit, then seemingly purposefully knocked his other shoulder against the other side the archway a couple of times. Then he walked through the opening and sat down. That’s what got me started thinking about the reasons for this kind of behavior.
My grandfather was kind of superstitious, and one of the things that bothered him was spinning anything. If you turned a plate or glass around on the table, he wanted you to spin it the other way to “unwind” it. He didn’t have any other OCD-like tendencies that I can remember, it was just one of his superstitions, like hats on the bed, or open umbrellas in the house.
I Suppose (remembering I am not qualified in this field) it would depend on the degree of obsession over the behaviour; certainly and obsessive need for order, symmetry and counting (i.e. that both sides get the same share) seems to be a widely-recognised symptom of OCD, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anyone who does those things once in a while, without feeling any anxious compulsion to do so, has anything to worry about.
I’ve had Sydenham’s Chorea since 1968. It happens because of a Strep Throat infection, and you my get Ruematic Fever. I believe that behavor to be the OC component of this desease. Sydenhams is like Tourets, but is caused by the infection triggering the immune system in the brain. A child that shows this behavior needs to be seen by a doctor right away, especialy if vocal ticks occur. Vocal ticks are sniffing, facial contortions, rapid blinking, or limb jerking. I went to the Neurologist for a Botox shot during trials, and the doctor made a comment that I had Superman’s eye muscles. This is a desease that hit’s mostly childern and is very rare since the 70’s because of antibiotics. The neurology department doctors have had all the department meet me for a while, so they can see a case first hand. I’ve used meditation techneques to help me gain some control over the symptoms. It took about ten years of correcting my own worst OC behavior, to have an effect. I have at least one arguement ever year with people that put off taking kids to the doctor on this board. Their excuse is the low incidence of occurance, which is only that low because kids get treated with antibiotics. They wouldn’t feel that way, if they had to go through this personally, or experience the helpless mortiffication these parents do every day.
I did this kind of stuff a lot as a kid, and I couldn’t really tell you why. It’s just sort of a compulsion, and when I saw the thread title I came in to say ‘some kind of mild OCD.’
Oh: I meant to add that in my case, stubbing both toes would be a bad example. I never hurt myself deliberately. Sometimes I would brush against a door on purpose with one shoulder after accidentally doing it with the other, but nothing painful.
I did that kind of thing when I was a kid. It bugged me if a part of my body felt different from the corresponding part on the other side. So, if I scratched my left elbow, I would have to scratch my right elbow too so that they both would have that just-been-scratched feeling. I wouldn’t take it to the extent of injuring myself or causing pain, though.
