# Your obsessive/compulsive behaviors **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 10, 2006, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319 "2006-01-10T15:48:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/1 "2006-01-10T15:48:33Z")
What are your obsessive/compulsive behaviors? For me it’s checking my clock radio alarm after going to bed. I will check it at least twice to make sure it’s set to go off. Sometimes I will even double check to make sure the time is set correctly. I also check to make sure I have my keys with me at least two or three times before closing my front door and locking it. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/2 "2006-01-10T21:16:50Z")
I pat my pocket to make sure my keys are in it nearly every time I move across the room. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/3 "2006-01-10T21:31:43Z")
> [@Dung Beetle](#): > > I pat my pocket to make sure my keys are in it nearly every time I move across the room. Hah, I thought I was the only one to do that, although I limit it to when I’m \*leaving \*the room. I have this little ritual when I leave for work in the morning: 1) Clip cell phone on holster, 2) Put Commit lozenges in my pocket (I quit smoking but can’t give up the damn lozenges), then 3) Pour coffee in travel cup. If I do any of this out of order, it makes me feel uneasy for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![MizGrand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@MizGrand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MizGrand)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/4 "2006-01-10T21:36:05Z")
I pick my cuticles/nails raw and bloody. I’ve read the reason for the self-mutilation is the desire for smoothness. The process just keeps perpetuating since once you pick, it’s still not smooth, and now it’s bloody and hurts. :wally ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/5 "2006-01-10T21:42:48Z")
> [@dwc1970](#): > > What are your obsessive/compulsive behaviors? > > For me it’s checking my clock radio alarm after going to bed. I will check it at least twice to make sure it’s set to go off. Sometimes I will even double check to make sure the time is set correctly. I don’t do this at home (I must trust my clock at home for some reason) but when I travel for work I check it at least a half-dozen times. I go through the whole mental rundown of how the damn thing works…(ok, time is set…alarm is set…pm has a little light indicator…am doesn’t…current time has pm indicator…morning time doesn’t have the indicator…wait a minute…did the indicator mean am or pm…repeat…ad naseum…) over and over. Even then, if I wake up in the middle of the night I will check it again. When I’m in the field I usually have a crew of 5 or 6 guys working for me and I’m terribly paranoid about being late (probably because I have zero tolerance for anybody else being late). My only other compulsive behavior is that if I get one hand wet I have to immediately get the other one wet as well. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/6 "2006-01-10T22:02:45Z")
Hitting refresh on the SDMB page after every few moments. Or, continuously clicking from forum to forum in the pursuit of new and interesting threads/posts. Don’t know if that really counts as OCD-like, but it’s starting to feel that way. ---
**Author:** ![kezami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eb8c5e/32.png) [@kezami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kezami)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/7 "2006-01-10T22:13:12Z")
> [@RSSchen](#): > > I pick my cuticles/nails raw and bloody. I’ve read the reason for the self-mutilation is the desire for smoothness. The process just keeps perpetuating since once you pick, it’s still not smooth, and now it’s bloody and hurts. :wally I do the same. It sucks ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/8 "2006-01-10T22:24:24Z")
I have to watch a movie from the very beginning. If it’s in the middle, even if it’s a movie I especially love, I can’t watch it. The openings of my pillow cases have to face toward the edge of the bed. Sheets must have hospital corners, or I can’t sleep in the bed. I’ll get out and remake it, then get back in and go to sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/9 "2006-01-10T22:40:17Z")
Before I leave any building, I have to make sure my keys are in my purse. Even if it’s a public building and I haven’t even opened my purse, I still have to check. ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/10 "2006-01-10T23:28:33Z")
When I’m travelling, every time I think of my passport, I need to check if I have it. It doesn’t matter if I last checked two minutes ago, and haven’t moved from the car since as we haven’t yet arrived at the airport. I must check, or I’ll go crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/11 "2006-01-10T23:39:10Z")
> [@RSSchen](#): > > I pick my cuticles/nails raw and bloody. I’ve read the reason for the self-mutilation is the desire for smoothness. The process just keeps perpetuating since once you pick, it’s still not smooth, and now it’s bloody and hurts. :wally Oh, me too. The more stressed out I am, the worse I pick. You can tell how bad my week has been by the condition of my thumbs. I also have a nightly ritual that I have to do in order to go to bed. Floss my teeth, brush them, wash my face, rinse with Listerine. Every singly night, whether I’m sick, drunk, away, whatever. If I can’t do this, I can’t sleep, at least, not well, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Thirty-Nine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f0a364/32.png) [@Thirty-Nine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thirty-Nine)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/12 "2006-01-11T00:06:05Z")
Checking that my flies are done up. Some of my trousers have a little warped piece of fabric to the right of the fly. Double checking my watch. Not really OCD, but it’s kind of stupid that I’ll gaze at my watch and fail to register the time. Making sure that none of the little LEDs that adorn my laptop peripherals are on when I go to bed. Do I see them when my eyes are closed? No. Do they make the room any brighter than the street lamps flooding in from above? No. Do I still do it? Yes. Apparently my father used to double check that he’d switched the lights off (i.e., flick them back on then off again). That’s pretty bizzare… I also do the alarm clock and passport thing. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/13 "2006-01-11T01:00:23Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > I have this little ritual when I leave for work in the morning: 1) Clip cell phone on holster, 2) Put Commit lozenges in my pocket (I quit smoking but can’t give up the damn lozenges), then 3) Pour coffee in travel cup. If I do any of this out of order, it makes me feel uneasy for some reason. Do you re-do those things, if you slip up and do them out of order? I don’t have any obsessive-compulsive behaviors, but I do have some rituals. If I’m interrupted, I feel uneasy. Maybe a ritual is one step away from obsessive. I find them comforting – there’s so little in our lives that we have control over. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/14 "2006-01-11T01:06:40Z")
> [@Maureen](#): > > I have to watch a movie from the very beginning. If it’s in the middle, even if it’s a movie I especially love, I can’t watch it. > The openings of my pillow cases have to face toward the edge of the bed. > Sheets must have hospital corners, or I can’t sleep in the bed. I’ll get out and remake it, then get back in and go to sleep. Nooo. The pillow openings have to face away from the door. I used to be a nurse and the way pillows face was as important in bedmaking as hospital corners. ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/15 "2006-01-11T01:12:57Z")
I always have to be able to know the correct time. Doesn’t matter if I have a schedule to keep or not. If I’m in a room with no clock and I don’t have my watch with me, I get a bit of an anxiety attack. Also, if a room has multiple clocks in it (such as the bedroom where my wife and I have our own alarm clocks), they must be synchronized. If one says 9:05 and the other 9:06, it drives me crazy. Which is it, 9:05 or 9:06? I have to know! Also, at night I’ll check that the front door is locked and the garage door is closed several times. Even though logically I know I checked it already and if they were unlocked/open I would have closed them, I still have to check again anyway. It’s a totally irrational habit. BTW, everyone knows pillow case openings have to face towards the inside of the bed. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/16 "2006-01-11T01:35:35Z")
All empty clothes hangers to the middle of the rack. Leaving them on the rack willy-nilly drives me batty, and my obsession drives my husband batty. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/17 "2006-01-11T01:38:53Z")
If I lose something and I’m firmly convinced that it’s somewhere in the house, that makes me _insane._ I will spend a ridiculous amount of time searching for it. The stupider and more inconsequential it is, the farther into the distant future I potentially might need it, the greater my compulsion to find it. I’ve been late to work because I was looking for a birthday present I’d gotten for my sister-in-law a few months in advance. Her birthday? A month away. But I happened to think of it, and remembered I’d bought it, and knew it was _somewhere_ in the house, but I couldn’t remember where so I _had_ to turn the house upside down to find it. I’ve given up chewing my fingernails. I can’t stop biting my cuticles. Damnit! I also do the keys thing. When I travel, I take my keys with me and carry them in my pocket the whole time (except while going through the metal detector, natch) because if I don’t, I unconsciously pat my pocket and fly into a mini-panic about a hundred times a day. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/18 "2006-01-11T01:53:17Z")
> [@Thirty-Nine](#): > > Double checking my watch. Not really OCD, but it’s kind of stupid that I’ll gaze at my watch and fail to register the time. That happens to me too. I’ll look at my watch, someone will ask me what time it is, and I can’t tell them till I look at my watch again. Also: If I’m sitting somewhere and get up to leave, I always look behind me to see whether I left anything, even if there was nothing to leave. This started when I lost my backpack in Rome; I just got up without it and walked away, didn’t even miss it for a half hour; of course it was gone when I went back. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/19 "2006-01-11T01:56:12Z")
> [@jabiru](#): > > Nooo. The pillow openings have to face away from the door. I used to be a nurse and the way pillows face was as important in bedmaking as hospital corners. My bed faces my door. 😛 Remembered this one on the way home: I open windows in a very specific order. If one of them crashes, I close the rest and reopen all of them in order. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319/20 "2006-01-11T02:16:40Z")
> [@The Sausage Creature](#): > > All empty clothes hangers to the middle of the rack. Leaving them on the rack willy-nilly drives me batty, and my obsession drives my husband batty. Ooo, I do that. I had no idea I was obsessive until I came into this thread. 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-obsessive-compulsive-behaviors/339319.md?page=2)