I’ve been that way about my car radio since October. Why? Because now my radio has a digital display for volume. The volume cannot be at certain numbers like 17 or 19, maybe because they’re primes. If it’s at 19 and 20 is louder than I want, too bad. It’s going to 20.
**Troubleagain, ** I can find your compulsion and exploit it.
I compute how close I am to hitting 100,000 miles in my car, and how close I am to the previous fraction, and so forth. I am now 9 miles from 1/10th of the way from 6/7ths of 100,000 miles to 7/8ths of 100,000 miles. When the intervals get bigger (between 1/3 and 1/2 of this interval is 1/6 of 1786 files) I dive down another level.
Doing all this division in my head keeps my mind limber, at least. I also looked for all letter and number combinations on license plates when I moved here, but I found all those so I’m over that.
My only thing at home is that the dishes in the dishwasher have to be in certain places for maximum packing. But that’s rational at least. 
The elevator can be crammed full, wall-to-wall with people. And I still do it.
You one-thing-at-a-time eaters drive me crazy! Stranger , I, too, must eat everything proportionally. I need to get to that last stage of eating where there is one bite left of everything on the plate. It just tastes better that way.
tripthicket , I’ve always - ever since I can remember - read the last paragraph of the book first, and then continued on from the beginning. I just have to. I never actually remember what I previously read by the time I arrive at the end again, so it doesn’t actually blow the surprise or anything.
I also have to arrange those candy, gum, lighter, etc. displays when I’m in a check-out line at a supermarket. They have to be neat and tidy. How can they look appealing to any customer if everything’s askew?!? The check-out people think I’m crazy.
And, ever since I learned how to read, I’ve had to read the signs on passing objects when I’m in a car. Sometimes outloud. Without noticing. I read the time on the clock out loud also.
Whoa, I seriously thought I was the only one that did that. For instance If I’m running on the treadmill or pedaling on the bike, I make up mini-goals for myself. For instance I might want to get to 100 calories on the bike so I’ll be thinking “Now I’m ten percent done” or “Now I’m 35 percent done”. If I am running a mile on the treadmill I will do that too. I will try and figure out how long it will take me to run a mile (without looking at the miles per hour thing) by mentally comparing the distance I’ve jogged so far by how long I’ve been running.
Also: I do the “padiddle” thing constantly. You know what I’m talking about, if you are in a car with someone the first person to see a car with only one headlight says “padiddle!” and taps on the dashboard. I do that even if I’m alone in the car. I say it outloud and tap and everything.
I do that with things that stick to the bowl, for instance: macaroni and cheese, rice, oatmeal, icecream, or pudding. I will smash it down flat so it is even on top then eat it vertically. It’s aesthetically pleasing to me for some reason. Other than that I am pretty normal with my food.
If I see a cupboard door, or drawer open even a little, I have to close it. If a light has 2 switches they both have to be down if the light is off. I always have to pee before I leave the house. If I see a stack of something, like CDs, and one isn’t in line with the rest I have to correct it. I used to eat everything one at a time, but I don’t do it so much anymore. I play with little things a lot, bottle caps, batteries, whatever is nearby.
I used to have many compulsions but they’ve all faded now except this one. I tell myself it’s for practical reasons.
Back when I had compulsions, I would always try to coordinate mundane activities and sub-activities (make toast, get the mail, etc) in the most efficient manner possible so as not to waste any time. Not because I was a workaholic or had things to do. It just…had to be done.
Oh, wow…I’ve done the weirdest of these. I’d like to say I’m not obsessive-compulsive… :dubious:
Walking in lines with the patterns of tile? Check. Not stepping on invisible architectural lines? Check. I also used to do the thing that Sunshine and Smiles does, except instead of not breathing, I would clench my teeth whenever lined up with something (a telephone pole, a fence, a grain silo) while riding in the car. Add counting silently between mile markers and trying to see if I could get a certain number exactly–without speeding up or slowing down toward the end.
And I eat sandwiches in a very specific way: eat half the sandwich exactly, then eat the remaining crust (even when it’s on a bun–I eat the would-be-crust area), then eat inside until I the last bite, which should be the almost-center of the original sandwich.
Well, let’s see…
I’m a proportional eater, not a one-at-a-time eater, but only because I used to only eat one thing at a time and someone (I don’t actually recall who) bitched at me until I changed. I’ll still do one at a time for special things like my Broccoli Casserole, but otherwise it’s alternating. Except I tend to leave whatever is the potato dish last. Don’t mind if my food touches, though.
I don’t sort my M&Ms or other candies all the time, but I do arrange crayons & markers into Roy G Biv order. Bugs me if they’re not.
I can only talk on the phone with the phone to my right ear. I’ve tried, especially when I’ve been on the phone for a while & my ear is actually starting to hurt, but I can’t. Doesn’t even make it 20 seconds on the left ear.
I can’t wear the same color pants to work two days in a row. I have 3 pair of navy pants, one pair of black, one pair of grey-ish (and a pair of khaki slacks that require too much ironing for me to wear frequently) in “work clothes”. Can’t wear navy pants 2 days in a row, I have to alternate, even if it means I end up wearing the black pair twice because I forget & wear blue on Tuesday instead of Monday.
I’m a compulsive reader, particularly in the bathroom. I’ll read shampoo bottles, medicine wrappers, books, magazines, tracts, WHATEVER as long as I can read. I’ve managed to break myself from it at work (mostly) but anywhere else…and the toilet paper MUST come over the top - I’ll change it (even at other people’s houses) if it doesn’t.
That’s all I can think of at the moment. There’s probably more, I’m a loon. 
No insult to the mentally ill; I’m under the care of a therapist, really…
I remembered some others:
-at home I have to close the doors on the TV armoire if the TV is off. The rest of the apartment can look like a war zone, but by god that armoire will look neat!
-at work whenever I pass the big industrial-sized three hole punch, I fold the arm to the down position, like I’m throwing a big electrical switch. (Not…THE THIRD SWITCH, Master!) I think someone else has the opposite habit because I get to do this a lot.
Does anybody else have these compulsions because of someone else? Many of the little things I “Have” to do are because my filthy animal roommate is so lazy and won’t make the slightest effort to clean anything but the dishes. And the dishes only get cleaned because otherwise it interferes with his ability to cram food into his face.
But I digress.
Good luck. 
I will confess to having a hangup about pens, though. I probably have 50 pens at my desk, of all colors and sorts. They must write smoothly, or they get pitched. And nobody better take my pens! And I hate pencils, except I color with colored pencils.
I’m waging a long, dirty war at my work to replace all of our office equipment, stationery, furniture, with things coloured blue. I’ll round up all the black pens and replace them with blue ones, paying out of my own pocket if necessary. I’m replacing all the buff filing cabinets with blue ones. I’ve had one block on our campus repainted, you guessed it, french blue. Blue manilla folders. Blue magnets on the white board. Blue chairs. 300 multi-coloured key tags all replaced with blue ones. Anything red is an especial and immediate target for replacement. :eek: See, blue smilie…
Well, yes I am single and do have an extensive collection of military memorabilia… why do you ask?
You guys are crazy. Thanks for making me feel super sane.
The only nutty thing about me is that I am a hard core fidgeter. At work, I play with my binder clips constantly. I clip and unclip them to myself constantly. My favorite places to clip them to are my lower lip and the inside of my left index finger. Since this hurts after about 30 seconds, I have to move it around a lot.
At home, I fidget with whatever’s handy. Scissors, knitting needles, pens (I break a lot of pens), pins, and my favorite favorite favorite, Ivan the Hammer. See, I have a hammer that has a screwdriver inside the handle. And that screwdriver has a screwdriver insider of it. And that screwdriver has a screwdriver inside of it. And that…okay, you get the point. There are like four or five screwdrivers. I’ll me watching a movie or surfing the web while idly taking apart the hammer, removing the screwdrivers one by one, then putting them back together. Repeat ad infiditum.
Okay, I guess I’m pretty normal, at least comparatively speaking. I have none of the compulsions mentioned here, although I occasionally do some of them to break up the monotony. Like eating my M&Ms or Skittles in Roy G Biv order or counting the miles and calculating my average speed to give me an ETA and then calculating how fast I’d have to go to increase my average speed by a certain amount. But these aren’t compulsions since I do them consciously and only when bored.
There is one thing I do reflexively that drives my wife nuts. Every time I pee, I spit in the toilet. Usually first, but sometimes during or after I pee. I do this whether at home, work or in a public restroom. Even when I pee outdoors, I spit. If I don’t spit, it doesn’t make me feel oogy or anything and I don’t HAVE to do it, but unless I consciously decide against it, I spit.
Normal is a city in Illinois.
[Hijack] I Googled “Normal” to make sure it was really in Illinois, and this picture came up under the top result.
It is completely worksafe, but doesn’t LOOK like it is. TMI Warning
[/Hijack]
You have an organized sock drawer?
That’s just sick. What is wrong with you?!11!!! 
( I have free range socks. All transfered from the post-dryer basket into the orgy sock basket where they go on to mate like little rabbits and create more bastard socks that match nothing. My socks are planning to take over the world.)
ON the subject of socks…
I cannot will not and have not worn a matching pair of socks in at least 25 years
:eek:
I will wear the same colour, just not a matching pair. And I will go to extreme lengths to ensure that. Colouring in the eyes of Astro Boy on one sock (During the 90s cartoon character on underwear fetish), sew a cross on to one sock when my SO would only lend me one pair of her dad’s socks, buying a new pair of socks to wear at golf , then having to borrow a texta to mark up the brand new sock in front of bemused work mates and pro shop employees etc etc
Not sure why this started but it is now an absolute OC trait.
UPSIDE: no need to pair up socks after washing them - no organised sock drawer, just chuck em all in together (and I have no fear of losing any to the sock monster)
DOWNSIDE_:The number of times I have strangers (usually ladies) let me know quietly that I have odd socks on when I am on the train/tram on the way to work (though it is quite kind of them). I think they feel a sort of embarrassed he cant dress himself pity for me…
I count things, and they have to be multiples of seven. If there are eight, I’ll count them over and over again until it reaches seven (if that makes any sense). This can be stuff like syllables in the last sentence I heard. It’s EXTREMELY weird.
Oh, and I compulsively have to touch the skin in between my fingers. It just feels weird when I don’t.
[QUOTE=Headspace]
ON the subject of socks…
I cannot will not and have not worn a matching pair of socks in at least 25 years
:eek:
Me too! Matching socks are a tyranny to which I refuse to yeild. Same colour (usually blue) fine, two from a pair is a pleasant coincidence. One beige, on blue -all in a days work for me…
mm
On the sock front,
A few years ago I tossed out all of my socks and bought all new ones making sock matching a non issue in the Unclviny house.
Unclviny
