So... What's your OCD?

[SnakeCharmer]

Being late to or with anything - I start coming out of my skin if someone is late or if I am running late.  And this transfers to anything with a time table.
If the phone rings, I check my watch to see what time it is.  If I'm not wearing my watch (which is rare), I find it hard to start the conversation until I see what time it is.
Like Samwise, once the bill is paid in a restaurant or whatever, I've got to GO.  I'll start pacing, looking around, trying to irritate my wife to getting up if she's still talking to someone at the table or nearby.
All of the screws in all the lightswitch and power/cable/whatever outlet covers MUST be perfectly verticle.

[Righ]

I don't think I'm OCD or even particularly fussy about anything. The closest I came to identifying with anything in this thread was Big Gulp's cataloguing, but I only organise my CDs (alphabetically by artist, broken down by studio or live or compilation, then by year of recording, then by year of release or reissue) because I have many thousands of them and I couldn't find things any other way. But I still have stacks and stacks of unsorted CDs until I get around to shuffling through the collection. And for anything except for a couple of artists for whom I really need the subcategories, I couldn't care less if they're out of order. Its about finding the music when I want to hear it.

[schild]

I don't think I'm OCD or even particularly fussy about anything. The closest I came to identifying with anything in this thread was Big Gulp's cataloguing, but I only organise my CDs (alphabetically by artist, broken down by studio or live or compilation, then by year of recording, then by year of release or reissue) because I have many thousands of them and I couldn't find things any other way. But I still have stacks and stacks of unsorted CDs until I get around to shuffling through the collection. And for anything except for a couple of artists for whom I really need the subcategories, I couldn't care less if they're out of order. Its about finding the music when I want to hear it.

I have sorted my dvds in multiple ways:

1. By Title
2. By Studio
3. By Director
4. By Year Released.

The only one that makes sense if other people are going to be picking out movies is title. Year Released was my favorite though and helped contribute to my ultimately useless trivia about movies.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

I hate this thread.

That being said. I am really OC about many things.
-How I pose action figures
-games/movies/music ordering
-table setting ( all napkins/salt/pepper shakers/ utensils aligned
-pretty much if I see a pattern or think I see a pattern I will try to neatly place other things to fit that pattern. I do this all the time with everything.

[schild]

I hate this thread.

That being said. I am really OC about many things.
-How I pose action figures
-games/movies/music ordering
-table setting ( all napkins/salt/pepper shakers/ utensils aligned
-pretty much if I see a pattern or think I see a pattern I will try to neatly place other things to fit that pattern. I do this all the time with everything.

I didn't see anything about Chumps in here. I call shennanigans.

[Signe]

I like to pose my action figures, too!  Here's a pic of them.  Hope you like it:

[chargerrich]

Just thought of another...numbers.

When I leave a tip, I am forced to round up to the next dollar. For instance if the bill is 24.14 I cannot just leave a $5 tip, I have to leave $5.86 so that the total is $30.00.

Also with my remote volume, have to round to nice even numbers like 15,20,25...23 or 27 drives me nuts. Strangely I do not care which channel "number" I am watching.

Playing with my talent tree in WOW used to drive me crazy as well as the specs were always crazy numbers... I got over that as I now OCD about min/maxing 

[Sky]

I hate this thread.

That being said. I am really OC about many things.
-How I pose action figures
-games/movies/music ordering
-table setting ( all napkins/salt/pepper shakers/ utensils aligned
-pretty much if I see a pattern or think I see a pattern I will try to neatly place other things to fit that pattern. I do this all the time with everything.

Dolls.

[Rasix]

- No cupboards can be open if no one is using them.  I have to pretty much immediately get up and close them.  This also applies to the microwave.

- If I see any time left on the microwave, I have to clear it off. This really bugs me. 

- There's a set of drinking glasses that I have with fruit design/logo in the glass.  All glasses must be lined up in a row with matching fruit with the logo facing outward when put away. 

(Other than this, I'm pretty lax about organization and kind of slobbish when it comes to neatness).

- I've gotten over my fixation with being early to everything.  My wife takes too long to get ready and I've generally stopped pacing if she isn't ready. We're no longer 30 minutes early to movies that have no prayer of being sold out.

- I think this might not be OCD but a general neurosis, but I can't be lost.  Lack of or bad directions will pretty much mean I won't even get in the car if I'm driving.  I start getting panicked if I miss a turn somewhere.  Multiple misses or directions that fail pretty much have me in a full blown panic.   This used to be a pretty bad problem on vacations, since then I rent a GPS whenever I have to rent a car.  If it gets pretty bad, I just stop driving for the vacation and let my wife take over.   I really don't like driving anyways.

[DraconianOne]

I have no OCD behaviour. I may not belong here.

EDIT: Yes I do. There's a wooden knife block in the kitchen and all the knives have to go in upside down. I can always tell when my mother-in-law has been around and done the washing up because she puts the knives in the wrong way. It irrationally irritates me - possibly because it's been like that for 5 years and she's never, ever noticed.

I have a feeling any OCD-like behaviour I have now I actually picked up from my wife. I never used to have any.

[Yegolev]

I'm going to have to keep the knives put away when most of you come to visit.

[bhodi]

When I put peanut butter on bread, I spread it to fill the entire slice out to the edge. No bread showing is allowed.

[Rishathra]

My computer's desktop must have no icons/shortcuts on it.  NOT ONE.  I only tolerate the presence of the recycle bin.  I run defrags obsessively.  I must watch the progress screen, as I derive a strange amount of pleasure at seeing the data realigned into neat rows.  Meanwhile, my actual desktop is a horrifying mess.

[Tarami]

My computer's desktop must have no icons/shortcuts on it.  NOT ONE.  I only tolerate the presence of the recycle bin.  I run defrags obsessively.  I must watch the progress screen, as I derive a strange amount of pleasure at seeing the data realigned into neat rows.  Meanwhile, my actual desktop is a horrifying mess.

I'm fairly sure that Defrag originated as a business application for Zen monks. Then some wise-ass made it move file fragments in the background.

You can almost get the same pleasure from watching the file list of torrents finish bit by bit. Works best with a dial-up connection.

[schild]

The only thing more beautiful than putting something in order yourself is watching something else do it automatically.

I fucking love defrag. And I could stare at the cushion output from SequoiaView for hours.

[photek]

-Organizing stuff and making stuff symmetric (books, DVDs, CDs etc must be perfectly aligned, or the TV with the speakers and such). I create imaginary lines in my head and everything must fit and be aligned with these "lines".

-Being fat most of my life and getting rid of it the last years, I simply can't wear underwear or clothing in general that reveals even the slightest inch of my "love handles" or tummy. It must all smooth out perfectly otherwise I'll go around imagining its far worse than it actually is (it really is nothing) and try to suck it in and hide it. And I'm damn good at this.

I have several more now that I think of it, but some of them are just borderline crazy 

[Segoris]

The TV volume was mentioned before and I'm the same way with volume, 5s or 0s when it's just a meter and numbers. The only exception is when there are the little bars, and the volume meter can be set in between the bars, I won't have that. It must be on one of the volume bars and cannot be in between this takes priority over ending in 5 or 0.

Also saw clearing of any time left on the microwave, same here. Is it so tough to push the clear button when done using it?

Whenever I stack anything, the items must be in order of largest on bottom and smallest on top. Mixing shapes really bugs the shit out of me in this sense, and make it tougher for me to organize. Pocket change is relaxing to me though, the rare times I have it, because of this OCD. The only way I could like the rare times I have pocket change more is if the dime took the nickel's size, the nickel took the penny's, and the penny took the dime's so I could also organize it by amount as well as size. Oh, I've tried, but it isn't the same satisfaction with the sizes of the most commonly used change in the U.S. currency.

Stapled sheets of paper where the corners aren't aligned. I have to remove the staple and re-staple the sheets. When I have mismatched sized pieces of paper such as a 8.5x11, a half sheet, and a sticky note and there is no required particular order, stacking of largest on bottom to smallest on top OCD is in effect.

Pants that don't have a cargo pocket since I'm OCD over on which pockets my regular pocket items must go. The reason I must have the extra pocket on the right leg is that I must have my cell phone in a cargo or carpenter pocket. I hate belt clips and found cargo/carpenter pants so much to my liking that I won't buy regular 5 pocket jeans anymore. I'm lucky enough to not have to wear slacks or regular khakis to work, otherwise that would be a bit frustrating just leaving my apartment.

For my really off the wall OCD, whenever there is a seperator such as a sidewalk line, getting off an elevator, escalator, going up or down stairs, my left foot must cross the line (or be the first one to reach the top bottom stair) that acts as a seperator before my right foot, and neither foot can stop on one of those lines. I even memorize the number of stairs that I use the most often and remember which foot needs to go on the first step to mak this happen so I don't have to skip a stair. This shit drives me nuts and I can't stop doing it.

[Jherad]

You can almost get the same pleasure from watching the file list of torrents finish bit by bit.

Argh. I wish I were joking when I say that I've lost hours of my life to this. I am the most disorganised person I know, so it isn't some kind of obsession with order.

This thread has satisfied me that I'm not completely alone in my craziness, but worried me that this forum might just be a magnet for the crazies  

[NowhereMan]

When walking up or down steps (unless there's lots and I lose track) I have to finish on the opposite foot to the one I took the first step with. If I started with my right I have to step onto the ground with my left. This sometimes result in me putting both feet on the last step or jumping it entirely.

I think that's about it though, I'm relatively tidy but it's not OCD stuff. I can skip pretty much anything else I do if I'm in a hurry or lazy.

[Sky]

I may have the cabinet door thing. We were watching tv last night and I had to go into the kitchen and close a cabinet door I had somehow left open while making dinner. Remembering this thread, I tried to ignore it and didn't last ten minutes.

[Nevermore]

Also with my remote volume, have to round to nice even numbers like 15,20,25...23 or 27 drives me nuts. Strangely I do not care which channel "number" I am watching.

Oddly enough, any multiple of 3 or 5 works for me.  10, 12, 15, 18, 20, those are all fine.  24 or 25 are equally good, but 26 is right out.

[Evildrider]

I hate having greasy or sticky hands.  Which is a pain when I cook because I wash my hands like 20 times.

It's horrible when I try to put stuff like suntan lotion and stuff on.

[Margalis]

My computer's desktop must have no icons/shortcuts on it.  NOT ONE. 

My computer desktop was so full of icons that it literally ran off the edge of the screen and I had to make a folder called "desktop", throw all those icons in it then start over again. Currently I have about 150 icons on my new desktop. (Which is low for me, I've done some recent cleaning)

Highlights of my desktop include "asd.txt" which appears to be a post I was making to some online site and saved halfway through, "moving.txt" which is reminder to buy a padlock for the moving cube that I used and returned three months ago, a folder called "sd" that contains a single other folder called "sd_sept_21" which appears to be related to a job I no longer have, and a file called "span.html" which includes the HTML for a body declaration along with a single red span in it...

And of course "New Text Document (2).txt" which is currently empty but I'm sure exists for a perfectly good reason.
---

On topic, for a long time I couldn't stand to be by myself in any room with an open door, I had to get up and close it. I got over that eventually though.

[Sky]

I hate having greasy or sticky hands.  Which is a pain when I cook because I wash my hands like 20 times.

How is that a bad thing? It's basic sanitation. The troubling thing is that a lot of folks /don't/ wash their hands religiously when cooking. I use anti-bac soap, add a bath of hand sanitizer if I'd just handled raw meat or eggs or whatever.

[Yegolev]

For my really off the wall OCD, whenever there is a seperator such as a sidewalk line, getting off an elevator, escalator, going up or down stairs, my left foot must cross the line (or be the first one to reach the top bottom stair) that acts as a seperator before my right foot, and neither foot can stop on one of those lines. I even memorize the number of stairs that I use the most often and remember which foot needs to go on the first step to mak this happen so I don't have to skip a stair. This shit drives me nuts and I can't stop doing it.

That's some quality OCD there.

I tap my fingers in symmetrical, repeating patterns.  A lot.  Ruins movies for my wife.  This bleeds into how I walk and how many accumulated times my heels and toes have touched the ground: must be symmetrical and equal.  The number of times needs to be a multiple of five, or, in a "recent" twist, it must be equal to the number of beats of some portion of a song.  Most of the time it is a part of the Garfield and Friends theme song.

Alcohol makes all this go away.

[Samwise]

I may have the cabinet door thing. We were watching tv last night and I had to go into the kitchen and close a cabinet door I had somehow left open while making dinner. Remembering this thread, I tried to ignore it and didn't last ten minutes.

Closing cabinet doors isn't OCD, it's not wanting to crack your melon on them.  At least that's why I close my cabinet doors whenever I see them open.  I'd just as soon leave them all open if each and every one didn't pose an imminent danger to my skull or shins.

Not a single thing listed in this thread has sounded at all strange to me.   

[Sky]

I tap my fingers in symmetrical, repeating patterns.  A lot. 

Alcohol makes all this go away.

Pick up a guitar. I've done this for decades, my main one is an alternating thumb/middle/index/ring/middle/pinky that actually has hurt my ability to play chromatically upwards (index/middle/ring/pinky). On the downside, alcohol will not make it go away as easily.

[Evildrider]

I hate having greasy or sticky hands.  Which is a pain when I cook because I wash my hands like 20 times.

How is that a bad thing? It's basic sanitation. The troubling thing is that a lot of folks /don't/ wash their hands religiously when cooking. I use anti-bac soap, add a bath of hand sanitizer if I'd just handled raw meat or eggs or whatever.

Well it includes things that should be good for you too.. I hate having lotion/suntan lotion on my hands as well. 

[Mr_PeaCH]

Also with my remote volume, have to round to nice even numbers like 15,20,25...23 or 27 drives me nuts. Strangely I do not care which channel "number" I am watching.

Oddly enough, any multiple of 3 or 5 works for me.  10, 12, 15, 18, 20, those are all fine.  24 or 25 are equally good, but 26 is right out.

Geez, enough with the TV volume OCDs already.

The ONLY way to do it is this:  10, 12, 15, 17, 20... Round numbers (0s), halve it (5s) and halve them again rounding down (2 or 7).  C'mon!

[schild]

-Organizing stuff and making stuff symmetric (books, DVDs, CDs etc must be perfectly aligned, or the TV with the speakers and such). I create imaginary lines in my head and everything must fit and be aligned with these "lines".

Ookii, Hammer Frenzy and Cory used to turn my dvds and games upsidedown. Sometimes a bunch of them, sometimes just a couple. I would invariably find out when I was just glancing by. I would get fucking PISSED. And deservedly so. That bunch of assbuckets have OCDs as bad as me and they found it funny.

Also, DVDs must be able to be read by tilting my head to the right. As in, the first letter is at the top and the last letter is at the bottom. In some cases, I have gone as far to remove the insert and fix it so that it can be read properly, dvd direction be damned. Same thing with VHS. The one thing that kept me from buying laserdiscs IN BULK (I at most, ever owned around 20) was the lack of spine. The same thing goes for books. But books I couldn't stand being flipped the wrong direction, which went into HEAVY effect with things totally spined the wrong direction as I couldn't lay them in a pile without the back side facing up.

I have issues with everything being in order. Even my goddamn toys I keep in boxes need to fit on a shelf with no space left against the walls.

Everything has its place I guess.

SOme of the boxes I packed for moving, which are still packed, were masterpieces of organization and it probably took me days longer to pack because everything was so meticulous. I have not unpacked some of my video game boxes because whenever I open them I am amazed at the organizational structure. My 360 accessories box is nothing short of a fucking miracle whatwith the faceplates I haven't opened and the E3'05 faceplate I have in that bizarre contained.

I love art but I can't stay in a museum but for so long because so many curators and museum staff are out to get me. I say that because I truly believe they're hellbent on making art be a CHORE to lookat. Pictures with tiny frames do NOT GO NEXT TO GIANT HUGE MURALS. ROAOROAOROARARARRRRGH.

Also, video installations with sound should be nowhere near paintings. The biggest transgression in this area can almost always be found at the Corcoran in DC. Fuck those guys, FUCK EM.

[Yegolev]

I tap my fingers in symmetrical, repeating patterns.  A lot. 

Alcohol makes all this go away.

Pick up a guitar. I've done this for decades, my main one is an alternating thumb/middle/index/ring/middle/pinky that actually has hurt my ability to play chromatically upwards (index/middle/ring/pinky). On the downside, alcohol will not make it go away as easily.

I have no rhythm or I would try again.  Really.  Six months of dance lessons did nothing.  I still cannot tap my foot to the radio properly.  Also I don't think one can learn guitar without taking up pot.

[Signe]

It's about time you took up pot, anyway.  Maybe not guitar, though.  If just your tapping ruins your wife's film watching, I can't help thinking  that bad guitar playing by a giggling stoner husband is going to make it better. 

[Sky]

She could take up the pot, too.

Hell, I wish I could take up the pot. Nothing beats a good bongful plus a long extended guitar jam. Well, almost nothing.

[Lantyssa]

I wish it did anything for me to want to take it up.  Then I could participate in these discussions about wanting to take it up.

[Morfiend]

Also with my remote volume, have to round to nice even numbers like 15,20,25...23 or 27 drives me nuts. Strangely I do not care which channel "number" I am watching.

Oddly enough, any multiple of 3 or 5 works for me.  10, 12, 15, 18, 20, those are all fine.  24 or 25 are equally good, but 26 is right out.

This is really funny, but after reading this, I realize I do the same thing, but to any odd number, except multiples of 5. So, anything ending in 1, 3, 7, 9 is not good for me.

Also, my door. When I leave my house I have to check that I locked the door. I need to juggle the handle 3 times. If I leave and forget to do this, it will nag at the back of my mind until I come back and do it. Really.