# OCD???



## ThirdEyeGrind (Feb 7, 2006)

For many years i have always seemed to spell out words in my head for no reason at all, sometimes even sentences. I always read liscense plates infront of my car over and over again in my head. It gets really annoying. I know that with OCD the symptoms are worse than what im describing (such as washing repeatedly, certain tasks that must be done a certain way) so does anyone know what this could be?


----------



## whiteclouds (Mar 18, 2004)

It sounds like a mild case of OCD. I had some similiar obsessions with license plates at one time in my life.


----------



## smalltowngirl (Feb 17, 2006)

I agree, it sounds like a mild case. I think I might also have a very mild case. They say its not OCD unless it interferes with your life. Mine has never been that serious for me to take any action. I wash my hands too much and I have trouble throwing things away which is another form of OCD. Never had the license plate thing before. Whenever I feel like I'm doing something really pointless and wasting time, I just tell myself, "Stop it. This is stupid and pointless." Usually I can force myself to stop if I remind myself that its just my OCD acting up.


----------



## anxiouslittleme (Feb 17, 2006)

i get this thing where i cant stop thinking about the same image for like days. and i have to 'tell' myself things in the night so that i dont get scared and i can sleep. i dunno what that is either.


----------



## SVIIC (Apr 15, 2005)

Definitely sounds like OCD to me.


----------



## Flu102 (Jul 11, 2005)

I used to wash my arms so much they both became entirely chapped and the dermatologist I went to thought I had chemical burn. Most my obsessive habits and thoughts revolved around me not wanting to get a terminal illness (By say... shaking someone's hand, or using the computer after someone else... or stepping on a piece of lint. I remember if I ever heard the name of an illness, like someone said "AIDS," I would have to imagine inside my head the words being encased in a box and removed from my mind so it wouldn't... infect me I guess.

And just like SAD, I realized how absolutely stupid I was being with my OCD and this all was when I was like 8 through 12 years old) , so once I got so fed up that I wanted to die anyways I stopped doing the rituals and the OCD eventually went away, though sometimes like right now they come back in a much more mild way, then I just force myself to stop doing the rituals and it dies out again.

Whenever you start looking at the license plates think of something else, or even look away and don't allow yourself to see the plates or to focus on them. I'm not sure if you feel the emotions of "If I don't do this, terrible things will happen." that OCD sufferers get when they don't let themselves do one of their habits, but just fight it.


----------



## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

I have similar troubles with looking at two or more consecutive 6s on my odometer. If I looked at it three times, "terrible things would happen". I ended up forcing myself to look at it three, four, or more times, just to make sure nothing happened. :lol

I have to deal with 148,966 tomorrow :roll.

As for the letters, I'd make a game out of it. If you see letters, make words out of them. "CWP" is cow patty, "DGH" is doghouse, etc.


----------



## Caedmon (Dec 14, 2003)

I think it's a symptom. I don't think it means you have OCD. Lots of people have symptoms that scatter all over the place (an obsession here, a phobia there, a mood disorder thingy here, a psychotic feature there, etc.) without really qualifying for the formal diagnosis. It's a behavior, that you do, that bothers you. You might want to work on it by finding out what strategies are used to treat obsessions/ compulsions, and applying them to your situation.

I don't know. I've been less and less inclined to "see" OCD in others, and in myself. For example, a lot of my OCD symptoms I now believe are actually better explained as vocal tics; others are probably "stimming" behaviors. I'm just a bundle of fun.


----------



## friend_Z (Jan 3, 2006)

AprilEthereal said:


> For many years i have always seemed to spell out words in my head for no reason at all, sometimes even sentences.


I spell out words/sentences on a keyboard that I visualize in my head. In the case of individual words, I will break each word down into how many of its letters would be typed with each hand. Like keeping score of how many letters are used from each side of the keyboard. I used to do this constantly. I still do it, at times, but not as much. It can definitely get annoying.


----------



## ThirdEyeGrind (Feb 7, 2006)

Thanks for all your replies. Lately it has been a little worse. I've still been doing the license plate thing but today i caught myself saying and reading a sentence in my head and dont even remember thinking it, i was like where did this come from? If i do start to spell something i realize how stupid it is but i have to finish the spelling of the word. Its so stupid. Like someone said its probably not OCD but a sort of symptom that can probably worsen over time. Damnit i just spelled out time. See what i mean?


----------



## KireiYume (Feb 13, 2006)

I have lots of little weird tendencies. When I was younger, maybe like 9 or 10, I was obsessive about washing my hands. Now I find myself repeating words over and over in my head, unable to stop. I used have this thing where whenever I swallowed something I would have to swallow three times everytime in a certain pattern. o.o Yes, very weird. lol I also have a bad case of perfectionism, very, very bad.


----------



## miak (May 24, 2014)

*hello*

I feel like my OCD started off this way and has gradually gotten worse because I ignored the signs. I do the same thing and I count steps when I walk but I also constantly worry about my own body odors and do anything in my power to avoid it


----------



## mikemikemike (May 25, 2014)

I did struggle with OCD for a few years. The worst part was when I had to wash my hands so much my wrists were bleeding. Still have very fragile skin as a result. Still, I don't think my OCD was nearly as bad as it can get.

I (mostly) beat mine using some weird mind games. I still have to check that my door is locked about 5 times before I leave home, but it's not really a big deal.


----------



## mollydoe (May 18, 2015)

friend_Z said:


> I spell out words/sentences on a keyboard that I visualize in my head. In the case of individual words, I will break each word down into how many of its letters would be typed with each hand. Like keeping score of how many letters are used from each side of the keyboard. I used to do this constantly. I still do it, at times, but not as much. It can definitely get annoying.


ok i know this thread is from like 2006 but i just came across this today and i swore i was the only one who did this!!!!!!!! i do it all the time.. i spell words in my head as if i was writing the letters with a pen, or sometimes it will be on a keyboard like a computer keyboard, but most often i visualize one of those old flip phone keyboards and i picture myself typing random words or even phrases or whole sentences sometimes.. and it's usually the last words in a sentence if someone is talking to me, but i do it when i read too and it just seems to be completely random words. i do it so fast though, but it gets annoying when i do it and it makes me loose focus and i have to either ask someone to repeat what they said or i have to read the sentence i just read over again..

i also have a minor obsession with license plates too.. i just usually read them once, but i always read them..

i read labels on food, every sign i drive by, the sticker on a lighter, or the labels on basically anything.. even if i already know what it says and its the same sticker on the lighter every time i get it -___-

i dont have any bad thoughts or think bad things will happen if i dont do any of this stuff.. its just more like a compulsion to do it, and i do it without even realizing it most of the time. when i'm spelling i can stop, but it does bother me for a few minutes after but i eventually forget.. it doesnt really interfere with my life that much but maybe thats just cus ive been doing it since i can remember

not a very helpful post but hopefully someone will read this one day and say hey im not the only one who does this crazy **** lol..


----------



## Reckoner7 (Jan 29, 2007)

If you dont spell out the word or read the license plate what (in your mind) is the consequence?


----------



## Penguinfan (Apr 5, 2015)

I used to have bad OCD, but for it got better on its own. I still have some stupid things, like repetative things such as doing things in a certain order everyday. I used to be much worse. What you are saying about the license plates, I never had but there was a few times I had to write something a second time. I really don't have any suggestions, just relating to your issue with it.


----------



## Seegan (Mar 24, 2015)

I always have to do things in a certain order or a certain number of times. 

I definitely have this symptom when it comes to my computer. Everything on my laptop has to be arranged perfectly, especially my music and videos.

I have to find the perfectly sized album art and order songs by Artist, Year, Album, Song Number and Title

I order TV shows by Name and Season Number, Episode Number and Title. It has to be PERFECT, or I get really annoyed and have to immediately fix it.

I also can't watch a TV show unless I've bought every single available episode. For example, if a show has three seasons, I can't start season 1 until I've bought all episodes in existence.

This problem is annoying at times.


----------



## Mewela86 (Mar 4, 2021)

This thread is super old but I too have since I was a child spelled everything in my head, tapping my fingers along. Around 5th grade, it became a keyboard, orchestrated which fingers would punch each key on each side. At that time, I also mentally concluded that "m"'s are feminine and "h"'s are masculine letters and there should be no two m's next to one another without an h breaking it up. In the case of a word with two h's or m's, I would need to put one or the other of the letters before or after to balance the sentence out. When I got to high school, it went from keyboard to my tracfone text typing for my fingers. T

hen as smartphones became common, typing back on a keyboard but smaller. I've settled on visually spelling, as it's not just random sentences but all words spelled... constantly... I'm fast. Its much less distracting now as an adult than when I was a child, as I wasn't retaining info, only spelling certain words and sentences and looked like a deer in headlights 24/7 when called upon. Needless to say, I'm a great speller now. I can manage a bit better. My 20's were a bit rough. I once got stuck on my couch for 4 1/2 hours staring at the wall, spelling a 7 word sentence over and over, powerless to move an inch. 

Those were the days when I also began constantly checking under my coffee table and other hidden surfaces for microphone devices or cameras. That's when I slowly began talking about my "tics". I have been diagnosed with untreated adult adhd, and they believe I developed OCD to handle that. I finally asked for serious help after having my second child at 30, when I realized my behavior was not quite normal, erratic and unhealthy for my kids... as my 3 year old son put it at the time... MOM, STOP TALKING TO YOURSELF ALL THE TIME! As if I constantly had someone else there, knowing there wasn't. 

I'm also learning the unwanted thoughts are part of that too. Like, watching an old vhs being rewound over and over with my worst nightmare. Sometimes they pop in so quickly it jolts my whole body. I always thought I was just overly paranoid. Helpful to find its linked to the disorder I have already been diagnosed with. Hopefully someone out there reads this super old thread and feels better! It took me almost 20 yrs to tell the first person about my spelling tics and until I was almost 30 to seek some guidance. I may be seeking more soon honestly, thought it was only spelling silly stuff but I'm finding ignoring isn't the best course of action!


----------



## lily (Nov 9, 2018)

it does sound like OCD, you might not have the classic ones but it's obsessive and compulsive


----------

