# My 'Count and Touch' OCD



## Your Crazy (Feb 17, 2009)

Even numbers are bad luck, especially the number 6. When I look at TV, the volume can not be on an even number. When I select and option on a channel menu, a video game, or the songs on my iPod, I have to highlight every option before I choose the one I want. When I touch a doorknob, a light switch, or a handle to a drawer just to name a few, I have have to keep touching the object until it "feels right", and I also have to count every touch making sure that it doesn't end on an even number.

This is the **** I go though everyday.


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## glarmph (May 21, 2009)

I'm right there with you. I have been late to work many times, busy checking the doorknobs and all. I'm really bad with light swithces too, anything with power actually. TV's, stereo, xbox, etc. i try to leave for work 15 minutes early so i can there on time. every single day. 15 minutes, checking and rechecking, just to leave the house. it gets worse as the years go by.


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## jim_morrison (Aug 17, 2008)

Does anyone else get this OCD vibe thing where they sort of think that if they do something like for example land on a bad number as the OP suggested, then some sort of evil force will curse them? or am I just nuts? lol


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## Your Crazy (Feb 17, 2009)

jim_morrison said:


> Does anyone else get this OCD vibe thing where they sort of think that if they do something like for example land on a bad number as the OP suggested, then some sort of evil force will curse them? or am I just nuts? lol


When my CD went to track 6 in my parents car, a minute later an SUV hit me, totaling the car.


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## Alys (Oct 29, 2009)

i used to have more of an obsession with numbers but that's gone away somewhat..my ocd currently is very complex and strange..I don't even want to talk about it, but it's been causing me a lot of trouble lately..it seems i can hardly go a few seconds without repeating something..ugh.


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## PurpleMoon (Dec 7, 2009)

jim_morrison said:


> Does anyone else get this OCD vibe thing where they sort of think that if they do something like for example land on a bad number as the OP suggested, then some sort of evil force will curse them? or am I just nuts? lol


That's actually the definition of OCD, so you are not nuts. It's more than just liking things a certain way, it's the feeling that if you don't do them something bad will happen. Many people have a specific "something bad", but that is the most basic way to describe it.

I've actually done these things since I was a kid and so has my brother. His started with his walking between two trees in the park when he was about 7. He got this horrible feeling that something very bad would happen because he walked through them so he had to go back and walk through them again. I recall when I was about 5 (he was 10) he told me that if I walk between two identical trees I would go into another world.

Mine started with something along the lines of the last thing I look at before I close my eyes having some effect on me. I was a very little kid at the time so a lot of the things I thought would seem pretty darn crazy now but the rituals they started are still there. My main ritual revolves around blinking.

I am more prone to like even numbers though that is not a huge thing with me. My brother used to be freaked out by having the TV remote pointed at him.

I have something where if I am in mid thought while touching an object I have to keep touching it until the thought is complete, or until it feels right as was stated above.

My brother told me once that someone with OCD is well aware of how crazy and impossible their fears are but they are incapable of changing regardless.


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## jim_morrison (Aug 17, 2008)

PurpleMoon said:


> That's actually the definition of OCD, so you are not nuts. It's more than just liking things a certain way, it's the feeling that if you don't do them something bad will happen. Many people have a specific "something bad", but that is the most basic way to describe it.


Oh ok, thanks for clearing that up, I actually feel a bit more relieved and less odd now.


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## VeggieGirl (Dec 11, 2009)

Sounds very frustrating, sometimes I do little number things as well but not quite like that though.


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## epril (Mar 24, 2009)

Your Crazy said:


> Even numbers are bad luck, especially the number 6. When I look at TV, the volume can not be on an even number. When I select and option on a channel menu, a video game, or the songs on my iPod, I have to highlight every option before I choose the one I want. When I touch a doorknob, a light switch, or a handle to a drawer just to name a few, I have have to keep touching the object until it "feels right", and I also have to count every touch making sure that it doesn't end on an even number.
> 
> This is the **** I go though everyday.


Ha ha that is funny because for me I don't like the odd numbers!


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## Wehttam (Nov 6, 2009)

I have to throw away fruit from the fruit bowl cause they aren't evenly paired =|, end up wasting a ton of money on fruit lol


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## Vini Vidi Vici (Jul 4, 2009)

im wierd actually....apparently, many people with OCD are very neat and organized, or so it has been described-... however, my room is a mess, i am not in the least bit meticulous about my appearance, im extremely disorganized. i guess i could say my life is like my bedroom floor....its a randomly distributed assortion of objects/clothes/ideas/opinions/feelings/fears/hopes/dreams/identities......and im completly OK with it! as long as i can find the things i need at the right time, its all good...its like i have strings attached to the important things, and although they are scattered everywhere, i can pull them in when i need them, usually.


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## Vini Vidi Vici (Jul 4, 2009)

jim_morrison said:


> Does anyone else get this OCD vibe thing where they sort of think that if they do something like for example land on a bad number as the OP suggested, then some sort of evil force will curse them? or am I just nuts? lol


yeah...its the vibe man, its totally the vibe. i dont really care about numbers, but its other things that give me the vibe, and the vibe is the worst part, because i dont know if its just my OCD, or if I actually have psychic powers and/or "God" is giving me special knowledge. i guess i have a combination of OCD and , whatever its called, where a person is Delusional, and cannot differentiate between what are their own thoughts/what are contrived by OCD/delusions.


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## Vini Vidi Vici (Jul 4, 2009)

i cant eat White chocolate kit kat bars right now....the mini ones. its really stinks/sucks/is unfortunate, because i really like candy, especially white chocolate. but if i eat them, i will feel bad, because they might have some poisonous ingredient in them.....but i actually think, that its not the kit kats that are making me feel bad when i eat them, its my OCD making me feel bad when i eat them because i think that because i ate them i will feel bad, and therefore since i feel bad its because of the Kit Kat bar, even if i actually feel bad from worrying excessively.


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## lyricalillusions (Nov 29, 2008)

I do something similar, though with me, it's as if odd numbers are "bad luck." I just don't like them. Sometimes when I walk, I find myself counting my steps & when I stop, I have to stop on an even number, & my right foot is always an even number (my left foot is the odd number). When I enter the room, I must enter it on an even number, with my right foot. Odd I know lol. I don't even have OCD, though. But I do have a lot of OCD tendencies/characteristics.


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## lastofthekews (May 11, 2009)

I used to have to do things eight times (crack my knuckles, push my thumbnail under my fingernails...does that make sense??, rub my eyebrows, there were other things as well) or i'd feel uneasy and feel that something bad would happen. I don't remember how I stopped, I think it was just forcing myself not to do these things and seeing that nothing bad happened as a result.


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## My911GT2993 (May 14, 2009)

I don't have it to that extent, but I do this thing where I touch the corner of something, with the TV I always turn it down to 0 and then turn it up to 7 (max is 100).
I count stuff on adverts like phone numbers-I'll add up all the numbers, then add up the digits of the number untill I get to one digit. It is not invasive or a problem, it dosent have power over me like sa does.

Reminds me, when I was little I'd give my self either 3 or 4 seconds to get upstairs and into the bathroom, if I didn't make it I thought Id be killed by some unknown scary thing, but I always made it. I always got scared when I got to 1.


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## AnxiousIaM (Jan 14, 2010)

I have a fascination with counting things in multiples of 3's and 4's, but I think my mind forces me to do mental gymnastics as a distraction.


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## VanDamMan (Nov 2, 2009)

I like tens. It has to go in segments of five, otherwise the whole thing is off.


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## AndyLT (Oct 8, 2007)

Interesting. I imagined OCD differently.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

My OCD is mainly of the pack-rat hoarding type. Also perfectionism.

The issue of numbers has never been a thing for me, but OCD comes in so many different flavors, with all of them being nasty.

I used to obsessively check if car doors were locked. Still do so, but with far less vigor after breaking the door handle off a Toyota a decade ago. Toyota makes fine cars, but you really should put on metal handles that can stand up to rigors of OCD; plastic simply doesn't cut it.


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## neurotic1 (May 17, 2009)

I don't really have ocd, but i do have some of the behavior. quit cold turkey, its the only way, i mean it bad living like this anyway, may as well suffer but for a good reason, like quitting.


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## That guy over there (Jan 18, 2011)

I keep trying to "quit" my ocd but I always end up forgetting, ive been doing it so long i dont even think about it now. 

I touch things a certian number too usually 4 but 5 and 8 have become an exception now lol 5 and 7 are the only odd numbers I like the rest are all evil lol

I thought I was the only one with this number touching obsession it gets so annoying at times and makes some tasks take longer. It sounds crazy really but in my mind doing these "rituals" are supposed to prevent bad things from happening and at times it so hard to resist doing them when your trying to stop yourself. I even find myself counting for no reason at times usually in 4's

I NEED TO QUIT!!!!!!:b


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## Hideko (Jul 2, 2011)

Your Crazy said:


> Even numbers are bad luck, especially the number 6. When I look at TV, the volume can not be on an even number. When I select and option on a channel menu, a video game, or the songs on my iPod, I have to highlight every option before I choose the one I want. When I touch a doorknob, a light switch, or a handle to a drawer just to name a few, I have have to keep touching the object until it "feels right", and I also have to count every touch making sure that it doesn't end on an even number.
> 
> This is the **** I go though everyday.


Not the exact things you do but just relate too well with what you've said. No numbers bother me except if they're divisible by 3 except walking when the steps need to go in multiples of six. Too many others to list but how I touch things too is one of them, seems as the OCDs control not some but almost every action I take during the day.


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## ToucanSam (Mar 22, 2012)

I've got the "vibe" too (even numbers = good, odd = bad).

No one mentioned a possible source for these obsessions/compulsions. What do you think yours might be?

As for me: it was a combination of my father's severe OCD and our family's evangelicalism (everything happens for a reason - bad things were attributed to us upsetting Jesus or the devil).


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## jg43i9jghy0t4555 (Jul 31, 2011)

Your Crazy said:


> even number.





Your Crazy said:


> and I also have to count every touch making sure that it doesn't end on an even number.


I used to do these things years ago

But I just stopped somehow. Sorry, I don't have any advice other than distraction sounds very likely to work

Maybe read up on treatments

I used to have to touch everything an even number of times

I also used to visualize spelling letters, spelling each one in words I thought about. (which made me a god at spelling in school) Then I had an OCD about a year ago or something which is weird because I never really thought about it much consciously, but I had to visualize drawing a T whenever I came across one.. weird.. and I just 'grew out of it' again

And I used to stutter after having basically not talked much my entire life, about 2 years ago but since I'm writing and thinking more about talking (talking to myself because I like to and I like to think and come up with ideas a lot) I've grown out of it ALMOST. today I was lost for words a little but this is in normal conversation speed and I never ask for any help a la talking slower. So. Exposure is the key there, like SAD.


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## Xenos (Jun 24, 2012)

Yeah, when I was a kid I definitely had the even-touch thing too. Anything I touched I had to touch an even number of times (usually 4, or when it was really bad, some multiple of 4) with both hands. Symmetry was very important.

That went away when I got older. I still have major OCD, but it's all checking rituals: door locks, window locks, stoves, ovens, faucets, milk cartons, zip-lock bags, appliances, and on and on.


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## 3scape (Aug 31, 2010)

I have OCD also. I'm mostly obsessed with germs. I make my friends and family wash their hands/disinfect all the time, it annoys the hell out of them. I used to have a thing with numbers also but I have gotten myself over that for the most part. I put the volume, tv, etc on a number I don't like and force myself to see that it's okay and nothing bad happens. After a few times I became less anxious so now it doesn't really bother me as much. Only when there's a surgery or something serious like that happening that do I allow myself to give in to it. It seems the germ thing has gotten worse over the years though. The hardest part is convincing myself that it is unrealistic considering germs really can hurt you. Anyway, you aren't crazy. Millions of people have OCD. You aren't alone


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## Invisiblehandicap (Jul 31, 2011)

'The ocd project' might be worth looking into. It is a tv show about ocd.


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## wrongnumber (May 24, 2009)

I was superstitious and had many rituals for years due to OCD. I don't really have superstitious thinking anymore but my obsessive compulsions show up in other areas.


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