I definitely had OCD tendencies when I was a kid. For years, if the right side of my head itched and I scratched it, I also had to scratch the left side. If my left thigh brushed against the arm of the couch as I was walking by, I would have to turn around and brush the right one. That fixed it. If I didn’t create a tactile mirror image, I felt off-balance.
And I can’t even actually say that, because I never didn’t fix it. I guess I should say, if I hadn’t, I knew that I would have felt off-balance. (I was self-conscious enough to know this behavior was weird, and I didn’t share it with anyone until a year or two ago.)
And then one day, I made a choice to stop. Just like when I chose to like bananas because they were the only fruit you could reliably find in NYC bodegas. Or when I decided to stop hating the guitar lick in “The Pina Colada Song” because I liked the rest of the song so much and I wanted to listen to it all the time.
Yeah, I just said to myself, “Self, this balance shit is a mite crazy. You gotta quit it.”
Sure wish I could do that with the other aspects of my insanity.
Anybody want to share their particular brand of nuttiness?
I think everyone has at least one.
I hate it when doors are open in the house. I like them closed. I don’t go crazy if they’re not, but I prefer if they are. It hasn’t caused any major problems so I’ve never grown out of it.
i have to line things up if i am going to look at them for any length of time. like salt and pepper and other condiments on a table.
and if there are crumbs on a table i will brush them into my palm and put them on whoever’s plate they came from. when they are done, of course. even in restaurants. this seems to cause quite a stir. i have never known why. honestly.
i don’t think it’s ocd, but i’m terrified of the split second when getting on or off an elevator–you know, when your body is half on and half off. my concern is that the elevator will fail and slice me in half.
completely irrational and very likely impossible, but i think being shorn like that would probably be a bad way to go.