OCD

[Bucky Ball]

(30-10-2012 11:18 AM)cheapthrillseaker Wrote:  I'll try a visual with paint in abit.

Hope that makes a little more sense. The negative space in the example is the tree.

Basically, anything was taking up too much negative space, I had to hold up my hand to calibrate the equality. Me, a kid at six, already training to be a Guru with her hand constantly up in the air.

Maybe it's not OCD so much as a need for "balance", and "symmetry". That is what "beauty" is all about. Maybe it's not a "disability", unless...it keeps you from doing something you really want to do.

[Vera]

(30-10-2012 11:18 AM)cheapthrillseaker Wrote:  I'll try a visual with paint in abit.

Hope that makes a little more sense. The negative space in the example is the tree.

Basically, anything was taking up too much negative space, I had to hold up my hand to calibrate the equality. Me, a kid at six, already training to be a Guru with her hand constantly up in the air.

It took me a while (I must be visually challenged or something), but I think I get it now - your hand is supposed to counterbalance the tree, right? And you had to physically do it by lifting your hand and not just imagine it in your head?

[cheapthrillseaker]

It was. I grew out of it, by forcing my hand down.

[DLJ]

(30-10-2012 10:32 AM)Vera Wrote:  

(30-10-2012 10:28 AM)DLJ Wrote:  I will confess to the least embarrassing one I have...

I can't start work if I haven't had an orgasm!

If I'm running late, this has been known to make taxi drivers very angry.

Have you considered you may be suffering from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlibido and not OCD?

It's ok now.

I grew out of it by forcing my hand up!

(Sorry, Cheap, I couldn't resist. You know I love you )

[Vera]

(30-10-2012 11:38 AM)Bucky Ball Wrote:  "balance", and "symmetry". That is what "beauty" is all about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

Is it, though? (mind you, my thesis paper was on beauty)

[DLJ]

(30-10-2012 11:36 AM)Stark Raving Wrote:  I'm a counter. I count everything. If I spend three hours raking leaves, at the end I can tell you how many strokes I took with the rake.

I don't want to know how many strokes.

I want to know how many leaves.

Please count them for me next time. Thanks.

[cheapthrillseaker]

(30-10-2012 11:36 AM)Stark Raving Wrote:  I,m a counter. I count everything. If I spend three hours raking leaves, at the end I can tell you how many strokes I took with the rake. Sometimes I need to start over. For example, the other day I was cutting up potatoes, when I realized I hadn't counted the cuts. I had to throw out the potatoes I had already cut and start over.

Usually it all happens almost subconsciously. I won't even realize I'm doing it until half way through. I can carry on a conversation, do multiple tasks (even if they are counting tasks) or whatever. But sometimes (like with the potatoes) it really sucks.

You're reminding me more and more of Mr. Spock every day, Stark.

[Vera]

(30-10-2012 11:18 AM)cheapthrillseaker Wrote:  Me, a kid at six, already training to be a Guru with her hand constantly up in the air.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19702122

Do you work in a visual area by any chance? (Cause I do work with language, though my obsessions haven't necessarily been linguistic, not all of them anyway.)

(30-10-2012 11:36 AM)Stark Raving Wrote:  I,m a counter. I count everything. If I spend three hours raking leaves, at the end I can tell you how many strokes I took with the rake. Sometimes I need to start over. For example, the other day I was cutting up potatoes, when I realized I hadn't counted the cuts. I had to throw out the potatoes I had already cut and start over.

Usually it all happens almost subconsciously. I won't even realize I'm doing it until half way through. I can carry on a conversation, do multiple tasks (even if they are counting tasks) or whatever. But sometimes (like with the potatoes) it really sucks.

This sounds pretty sucky. The multi-tasking I get (I often even talk about two things at basically the same time and confuse the hell out of people), but counting all the time would drive me crazy. Plus, with me something sometimes gets stuck in my head and then I can't go on (e.g. if it happens while I'm reading something, I can't move on until I've read it just right and that often involves reading it out loud. Doesn't happen too often, but still...).

The potato bit reminds me of my aunt - we have a soup here which is made with teensy-weensy meatballs, so when she's making them she arranges them almost like soldiers, in straight lines, before dunking them into the soup. And she knows exactly how many tiny soldiers she's drowning

Just curious - if you forget to count while you're raking the leaves, do you scatter them all over the garden and start again?

[cheapthrillseaker]

(30-10-2012 12:08 PM)DLJ Wrote:  It's ok now.

I grew out of it by forcing my hand up!

(Sorry, Cheap, I couldn't resist. You know I love you )

Of course you do. Pics or it didn't happen.

[Vera]

(30-10-2012 12:08 PM)DLJ Wrote:  

(30-10-2012 10:32 AM)Vera Wrote:  Have you considered you may be suffering from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlibido and not OCD?

It's ok now.

I grew out of it by forcing my hand up!

(Sorry, Cheap, I couldn't resist. You know I love you )

As long as you're not forcing it in...