When I was younger
I went through all sorts of habits. Smelling my palm every 5 minutes, to constantly opening my eyes really wide (it's because the edges are half shut I tell you). There was also doing every twice (or evenly) and doing anything with my left hand with my right.

These days I have to clench my teeth every time I pass a lampost when I'm a passenger in a car.
(MikeyNiv can coin snatch 32 pennies, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 14:37, 2 replies)

Not OCD, I just can't leave fuck all alone...
The common one of having to check i have locked the door when i have left the house, sometimes many times. However I don't have to do this if I'm taking my dog out with me. One check is enough then.

Not so common is the constant rearranging of furniture. Every couple of weeks or so i have to change the bedroom furniture around to put everything in a different place. I just get bored. I have noticed I do this when something else has upset me, as if it's a control over something issue I expect. I used to do it with other rooms but since I have had my plasma tv mounted on the wall in the front room there is not much room for change in there.
Moving the furniture around every couple of weeks drives my fiancé nuts as he never knows where it is going to be next ( and as he's blind I have to remember to tell him) and being virtually blind myself I have often walked into shit that i expected to be somewhere else. Hoist by my own petard.
(womanwhocanonlylivewithdogs, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 14:34, 3 replies)

counting buttons on remote
my mrs has to count the buttons on any tv remote. she can't not do it. continously if she has the remote near her. she knows how many there is on each one. and re-checks them - something i have assured her is not necessary as they DON'T CHANGE

what really foxed her was the all-in-one remote with a touchscreen - no buttons.

i can see the resentment build in her when she realises which remote is closest.....
( bazza van der trance , ooh baby baby, baby baby. Get up on this., Fri 2 Jul 2010, 14:29, 5 replies)

I'm normal, it's the rest of the world.......
When dressing I have to do the left side first, left leg into pants then
right, left leg into trousers then right, left arm into shirt then right,
left sock then right, left arm into shirt then right. Undressing is the
same, always left first. And my pants must match my shirt (black with
black, blue with blue etc) or be completely different, yellow and green
pants (mens of course) with a black shirt.
(Underpants, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 14:26, 3 replies)

I can never have just one drink
It always has to be in multiples of 5. No idea why.
(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 14:23, 8 replies)

11:11
Like the posts below, I get really drowsy if someone is hoovering or using a hairdryer around me...

I also seem to notice when it's 11:11 a lot!
I was hesitant to post this for fear of being recruited into a cult...

www.1111spiritguardians.com/

eeeep!
( awayfromthenumbers, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 14:16, 9 replies)

Not really OCD, honest!
Like several others here. I don't like eating different foods in one mouthful, so i'll eat some mushrooms, then meat, then maybe mushrooms again then peas etc. Main reason is that i don't like flavours all smashed together, can't stand things like stew where every mouthful tastes the same. Normal sized books are sorted into authors but not alphabetical, then large books are sorted by height. I absolutely love the idea of tetris trolley stacking, and may take it up, but what happens if you take a bend too fast? I'm also one of those weirdos who drinks tea and coffee lukewarm or cold
(Catrim, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 14:16, 1 reply)

My mate is a musician, and he plays his young daughter white noise for her to go to sleep to.
Apparently it blocks out all other frequencies and so actually helps her sleep really well.

But I think that's frankly bizarre behaviour.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 13:51, 12 replies)

I'm not Howard Hughes but
Mrs Nimrodihnio has her doubts..

I avoid having to use public toilets and scrub my hands should I have touched anything, I always have a tissue spare for the door handle that will be contaminated by others. If not I use my crook of my pinkie finger on the very top of the door
If I should in an emergency need to do a number 2, I line the seat with toilet paper and use tissues to lock and unlock the door.
I have to straighten a picture, wherever it may be, Mrs N bought be a level, a tiny little key ring size one to take the piss but it has saved me on numerous occasions to check without having to back and judge on eye line alone. She also winds me up by putting a few very slightly off line just to see my reaction and when I did all the wall fixings and hung the plasma tv on the wall she kept commenting ‘are you sure that’s straight?’

When I hang pictures on the wall at home it can take me several hours to measure and make sure the perspectives are correct and it can also be a particular challenge with the alignment of several pictures. Blutac is very helpful to keep them in place, I once lived in a 17th century house in Canterbury which had crooked walls and ceiling and was a fucking nightmare and ended up taking all the pictures off the walls.

At a client meeting in a boardroom a few weeks back as I was waiting, I noticed a picture off centre and straightened a picture using the level, if I hadn’t I would have been able to concentrate fully. Just as I was finishing the sales director who I’d had never met before walked in. what could have been embarrassing situation turned out fine as he also hates to see pictures not hanging straight.

In emails that are sent to me I have to correct any spelling mistakes and grammar first before I can read it properly. texting and stuff online I can correct in my head or ignore as I have no control over it to change.

The dishwasher is my domain and has been mentioned by others before. I have unloaded it when other have attempted to fill it incorrectly. There is a priority if all dishes can’t be fitted in and are left out according to size and how soiled.

Rugs have to be straight and correctly aligned relative to the furniture around it.

Ironing shirts have to be done in order, collar up then down, sleeves, left front, right front, back then hung, never folded.

I am very aware the above and other little rituals and habits point toward a mild OCD behavioural traits, but we all have them to a greater or lesser degree and in other areas I can be messy like my desk even though I notice, it can be ignored.
(nimrodihnio making gravy for one., Fri 2 Jul 2010, 13:34, 5 replies)

The sound of a vacuum cleaner...
...sends me to sleep. Interestingly enough, I find that the tone of a Dyson is the best at it.

The sound of my missus' hair dryer works equally as well in putting me under, but I prefer the hoover.

When I waken up, even if I have slept for well over my necessary 7 hours and i'm bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I have to make sure that I physically get up and out of bed before she gets the hair-dryer out, otherwise I'm out for the count as soon as she switches it on.

My brain just tells my body to curl up into a little ball, cover my eyes and go to sleep.

I'm absolutely powerless.
(god_is_a_ghoti Carpe Deum., Fri 2 Jul 2010, 13:32, 10 replies)

Clothing indoors...
I have your typical OCD moments, I grind my teeth to pass the time (not out of frustration, just because...) I used to manually "click" my fingers in patterns of 2,3,2,3 and if I missed a finger then I felt guilty and had to start all over again. I've so far managed to overcome most of those but this OCD pattern drives my flatmates crazy...

It starts when I was a wee young little school boy as some of us were back ni the 1800's, I had to wear these completely horrible brand of trousers for 5 years straight to attend my "posh" school which had the unfortaunate side effect of itching, itching, itching, itching, itching, itching, itching, itching and some more itching for every fucking day I wore them at that school. To make things worse, there were no reprieves from my parents, could I try another brand? Could I buggery, those trousers cost £1,208,459,304.58* pounds young man! You'll wear them and like them!

As a result every day when I got home they were the first things to come off, sometimes with hilirious consequences (more about those if people ask) and now? My Bizarre Habit?

Whenever I get home, first thing I do is take my trousers off and for the rest of the evening I will wear nothing but my boxer shorts and a shirt, even at friends houses I feel uncomfortable and "itchy" wearing jeans/trackies etc. inside a house... Some of my friends know this and say it's ok to get changed which on at least 2 occassions has lead to some sexy fun time with friends and friends of friends :)

But only reading about this do I realise how bizarre it is... Oh well... It can't be worse than my bizarre habit of bumming lots of handsome and attractive men, that seriously is weird according to my parents who think I should use the Jeremy Kyle dating service to find my "female life-partner".

* Numbers may have been made up in heat of moment
(Helo, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 13:26, 4 replies)

ID3 tags
These chaps help categorise your music files on your iPod (I think!). And sorting them out is something I MUST DO, or I go batshit. I can't have REM and R.E.M., I can't have song titles with a ` instead of a ' in the song title. I can't have half-complete song titles, or incorrect information. It all has to be correct, complete etc. I thought from using iTunes as my laptop music player that I'd got the lot sorted out, but when I got an iPod it turned out that in many case there were minor discrepancies. Like having some songs under the album "Never Mind the Bollocks, here's the Sex Pistols" and others "Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols". If you don't get it right, the songs appear as two seperate albums, and that JUST CAN'T HAPPEN.

I've always been this way about music. My cassette collection was alphabetical and chronological (in cases where I had several by one artist). I've made several Excel spreadsheets (and once, an Access database) detailing my collection, with fields like Title, Artist, Genre, Year Released, Year Acquired, etc.

I'm sure I'm not the only one!
(McChinaman banned, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 13:18, 15 replies)

Beverages
If I'm making tea or coffee for more than two people I line the mugs up in the alphabetical order of the names of people they are for.

There is some common sense to this as it helps to remember which you need to put sugar, milk in etc., and whose the mugs belong to if you are refilling.


Letters should be addressed without the county, with the postal town underlined twice and the postcode underlined once.


When I'm sitting at the bar in the pub, my money is left on the bar in a single pile from largest to smallest (diameter rather than denomination), heads facing upwards.

Any logo on the pint glass should face me.

The pint glass should sit within something appropriate on the bar towel, e.g. in the 'O' of a brewery name.


I also hate people who use the word 'Beverage'
(yokelrobin THE NERD WHOSE HAIR DEFIES GRAVITY/FASHION, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 13:17, 4 replies)

I have a weird habit in the morning...
... get up, kettle on, select mug from this order

Large pink "Piglet" mug if clean. If not clean but in sight, then use.
If not, then select Blue and white striped mug.
If none of those clean, use GenCon 2000 mug (so on and so on)

Put tea and sugar in mug, unlock back door, have a smoke, by which time kettle has boiled. Lock back door, finish preparation of tea.

Take said tea to back door take a mini "oooch ouch hot hot" sip, unlock back door have another smoke. Lock back door and have a proper mouthful of tea. Shit, shave, shower, back downstairs finish tea and leave for work.

Monday to Friday this is my routine between 06:45 and 07:22 without fail and has been for 5 years. The missus says we are all a little bit autistic.

Length? Exactly 37 minutes.
(Phooey I COOK MUD, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 13:16, Reply)

Every night,
without fail, my lovely girlfriend makes me take off my socks before I get into bed. Fucking bizarre.
( Jay, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 13:03, 1 reply)

Yogurt and flies
I have a Muller Fruit Corner for pud after my lunch and have suddenly realised that I follow the same bizarre habit:

Remove foil. Lick off excess yogurt and then any excess fruit sauce, in that order
Fold foil so that I am left with a 1/4 sized triangle
Fruit sauce compartment in container MUST be oriented to the top left corner, which will require some rotation of the entire container. If already in its correct position, rotate container 360 degrees.
Little bit of sauce on spoon, dip in yogurt. Eat.
Little bit of sauce on spoon, dip in yogurt. Eat.
Little bit of sauce on spoon, dip in yogurt. Eat.
Spoon all sauce into yogurt and mix thoroughly. Eat and finish.
Use finger to scoop out any remaining yogurt.
Place folded foil covering into empty yogurt compartment.

Second weird thing is that I am so terrified that I've forgotten to do up my flies after a man wee that I can be seen checking them when I come out of the latrine, even if I've checked before. If I don't check, yep, you can gaurantee I've not rezipped.

Weird habit stopped as soon as I started wearing button fly jeans...
(Ghostlight, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 12:50, 4 replies)

I have a few
When counting I always do it in multiples of 20. So it would be 18, 19,20, 1 ... 19, 40, 1.
If I spin round I alway have to spin in the opposite direction the same amount of times to "straighten myself out".
All food must be eaten from tastiest to least tasty (if there is a fire or something I don't want to have left the good stuff on the plate).
Stairs must always be climbed in twos. If there is an odd number the odd should be taken by itself at the begining. This usually involves counting the stiars before I go up, and I now know the number of stairs in most of the places I go regularly.
Music on iTunes must be fully filled out, with all available details about the song.
Having just written that I now realise how strange I am.
(Buftoon posted this on, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 12:47, 4 replies)

When I drink a pint of beer
I have to turn the glass round so the pint mark faces me.

No idea why.
( finnbar has officially retired, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 12:46, 3 replies)

Autism ahoy!
I'm not autistic, but I do have the odd habit of constructing equations whenever I see three numbers presented together. That used to happen all the time with the old numberplates, but now it's mainly restricted to house numbers and bus routes. It has to be three numbers; I won't touch four or five or any of that bullshit.

For example, if there's a house number 389, then the equation could be 3x8 = (9x3)-3.

The rules are odd and necessarily arbritrary. For example, I can use each number as many times as I want; I can't use a '1'; I'm not allowed to just subtract two consecutive numbers to make a '1'; I have to use all the numbers etc etc and then this is wrapped up with a bizarre sense of fair play - 'that's not right, I'm cheating myself doing that' or something similar.

Also, if I do a su doku puzzle I always leave the 8s blank until the end, and then spend a couple of pleasant seconds swooshing the pen and filling them all in in one tour of the grid.
(Land of Green Ginger It's dreamy weather, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 12:42, Reply)

...And then there was one
The sickeningly wonderful, and newly crowned, Mrs S has an annoying and bizarre habit.

When she eats something of which there are many (say, biscuits or Pringles) she will always, ALWAYS, leave one in the packet.
Consequently our 'treats' cupboard currently contains a Pringles tub with one salt n viegar pringle in it; two packets of jaffa cakes, each with just one said cake in; a chocolate digestive; one malteser; one giant cadbury's button; one Chedder (the biscuit sized ones, not mini chedders); one crispbread (why that's even in the treat cupboard, I do not know).

I assume she does this so I can't accuse her of 'eating them all' because there's still one there.
( Joe Scaramanga with a G-double-O-D vibration, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 12:30, 10 replies)

I have to -
put my socks on before my shoes.
(Redemption blamed it on the Bossa Nova since, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 12:20, 4 replies)

I'm sure this is not unusual
But I like to separate the foods on my plate and eat them one at a time, in order of least liked to most liked. The yummiest foods are saved until last.

Also, my bearded dragon has a wierd habit. He won't eat any non-live food (pepper, cucumber, rocket, carrots etc) unless it's on a green plate. This could be any green plate at all, but if it's not on a green background he doesn't notice its existence...
( cakelady, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 12:19, 6 replies)

Consistently sweetened beverages, and uniform mugs
I cannot abide those lazy buggers who don't stir tea and coffee thoroughly. Most recently, this morning at work a chap made me a coffee and it was just fucking awful: he obviously didn't stir the thing at all after he'd added the sugar. I was left with dark watery sludge that was too bitter at the start and too sweet at the end.

I stir like a motherfucker. Seriously, I stir for about a minute, and I don't stop until I've created a nice smooth whirlpool effect that will keep the tea/coffee spinning long after I've (delicately) removed the spoon (slowly, so that no tea/coffee remains on the spoon after withdrawal). People look at me like I'm weird, but by God do they get consistently sweetened beverages that taste like a dream.

The funny looks may also be due to me having to use uniform mugs no matter how many teas I'm making, and then line them up on the counter with the handles at the same angle. I don't know why. This necessity for uniformity doesn't really permeate any other part of my life; just mugs. But I can have up to eight identical mugs, positioned just so, lined up in front of me as I thoroughly stir each one.
(Land of Green Ginger It's dreamy weather, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 12:16, 6 replies)

Rearranging the eggs in the eggbox
I started doing this because mrs fronds takes them from one end, and once you get to just one or two left
O . .
O . .
this can overbalance in your hand quite easily if you're still sleep-dazed and getting them out of the fridge. After actually dropping the box once, I started rearranging them to balance better, eg
. O .
. O .

Now I do it most times I take an egg out, trying to get a reasonably balanced distribution. We've started buying 15-packs now, 3x5, which makes for a lot more potential rearrangements.

It's not something that I get OCD about, I started doing it for practical reasons and now sometimes do it for aesthetics as well, but it doesn't actually bother me if they're not patterned.
( Fronds are waving gently on, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 12:11, 6 replies)

Yellow Car!!!!
Can't help doing this one.

When driving (or being driven), seeing a Yellow Car on the road (must be the same road as you - parked or in motion), you yell "YELLOW CAR!" and punch the nearest person twice, whilst saying "Doosh, doosh!"

Variants:
Yellow Motorbike - 1 hit
Yellow Van - 3 hits
Yellow Lorry - 4 hits
Yellow Pantechnicon - 4 hits
Yellow Car Transporter carrying Yellow Cars - Absolute Spaz-Out Mayhem

*I'm now banned from Public Transport having lost it on a Train going past the Ford Car Plant's storage fields, wherein there were literally hundreds of YCs. The only available person being the Ticket Inspector.
(SatchmoR No, mummy, don't put knitting needles in my ears!, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 12:11, 1 reply)

Once I learned how to check
if a number is exactly divisible by three, I kept doing it in mind to every number I saw. Take a random 6-digit number '712647'. This is exactly divisible by three. If you don't know the trick, which is exceedingly simple, you add up the digits.

7 + 1 + 2 + 6 + 4 + 7 = 27: 2 + 7 = 9 which is a multiple of three, so 712647 is also divisible by three. I still do it when I'm given a phone number.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 12:06, 2 replies)

Cowman
My uncle Cyril had the bizarre habit of 'mooing' during his speech. He'd said, 'Ah, hello young Smale, how are you today mmmmmmmmmmmh?' Usually on a rising tone.

We all used to take the mickey and imitate him (when he wasn't there) until the time we were all mooing uncontrollably and he walked into the room, asking 'what's all this mmmmmmmmh, mmmmmmmh?', mimicking us mimicking him. I think he was totally unaware he did it.

His children were very uptight; whether that's related to his mooing or not I don't know. His son (same age as me) used to call me 'speccy four eyes', 'Joe 90', etc. It's true that I wear glasses. Uncle Cyril used to think this was very amusing. "Ha Ha mmmmmmh, Joe 90, very good, mmmmmmmmh".

Wiped the moo off his face when I went to university and his son ended up being kicked out of school for dealing drugs.
(Smale is stuffed, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 12:01, Reply)