compulsion

[lukkucairi]

Originally Posted by auntie aubrey

i have another theory that all human beings teeter on the brink of true OCD at some point during adolescence (as opposed to the quasi-OCD of the sort included throughout this thread).

when i was around 11 or 12 i developed a few weird tendencies. if i turned around to look at something i ALWAYS had to turn back around the same way. if i turned a full circle i felt uncomfortable in my skin until i rotated back around to my original starting point. it felt like turning around had pushed me through a thin membrane into a parallel perspective. i still think about that in the shower if i turn to grab the razor or shampoo or something. i don't entertain the compulsion anymore, but i think about the time when i did.

you might be on to something.

this strikes me as a bit of where certain weird religious rituals might come from.

when I was 12 I had strange geometrical compulsions - more than the "don't step on cracks" kind - the "I can only step on every fourth square in a diagonal line with an equation of x=4y" - the math teacher thought I was a genius though

I also couldn't bear to be in a group of people who walked different ways around the same obstacle.

like you, I realized I was being weird and quit doing these things. I have a friend with full-blown OCD who used to wash all the skin off her hands at the same age - she's got it very much under control now, but she says it helps immensely just to have someone around her who understands what she's going through, and to tell her "you're being silly" when she gets stuck in a loop. it's like she lacks the internal interrupt switch and needs an external aid.

I remember reading Oliver Sacks' "Awakenings" - about the victims of epidemic encephalitis - they could often perform tasks and were able to walk, but were unable to start actions of their own accord.