Posted by: lizzy on June 29 2004,03:43

This got pruned - sorry.  Anyone like to start it again?  Thanks.  Not that I want to trigger anything mind  
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Posted by: I am Cat on June 29 2004,10:09
THIS is the one (two, three, four....) thread that I can definitely relate to (two)!  I count EVERYTHING.  To pass the time... to quell anxiety...
I calm myself this way...
I pass the time
I get from point A to Point B
I do it to NOT think of other things
I do it to not be triggered
I do it to NOT eat
I do it because it feels good to my soul
I do it because it's second nature to me.
I count the tiles on the ceiling
I count the stripes on the highway
I count the buttons on shirts
I count the noodle-o's in my soup
I count the words in people's sentences
I type the words you say
I count the letters in a sentence
and on and on and on...
anyone else want to jump in here?
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Posted by: aguppe on June 29 2004,23:56
Cat that sounds like really good DBT therapy. Shame you're not borderline.....lol  
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Posted by: leonarda on June 30 2004,01:17

I count stairs. How many steps I take to the store. Before going to sleep, I count names beginning with A, names beginning with B....to Z and then I count how many types of fruit begins with letter A....to Z and stuff like that. I don't usually count things I can hold in my hand for example, I'm just always making something up in my mind. I count during anxiety or panic attacks (breaths in and out) and when I'm bored.
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Posted by: mirka on July 01 2004,19:09

I count too.  I use my two big toes to count lines on the road, trees I pass, anything that has corners, ceiling tiles at my pdoc. office.  I've been doing it since I was a little kid.  It was a way to take my mind off stress or stress aggrevated it.  It is simply who I am.

I started Wellbutrin 4 weeks ago and I've noticed that when I start counting, I quickly stop, as if I'm mentally tired of doing it.  I'm also a skin biter, a terrible one, and have noticed a dramatic decrease in even doing that!  

I'm a little confused about how that makes me feel.  For so long I've wanted to stop, now its stopping and I'm sort of missing it.  Can't win!
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Posted by: I am Cat on July 01 2004,19:43

Yeah, I bite my skin too.  I bite my lip.  I clench my teeth too, but that's another story...

But I tap my feet to count the stripes in the road, isn't that interesting.  I would be lost without it.  Thankfully I only do it as a passenger.  It would be terrible to do it while driving!  eek!  I count the ceiling tiles while in the dentist chair... that sort of thing.  

Typing other people's sentences... anybody else do this?

Counting the times people say, "uh" in a speech?  Or where I come from, "you know"  They say that a lot.  Drive me nuts.  I find myself counting the times they say it and am totally distracted from what has actually been said in the speech.  I couldn't tell you!
pitiful.  
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Posted by: jaguar on July 02 2004,01:12

I count, but it's not just counting for the sake of counting. I have an internal drive for anything (whether steps, or bites of food, pieces of paper, or anything, really!) to have a certain number. One is okay, two is good, three is bad, four is great, five is okay, six is bad, etc.

The number thing can be all consuming. When I was in high school my school bus number got changed from a "good" number to a "bad" number, and I was literally afraid to board the bus. The only way I managed it was by counting steps to get there. Then there's the fight I have with myself over pages used in my journal. If I fill three pages in one day, I force myself to fill a fourth, lest the day have a bad "finish" to it. [I will not even start with my other journal obsessions]

It's much about "evening up" for me. Odd numbers I am not comfortable with (except five), and evens are okay (except certain multiples of three).

Wahhh. It makes so much sense inside my head, but typing it out here makes it look crazy, makes me feel crazy.  
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Posted by: lizzy on July 02 2004,02:56

It would be logical to say 'OK this is crazy so stop now'.  But none of our disorders are logical.  None of us can stop without having some form of anxiety-related reaction.  Bad habits become compulsions.  Because I am older   I can recognise my own habits before they take over: except the skin picking/biting, chin hair searching, tapping feet, humming under breath; whereas when these things begin as a comfort in childhood, it becomes really engrained.

But Hey!  It makes us Who We Are.  And the more i meet people the more I see little foibles about most of us..........  
And what *would* we do instead?    
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Posted by: lizzy on July 02 2004,02:57

PS - I do wonder sometimes, how long I've been for example, tapping my feet, before I actually notice  
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Posted by: michaelIRL on July 03 2004,08:40

i wrote this question somewhere else on this board, but can't find it, grrrrrrrrrr! so ill say it again.

does anyone just plain count in their head, not counting objects or actions or whatever, just counting, i count to the number five, over and over and over again, for hours on end, it gives me such a sore head, but neways, does anyone else do that?

(btw, i count actions aswell, so the counting to five isnt just out of the blue, lol,   )
-

yeah, I have to say, I DO count over and over again... like say, to the number eight... 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8... and start over and go there over and over again... I don't know... like all my counting is just a calming mechanism... like rocking back and forth is... weird, eh?  or is it? :p

i count to 12.  to the theme from i think its sesame street.  you know kind of  slow and fast and then slow again?.......its like a theme song........:;):

Okay this may seem weird but I have to count the steps when I am in the shower.  Like 1 is to wet my hair and so on.  I have been doing this since I was a little girl.  Oh and I drive on the road alot for work, so I will figure out how many exits till I get to mine and I will count as I go by so I know how many I have left.  There has been times that I lost track and I had to go back to where I started and start all over.   At least it isn't as bad anymore.  But everyone thought I was nuts.  Now if I lose track oh well.

I count everything!!! EVERYTHING!

like with food, I count the number of grams of something I eat (the volume of milk as well if its cereal), the number of calories in each meal and I only have four meals a day and they are flour hours apart, if I really need to eat, then I will only eat at a time that is a factor of five from the last time I ate, e.g. if I had breakfast at 8.00am, and I was really hungry at 12.23, I have to wait until 12.30, or it was 12.10 I™d wait until 12.15.

I do the time thing with most activities, like, ill only go to the shower at 1.00, 1.15, 1.30 or 1.45, or whatever hour it happens to be.

sometimes its quite amusing, once I made pasta for my family and my sister asked me what was in it, I told her everything, down to the detail of the number of turns of the salt and pepper mills.

I count the number of cleaning actions when cleaning my teeth, hands, face and general cleaning (shower), all of this cleaning has a pattern which has to be followed. if the numbers aren't right I have to do it again. For example, before I was my face in the shower, I have to wash the face wash bottle (every spot on it five times) with one squirt of hand wash, then I have to wash my hands (which has a pattern, or as I like to call it protocol) with two squirts of hand wash, then I wash my face with the face wash (I pour the face wash into my hand for five seconds), then  I wash every part of my face five times. I have divided my face into 14 areas. there is a very similar system for the rest of my body, only it is done with body wash (poured for five seconds) and my body is divided up into fifty areas.

sometimes I doubt myself and calculations about food, so I get really anxious, one way in which to reduce this is exercise, so when I go to the gym I must do enough exercise to burn off 500 kcal (kilo calories, I say that so u Americans know what im talking about cos u guys use weird units [e.g. fluid ounce???], sorry to sound xenophobic or something, cos im not, I love Americans!!!! which is somewhat of a novelty in Europe I have to say, lol) anyways I also have to burn it off in a certain time, the number of times I lift a weight must be a multiple of five ( but I think everyone does that, though not to the extent where muscles are pulled :S)

but that all keeps my clean and healthy, the annoying ones are:

text messages having to have the number of characters in them be a multiple of five
when changing the channel ( I have sky digital, or cable for u Americans), so the remote is a little complicated, I press select five times which brings the menu bar up, then I press the up button to bring the menu to the next channel, then I press select five times more which brings it to the new channel, then I press back-up five times which removes the menu bar, all just both change one channel!!! of course there is a simple channel up button, but I get anxious when I use it!!!! grrrrr, lol.

I have some muscle contractions which I do all the time, they are all done in fives!

oh dangerous one, when driving home from somewhere, I aim to be home at a time that is a multiple of five, like ill be in one place at 11.31 and aim to be in another place at 11.35, so I may have to speed to get there. I also like to keep the speed I drive at a multiple of five!

Micheal

it sounds like you really like the number 5.  lol. thats ok. i dont have a specific number, well i do, but its a pretty high number and if i did everything in muliples of that number i would never get anything done! i hate even numbers though. even numbers drive me batty. i cant stand them. the problem with that is that even odd numbers add up to make even numbers, so i cant win.  *sigh*

I got a new word from your post BTW...thanks! xenophobic. i dont know what it means, so i gotta grab my dictionary.

:)

i looked up xenophobic. i actually have this. it applies to my life. lol.  thank you. now i know what it means and its applicable to me. i can go to my shrink and say "I am xenophobic" and he can look at me and I can wait to see what he says! LMAO!!!!!

I count steps as well. I count in a repeating pattern of sixes. If there are, say, 19 steps, it will bug the crap out of me. I will count the first 2 sets of 6, and then, I will jump the last 2 steps to make it 6 steps instead of 7. I also do this odd thing with my hands. I will start off with my thumbs on the table, with the pinky side of my hand sticking up in the air. Then, I will rotate my hand until my thumbs are in the air and the pink side of my hand is on the table. I do this in sets of 3, preferably until I hit 9 (3 sets of 3).

For some reason, it all boils down to a base of 3. I wish I knew why.

I count to the number 3, over and over again until my anxiety is over.
I'm new here so Hi!!!!:)

I'm a counter too.  It drives me up a wall.  Have to do something 3 times and then once more to "bind" the 3 previous ones all together, then I'll go to 7, or 11, or 21.  

I also have to spell out in my head what I read, along with all associated punctuation.  Usually only road signs, titles, right now I just caught myself spelling out "Post Icons" on this page.   Forget about trying to watch a sub-titled movie.  

Steps, time my breathing in a car to how many patches of shade and sunlight I drive through, or how many paint lines in the middle of the road that I go past, etc.

When I realize what I'm doing I stop myself, and have no idea how long I was doing it before I caught myself.  

I'm now a recovering alcoholic as well.  I took up getting hammered because that was the one time that I could stop counting, thinking, etc.  Been sober for 8 years now.   If only I could give up the smokes, I'd be all set.  hehe

[edit]

Does the chorus to Major Tom by Peter Shilling bother anyone else?  Where they count down from 4?  Nooooo, it should start with 5...  hehe   Song has been stuck in my head for a few days now.  /sigh.

:wave:
Just had to pop in here to say, YES I'M A COUNTER, TOO!
I count everything!  In my head, not out loud, usually.  And I don't have to repeat things if I lose track or anything, I just count things I see.
Like highway stripes, how many items I just put in the dryer, how many french fries I'm eating, how many telephone poles I see, whatever.  I have done this my entire life, and didn't realize it was OCD until I was diagnosed with Postpartum Depression and they asked if I did anything unusual like counting or whatever.  
Guess it never bothered me, so I never sought "help" for it.
I am taking Zoloft, and that has cut down the amount of counting I do, but I still do it when I see something repetitive.
Annoying little habit at times, eh?

I'm so glad I found this topic - I count years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes; like, 30 years I ago I was getting ready to start high school, one week ago I was doing XYZ, this time tomorrow I'll be working.  Every October, November, & December I track everything I did with a boyfriend in high school - it was 30 years ago, you'd think I could get past this!  I guess it's a pretty harmless thing to do; the only real problem it causes is that sometimes I don't feel like I have time to accomplish something, like if I've got something I have to do 4 hours from now I don't think I have time to go to the store, start a project around home, etc.  

Hiya and welcome mountaingirl! From one excessive counter to another ;)

When you say track...do you mean like you write it down?

I have certain things in my life that I track and i write it down. is that like what you mean?  i track patterns.

Hi Inner Chaos!  I guess by "track" I mean I can remember every little thing we did, like the first time he talked to me was October 27th, 8:50am, the first time he called was on Halloween at 7:50 pm, the first time we had a "date" was November 1st at 7 pm, we went to a school play on November 8th at 7 pm, etc.  Every year I have to mentally re-live all of this from October 27th until the time we broke up, January 6th, 3:10 pm, in the hallway at school, etc. (I am able to get other things accomplished, tho, during those 2 1/2 months, thank God!).  It's strange that I can remember this kind of stuff, yet I really can't tell you what time I did anything yesterday.  If I was to keep track of anything like this now, like what happened on vacation last year, I'd definitely have to write it down.  Of course, that could just be old age!  

I am amazed that you can remember the fine details of your life like that.  i cant. that is why i have to write it all down. I am foggy headed about everything.  :upside:

hiya im a counter too but not stairs or walkingwell sometimes but its more like how many times i check the doors are locked or if the irons on and i wash my hands a certain number of times and i like the numbers 2 5 7 10 and 28 but not as much i dont know why but i sometimes feel like im going mad and i feel like im the only person with this nutter thing in my head making me do this! help!

i count letters and also remember car numberplates of tv adverts also when i leave a room i have to lock the doors and windows before i go into another room ???

i only recently realised i had OCD, i've known about having depression for about 3 years now, but only about a couple of weeks ago a iactually realised OCD. I feel really stupid because to be honest it's glaringly obvious, i hate germs to the point where i dont veen use public toilets, incase even the bottoms of my trousers so much as touch the floor, i constantly twitch and make sounds that i just feel like i need to do, and know i find out other people have this counting thing. I ALWAYS do it !  it really gets to me, and i think i've done it pretty much my entire life, even little things like extending a finger a certain amount of times or stroking my cat a certain amount of times, just absaloutly everything i seem to count. So i think i can now safely add OCD to my current CV consisting of severe depression, social anxiety and a fear of intimacy WOOOOo i feel great !

oh_dear  You are not alone. I not only count but have to have things in 7's. I have been working on this for a long time now and am getting over it a little. I feel safe when I am number 7 at anything or if I have 7 of an object. But, I am slowly learning that even though 7 is safe, it is OK if it is another number. Not as comfortable as 7 but OK.
I also do colors. I have to repeat a color pattern in exact order over and over. I use to think that something bad would happen if I got out of order, but I am slowly conquering that, also. Just wanted you to know that there are others here who share your obsession.

One two three FOUR five, six seven eight NINE ten eleven tweeeEEEEeeeEEEEEEEEEEEeeeEEEELVE!!

...twelve!



I'm with you.. i'm always doing this.. but it really helps and i usually end up rolling my eyes at myself!!

Also, as a child we used to travel long distances in the UK (well.. they felt like long distances at the young age i was).  I used to lean against the door in the back seat and lean my head against the window and watch the continuous white line on the motorway that was the hardshoulder.. it was like the line was alive and it felt like i could speed it up or slow it down at times... sounds wierd i know, but it felt like i could control it.. and that made me feel like i was really special and made me feel good, because in my head  no-one else i knew could do it!!

:santagrin:
Ok so I count in increments of 5's....like 5 10 15 20 etc....have been doing it for years for no apparent reasoning either....will just start counting....My favorite number is also 7 and have no reasoning for this either, but if I play the lotto always feel lucky if there is a 7 in it, lol, even though I never win....have a great one all my fellow counters....

unquiet mind, i also used to get the idea that something bad would happen if i didn't do certain things, it used to be MUCH worse when i was a lot younger. A couple of years ago i just got so frustrated with it, and seeing as i didnt really care about anything i decided to let the bad times roll on. I just decided to stop doing it, i almost pruposley started breaking every supersticion (spelling?) just to prove a point to myslef. I've pretty much got rid of the idea that bad things will heppen noe, but i still get an uneasy feeling if i don't do certain twitches etc, i no longer feel like my family is going to die if i don't do them i just feel uneasy...

I've started waking up in the middle of the night and realising that my subconscious brain is counting - sometimes it's up in the thousands! - and probably has been ever since I fell asleep .. whereas before I fell asleep, my CONSCIOUS brain was counting. No wonder I am tired all the time..

I'm doing it again (or I never actually stoped?). Counting to five. Counting letters in words in my mind.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5...  ???

Yeah same here, count up to three in blocks of three, if I get it wrong I've got to repeat it.

OH MY GOSH!  

I remember counting the ceiling tiles at night before I went to sleep.  I had to end with an even number.  I added the numbers on cars license plates.  The end number had to be even.

Summy,  Welcome to DF!

Just wanted to pop in and say I am getting even worse with the counting lately .. I do it all the time! I wake up in the middle of the night and find that I've been counting in my sleep :(. Prozac doesn't seem to do a thing for it.

BUMP

Surely more people count.

I totally count all the time. I had no idea it was part of an obsessive compulsive disorder, but now reading these posts, it all makes more sense to me!

I count when I run on the treadmill at the gym mainly. I seriously need to get an ipod or something, as all this counting gets pretty boring! I ran for four miles yesterday and let me tell you, it gets reallllly boring to just count over and over. I generally only count up to 30 or so, and then I realize what I'm doing and start over. It's like some weird zone I get into and just start counting without really paying attention. Although when I was in a really good zone, I actually counted into the 40s before I realized it and started over. I don't know why I start over either - it's like it makes it easier or something...

I'm also one of those people that ever since I learned to type (um, like 20 years ago in high school!), I always end up typing words in my head if I read something short - like a saying or billboard.

BUMP

I count all the time, usually in sets of 4. But never to any number that can be divided by 3, 3 itself, 13 and 14. All these are bad numbers! 12 is ok though.

I count when i wash up
i count when i check and recheck the oven knobs
i count when i check and recheck the front door is shut properly before i go out
when i puff my pillow at night
when i flick the light switches and plug sockets
when i take boxes back in an out of the fridge/freezer
when i repeatedly touch things
when i read and reread the same sentance over and over again
and so on

all of which has to be done over and over again in sets of counting in 4s until it feels right. Sometiems my counts can go into the hundreds on a bad day.

I do the same as you ES but in sets of three.

I count...
when touching things idly
when writing
the letters in words/sentences to see if they are odd or even/divisible by 4 or 5
when I'm looking at a patterned thing
when in a car looking out the window (_everything_)
when I have a long verbal conversation (syllables said/what I'm about to say)
when re-filling things (mechanical pencils, drink containers, etc.)
when organizing documents on the computer (must have a certain number of documents per folder, etc.)
when asked to give a certain number of things (will count in exact sets of 5, no matter how much counting is done; if another person counts an addtional set and I realize it, I have to count 4 more times to make it 5)

P.S - sorry to perform a "thread necromancy," just felt like getting it out there!

This post has been edited by RangerSRC: Oct 14 2006, 09:04 PM

I also count, but i count things in 6's. when i get to 6, i start all over again.

Telephootee wrote:


This may sound weird, but I do many things in even numbers and actually stress out when it doesn't work out that way. I rip off even amounts of toilet paper, eat an even amounts for food (such as 4 crackers or eating 2 granola bars), or play a game an even amount of times. It sounds so weird, but why would I stress about something like this? This goes back to junior high and many don't catch on, except for my mom and sister. Of course it's not that way for everything (such as that I'm not going to buy 2 cars), but how can I help myself with this problem?

This post has been edited by Lizzy: Jan 16 2007, 03:41 AM

i count everything, i always have, it doesnt overly bother me until i read about other people doing it and that it is probably the casue of my depression.
Im on 60mg of floxetine a day, i feel lost now cos when i was first diagnosed in march i was told i would get help to stop it, now ive been told becasue my depression has lifted and i can do things again (i still dnot work) that theres no point in waiting a few years for CBT and if i want it i should go private, how can i get some help, i dont want to end up back where i started once they've kept my medication up for a year

Please realise that depression and OCD are different conditions. Although medication is recommended for short-term use, many of us have to take ADs for life. Doctors may not be aware that although depression and stress can increase OCD a person can have one or the other!

I'm glad that the medication has helped you, it can be a bit of a roller coaster ride until we find a drug which suits. Explain to your doctor the ways that the differences of your depression and OCD affect you - make a list if necessary - and ask for CBT. If the doctor seems unwilling to persue this then go to another doctor. Taking a friend along to the appt so that they can put their point can be useful!

Are you in the UK?