OCD and autism

[Morning Glory]

Now, my major OCD thing is locks. If I go out of town, I have to be absolutely sure I locked both doors on the house, and shut the garage door and closed the driveway gate. I will turn around two miles from my house to check if I'm not 100-percent sure. Annoying yes. but not a big deal. I know it is stupid, but also know it will mess with my head if I don't go back and check. I just plan it into my travel time.

I believe the lock thing is quite common amongst people with OCD. Maybe its because locks represent security and OCD in general is all about feeling secure and not being able to relax until a certain ritual is completed.

My partner who has (fairly early stage) dementia has developed some habits which verge on OCD. His latest one is an obsession with swirling his beer around in the glass all the time to prevent foam adhering to the sides of the glass. I'm sure I've done that sometimes but he does it over and over again the whole time he is drinking. Its driving me mad! He claims it is 'sensible'. If I try to stop him he does stop for a short time - then it starts up again.

 

[LissaC]

I reckon that everyone is somewhere on the autism spectrum. Re OCD, I suffered from it as a teenager. Manic hand washing! Lately, maybe due to Covid, it has been returning.

I did the handwashing thing when I was a kid. I was never OCD about anything other than that and it went away on its own. My dad always made fun of my arms, he wasn't being mean, just a silly thing he did. To this day I still feel uncomfortable in bare arms. When the weather is warmer and I'm going bare arms somehow my arms feel chilly for no reason and I want to cover them but I cover them it's too hot.

 

[mjd]

Okay, since I apparently "started" this thread, I guess I should explain it -- even though I'm not sure why.

GAD is a disorder where you are often anxious, for no reason. You can be laying in bed at night after getting a promotion and a raise at work, and you are unable to sleep because of anxiety that you will fail and get fired. You know there is no reason for it. It is a brain chemistry thing. Good thing happens, brain chemistry gets the memo all wrong.

Not the same as anxiety over things that you should be anxious about, like driving every car you have owned as fast as it will go, just to see how fast it will go. Not the same as taking one ski lesson, and joining your friends on a downhill bonsai run down a ski slope. For me, GAD was never about taking real risks. It was all about imagined dangers.

As for OCD, it was horrible as a kid. If I bumped into something with my right elbow, I had to bump ito something with my left elbow. If I stepped on a crack in the pavement with my right foot, I had to step on a crack with my left foot. Everything had to be even. I outgrew that.

Now, my major OCD thing is locks. If I go out of town, I have to be absolutely sure I locked both doors on the house, and shut the garage door and closed the driveway gate. I will turn around two miles from my house to check if I'm not 100-percent sure. Annoying yes. but not a big deal. I know it is stupid, but also know it will mess with my head if I don't go back and check. I just plan it into my travel time.

CD

I've never been diagnosed with OCD but I do the lock thing. It does NOT happen EVERY time I leave the house but I have gone back to check the locks. I also worry that I've left the stove/oven on and have gone back to double and triple check. Now, I just won't use it unless someone is here with me.

 

[TastyReuben]

With me, it's any kind of travel papers/passes. When I lived/worked in Minneapolis, I commuted by bus and my employer provided a monthly unlimited bus pass.

I loved riding the bus, but became obsessed about losing the pass. I'd get it out of my wallet and put it in my front pocket...then I'd stick my hand in my front pocket and check it. Then I'd take it out and look at it, to make sure it was the pass and not something else, then I'd stick it back in my pocket. Then I'd put my hand in my pocket...over and over for the 45-minute ride home.

I took to making sure I always had about three times the bus fare in cash in case the 147th time I checked for my pass, it magically turned into a library card, so I wouldn't be thrown into bus prison for hopping the bus without the fare.

It's half the reason I'm pure hell to travel with - I spend the entire time obsessing over my boarding pass, my passport, my driver's license, my landing card, any kind of travel documents, I constantly check, recheck, and re-recheck, and as I pass through each step of a journey, I worry over not being allowed through the next checkpoint, because of my documentation being wrong.

A large part of that (self-analysis continues) is that I absolutely am terrified of holding up a line. I've gotten mild panic attacks when I've been in a line and it gets to me, and I have to fumble through my papers. The whole time, I'm worried everyone behind me is noticing that I'm the jerk screwing up everyone else's day because I handed over my credit card instead of my passport and now oh god this guy probably thinks I'm trying to bribe him or something and as soon as he plays along and let's me through he's pressing that secret button under his little podium that they all have to silently summon security and they're gonna drag me to a room and beat me and stick a flashlight up my butt looking for drugs!!!...and that's when I get so worked up, I drop all my travel docs all over the floor in front of the agent and by then, I really just want to go back to the house and forget the whole thing.

 

[epicuric]

It's strange in how many was this condition manifests itself. I have none of the aforementioned habits, but I am quite particular about symmetry and straight lines - if I see a picture hanging crookedly, or things arranged asymmetrically I have to rearrange them. I also like to put everything away in the same place it came from. I could get up in total darkness, get dressed, make breakfast, find my car keys, phone, laptop and briefcase, all without turning on a light. I think the latter probably stems from doing soldiery things in the dark when I was younger, but I've no idea where the symmetry thing comes from. I should point out that I am absolutely nothing like Mr Bean, in case anyone was thinking.

 

[mjd]

With me, it's any kind of travel papers/passes. When I lived/worked in Minneapolis, I commuted by bus and my employer provided a monthly unlimited bus pass.

I loved riding the bus, but became obsessed about losing the pass. I'd get it out of my wallet and put it in my front pocket...then I'd stick my hand in my front pocket and check it. Then I'd take it out and look at it, to make sure it was the pass and not something else, then I'd stick it back in my pocket. Then I'd put my hand in my pocket...over and over for the 45-minute ride home.

I took to making sure I always had about three times the bus fare in cash in case the 147th time I checked for my pass, it magically turned into a library card, so I wouldn't be thrown into bus prison for hopping the bus without the fare.

It's half the reason I'm pure hell to travel with - I spend the entire time obsessing over my boarding pass, my passport, my driver's license, my landing card, any kind of travel documents, I constantly check, recheck, and re-recheck, and as I pass through each step of a journey, I worry over not being allowed through the next checkpoint, because of my documentation being wrong.

A large part of that (self-analysis continues) is that I absolutely am terrified of holding up a line. I've gotten mild panic attacks when I've been in a line and it gets to me, and I have to fumble through my papers. The whole time, I'm worried everyone behind me is noticing that I'm the jerk screwing up everyone else's day because I handed over my credit card instead of my passport and now oh god this guy probably thinks I'm trying to bribe him or something and as soon as he plays along and let's me through he's pressing that secret button under his little podium that they all have to silently summon security and they're gonna drag me to a room and beat me and stick a flashlight up my butt looking for drugs!!!...and that's when I get so worked up, I drop all my travel docs all over the floor in front of the agent and by then, I really just want to go back to the house and forget the whole thing.

If it makes you feel any better, I ALWAYS get stopped for the "extra" screening (which should come with a ring and proposal for how close they get ;-). I don't know why. I always add in that time to my travel plans because I KNOW it's coming. LOL

 

[LissaC]

It's strange in how many was this condition manifests itself. I have none of the aforementioned habits, but I am quite particular about symmetry and straight lines - if I see a picture hanging crookedly, or things arranged asymmetrically I have to rearrange them. I also like to put everything away in the same place it came from. I could get up in total darkness, get dressed, make breakfast, find my car keys, phone, laptop and briefcase, all without turning on a light. I think the latter probably stems from doing soldiery thing in the dark when I was younger, but I've no idea where the symmetry thing comes from. I should point out that I am absolutely nothing like Mr Bean, in case anyone was thinking.

In case you ever need I invite you to shock therapy at my house where all the paintings are crooked and mismatched and things are never in their designated place I HATE symmetry and repetition. Love a good dose of unpredictably and most of all I love small imperfections and things that don't match.

 

[epicuric]

In case you ever need I invite you to shock therapy at my house where all the paintings are crooked and mismatched and things are never in their designated place I HATE symmetry and repetition. Love a good dose of unpredictably and most of all I love small imperfections and things that don't match.

I have no problem with imperfections or things that don't match, as long as they are arranged with some degree of logic

 

[Morning Glory]

I am quite particular about symmetry and straight lines

So am I. There is a double power point in my kitchen which is not installed correctly and tilts slightly. Its embedded in tiles so it would be an expensive thing to sort out. It really upsets me every time I look at it.

 

[TastyReuben]

It's strange in how many was this condition manifests itself. I have none of the aforementioned habits, but I am quite particular about symmetry and straight lines - if I see a picture hanging crookedly, or things arranged asymmetrically I have to rearrange them. I also like to put everything away in the same place it came from. I could get up in total darkness, get dressed, make breakfast, find my car keys, phone, laptop and briefcase, all without turning on a light. I think the latter probably stems from doing soldiery thing in the dark when I was younger, but I've no idea where the symmetry thing comes from. I should point out that I am absolutely nothing like Mr Bean, in case anyone was thinking.

I'm somewhat the same way. I do like things organized, and I prefer symmetry, usually. I've been straightening Christmas ornaments ever since the tree's gone up.

I can also get by perfectly fine in the dark. It's a point of contention between my wife and I that when I get up to pee at 2:30AM, I do so completely in the dark, whereas she will turn her phone on in order to find the bedside lamp in order to get to the wall switch in order to get to the bathroom light - every light in the room gets turned on with her.

As to Mr. Bean - everyone in my family, us siblings, anyway, have nicknames. Guess what mine is? "Lord Bean." My siblings say it's because I act like Mr. Bean, and they stuck the "Lord" on there because it makes me, basically, lord of all the Beans, like I'm the Beaniest Bean who ever Beaned.

If it makes you feel any better, I ALWAYS get stopped for the "extra" screening (which should come with a ring and proposal for how close they get ;-). I don't know why. I always add in that time to my travel plans because I KNOW it's coming. LOL

This will give you pause and make you laugh: during 9/11, MrsT was a gate agent in Minneapolis. If you recall, it took a couple of months to get Homeland Security stood up, but the government set out some enhanced security rules that took effect immediately, including personally searching X number of passengers per flight.

Being that she worked for the airlines, we flew a lot back then, a lot of weekend trips and flights to see family.

Guess who always got pulled aside at the gate to have his luggage gone through and patted down? Me.

Now, I knew all the gate agents, they were my wife's coworkers, and after about the third time, I kind of joked and said, "Geez, Karen, I don't even know why I bother to pack, you all are going to go through it anyway!"

Karen laughed and said, "Well, you know why you get searched every time you leave here, right?"

"No, not really."

"We have to search a certain number of people, and we know you, so we know you're all right and we're not going to find anything, so we search you. Ask everyone we're searching, and you'll find out they're either an employee or a family member."

At first, that didn't bother me much, but then I realized pretty quickly that that was perverting the whole purpose of randomly searching people. They were searching only those people they knew would be "all right."

 

[mjd]

I'm somewhat the same way. I do like things organized, and I prefer symmetry, usually. I've been straightening Christmas ornaments ever since the tree's gone up.

I can also get by perfectly fine in the dark. It's a point of contention between my wife and I that when I get up to pee at 2:30AM, I do so completely in the dark, whereas she will turn her phone on in order to find the bedside lamp in order to get to the wall switch in order to get to the bathroom light - every light in the room gets turned on with her.

As to Mr. Bean - everyone in my family, us siblings, anyway, have nicknames. Guess what mine is? "Lord Bean." My siblings say it's because I act like Mr. Bean, and they stuck the "Lord" on there because it makes me, basically, lord of all the Beans, like I'm the Beaniest Bean who ever Beaned.


This will give you pause and make you laugh: during 9/11, MrsT was a gate agent in Minneapolis. If you recall, it took a couple of months to get Homeland Security stood up, but the government set out some enhanced security rules that took effect immediately, including personally searching X number of passengers per flight.

Being that she worked for the airlines, we flew a lot back then, a lot of weekend trips and flights to see family.

Guess who always got pulled aside at the gate to have his luggage gone through and patted down? Me.

Now, I knew all the gate agents, they were my wife's coworkers, and after about the third time, I kind of joked and said, "Geez, Karen, I don't even know why I bother to pack, you all are going to go through it anyway!"

Karen laughed and said, "Well, you know why you get searched every time you leave here, right?"

"No, not really."

"We have to search a certain number of people, and we know you, so we know you're all right and we're not going to find anything, so we search you. Ask everyone we're searching, and you'll find out they're either an employee or a family member."

At first, that didn't bother me much, but then I realized pretty quickly that that was perverting the whole purpose of randomly searching people. They were searching only those people they knew would be "all right."

My ex works in the airline industry. That might be why it happened to me too.

 

[epicuric]

So am I. There is a double power point in my kitchen which is not installed correctly and tilts slightly. Its embedded in tiles so it would be an expensive thing to sort out. It really upsets me every time I look at it.

If it's a standard fitting it should be easy to sort out. Simply slacken off the screws a bit until it is loose (don't remove them completely) then wiggle it about until you are happy, and re-tighten the screws. Normal UK fittings have vertical and horizontal adjustment built in for this very reason. 2 min job.

 

[Morning Glory]

If it's a standard fitting it should be easy to sort out. Simply slacken off the screws a bit until it is loose (don't remove them completely) then wiggle it about until you are happy, and re-tighten the screws. Normal UK fittings have vertical and horizontal adjustment built in for this very reason. 2 min job.

The kitchen fitter seemed to think he couldn't adjust it. The power point was an existing one from the previous kitchen. Do I need to turn off the electricity to do what you describe?

 

[epicuric]

The kitchen fitter seemed to think he couldn't adjust it. The power point was an existing one from the previous kitchen. Do I need to turn off the electricity to do what you describe?

No, as long as you don't completely remove the front plate. I should have mentioned, this only applies to recessed sockets that have a metal back box.

If it is a surface mounted plastic box they don't always adjust.

If in doubt, send me a photo.

 

[rascal]

Im pretty much laid back, I've come home and I left an element on or not locked the back door. It doesn't bother me. Sure I could have burnt the house down, but I'm insured. I don't mean to sound blasé but it's just who I am. My late mum was a worrier big time, she was prolly ocd in her dressing us boys alike. Maybe that's why I'm laid back?? I did a dale Carnegie course 30 years ago and part of the course was " what's the worst that could happen" or don't sweat the small stuff??? I kinda live like that since then.

Russ