Is it normal that i do this but without ocd?

56% Normal
8 Comments

I'm an 18-year-old female and since I was a kid I've had weird little quirks that people tended to dismiss as "habits". The most crazy one was when I was about 9 or 10 and had to do a ritual before I ate my evening meal, which involved clapping to the left and right, which I think my family just found cute or funny...

So I've recently had a test for OCD because my "habits" are getting worse again, but apparently I DON'T have it. I was told that normal people have little obsessive behaviours too, so I'm just wondering if what I do is normal.

At the moment, I feel the need to touch some surfaces when I go past them for no reason, sometimes several times; I have a nervous tic in my right eye which gets worse when I watch screens or am tired (lots of people have noticed this which I'm a bit wary about); I feel I have to do things to prevent bad situations - e.g. touching photos of my family or blinking at them so that nothing bad happens to them; I tense and untense certain muscles constantly for no reason (the muscles on the inside of my knees are most common). I also don't like people other than close family to touch me because I don't like the clammy feel of other people's hands, and I get very worried about disease/illness/infection - especially ones that can be serious, e.g. I might think I've got skin cancer when it's just a mole or freckle...

These are just a few, I won't bore you. So does anyone else get quirks like these or do I need another test?

Voting Results
56% Normal
Based on 32 votes (18 yes)
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Comments ( 8 )
  • noid
    10 years ago

    Another test. Don't know where you got the other one...

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    • Anonymous Post Author
      10 years ago

      The one I did was from a University of OCD site, so I thought it'd be fairly reliable, but I guess not.

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  • Isabella80s
    10 years ago

    I have some experience with OCD myself and have to say, you do have a form of OCD. You're having these thoughts that something will happen etc. if you don't do this or that. But at the same time know they're irrational. That is a form of OCD and it's the OCD doing the talking/making the thoughts. It doesn't have to take over your life and you CAN manage it. Try 'exposure exercises' if you can. For example, try to resist doing a ritual and sit with your anxiety levels until they decrease. It will be hard, but if you can resist the urges that supposedly make it better/stop the bad thing, then you're on your way to battling that OCD demon! I imagine this will all make sense to you but please ask if you're not sure what I'm on about.

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    • Anonymous Post Author
      10 years ago

      Yeah don't worry, I get what you're saying. The thoughts aren't bothering me too much - occasionally I can ignore them but then I end up feeling really guilty afterwards... It's just a matter of kinda building up immunity to them!

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  • GuessWho
    10 years ago

    Yeah. Those are Obsessive Compulsive behaviors.
    However, do note that the D in OCD stands for Disorder.
    You probably won't be diagnosed with OCD if it's not severe enough to be ruining your life.
    If it is really bugging you, maybe you should go see a psychologist.

    By the way, I just scored "OCD is likely" on an online survey, and I don't consider myself to have OCD.

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  • Curious_Questions
    10 years ago

    You have OCD. Many times those tests just sort of give you a bunch of symptoms and you check them off, and you need a certain number of them in order for it to count as "OCD" -- especially nonprofessional tests or internet tests-- but a lot of times, just having ONE symptom is enough to be considered OCD if the symptom is prevalent enough, and this is one of them, because otherwise, there'd be no reason for you to do these behaviors! Having said that, if it's not screwing up your life, then you are a lucky person. But it's better to just accept you have OCD because if anything ever turns into something else (like an unwanted thought or image flashes into your mind, or you start stressing out way too much) sometimes it's better to be able to tell yourself "this is OCD, not my fault, and I don't have to listen to it." Gets rid of a lot of embarrassment that way, because many people with OCD think it's their own fault that they have thoughts/compulsions like that and feel shame over it (OCD feeds on your fears, things that disgust you, bother you, etc.) And once you can recognize it as OCD, you can look at pictures of your family, for instance, feel like you want to perform the compulsion, but tell yourself flat out "I want to do this because of OCD, not because it's a rational fear," etc, and train yourself out of it. My OCD was similar to this when I was younger (I'd always pass the television remote between my hands/around my back, etc, because it somehow didn't feel "right" to just pick it up and hold it? Weird but that's OCD.) and I'm glad I recognized it as such because as I got older, it turned into stuff that I knew I could confront and deal with instead of just letting myself think I was a total weirdo for thinking or doing x, y, and z.

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  • [Old Memory]
    10 years ago

    More people have OCD than those who don't.

    Not having OCD is the disorder.

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  • thegypsysailor
    10 years ago

    I'd try another doctor, I think this guy got it all wrong; you are nutty as the mad hatter!

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