Mad Brain Counting Things

[Konki]

For some reason I constantly count things in my head. From the moment I wake up in the morning I'm counting. I count the strokes of my toothbrush as I brush my teeth, I count the sheets of toilet paper I use per wipe, I count the number of times I stir the spoon in my coffee, I tap my key against the door three times to signal it is locked and so on throughout the day... and it's driving me mad. I often have to do things in threes but there are lots of arbitrarily acceptable numbers and several definitely unacceptable numbers. What the fuck is going on?

[Buelligan]

It's perfectly normal Konki.  All of us OCD bods do it.

[thenoise]

Have you tried not doing it?

[Konki]

It's perfectly normal Konki.  All of us OCD bods do it.

Cheers. But it's driving me mad.

Have you tried not doing it?

I have but, like Karl Pilkington, me brain tricks me and starts counting things again.

[The Boston Crab]

1
3
4
2
1

123
456

Eeeeeesssshhhh no

1
3
2
4

No.

1
3
4
2
1

Ahh...

[Konki]

7
3
3

Hang on... that adds up to 13.

Best start again...

6
4
3

FUCK

[DistressedArea]

For some reason I constantly count things in my head. From the moment I wake up in the morning I'm counting. I count the strokes of my toothbrush as I brush my teeth, I count the sheets of toilet paper I use per wipe, I count the number of times I stir the spoon in my coffee, I tap my key against the door three times to signal it is locked and so on throughout the day... and it's driving me mad. I often have to do things in threes but there are lots of arbitrarily acceptable numbers and several definitely unacceptable numbers. What the fuck is going on?

Have you considered accountancy?

[pancreas]

Are you also one of these execrable 'I can't have beans touching my egg'-types?

_{I can't help adding up bus numbers to try to get other bus numbers on similar routes}

[DistressedArea]

There are 9 posts in this thread.

There are 53 letters in this post.

[Paul Calf]

OCD bods

You might have misspelt 'anally retentive pains in the fucking rectum'

(Obviously to the exclusion of any genuine sufferers of obssessive-compulsive disorder, which is a genuinely distressing and debilitating condition, the name of which some people have adopted because they think it's a short-cut to having a personality)

[Konki]

Are you also one of these execrable 'I can't have beans touching my egg'-types?

_{I can't help adding up bus numbers to try to get other bus numbers on similar routes}

God, no. Those people are idiots.

[Blue Jam]

Beans and eggs are both disgusting, best to not have them touching anything.

[Blue Jam]

I count the strokes of my toothbrush as I brush my teeth, I count the sheets of toilet paper I use per wipe, I count the number of times I stir the spoon in my coffee

https://youtu.be/B-Wd-Q3F8KM

[Konki]

You might have misspelt 'anally retentive pains in the fucking rectum'

(Obviously to the exclusion of any genuine sufferers of obssessive-compulsive disorder, which is a genuinely distressing and debilitating condition, the name of which some people have adopted because they think it's a short-cut to having a personality)

I definitely wouldn't claim to be OCD. It's a really annoying habit I can't seem to shift and I can see no reason why I do it.

[Blue Jam]

I count the number of letters and syllables in words, work out if it's a prime number, etc. I think this is something which started when I was bored at school and became a habit.

Did you know that the number four is the only number with a value equal to the number of letters in its name? That sort of thing.

There are 9 posts in this thread.

There are 53 letters in this post.

I KNOW.

[pancreas]

Did you know that the number four is the only number with a value equal to the number of letters in its name? That sort of thing.

Well you could arrange for the smallest unnamed number to be called something with the appropriate number of letters. Might take too long to pronounce, though.

[Blue Jam]

https://youtu.be/B-Wd-Q3F8KM

Pancreas, is it alright if I picture you as Count von Count from now on? A mathematician playing an organ in a big Gothic building while wearing a cape?

Or are you more like El Nombre?

[pancreas]

If it's a choice between the two I'll take the Count.



Call that an organ?

One manual, which has far too many keys. And it only looks like he's got one rank of 4' pipes. Mate.

[mrpupkin]

Just remembered I've got half (0.5) a tin of beans in the fridge at home. Genuinely excited me. Fuck

[Norton Canes]

The radio/CD player in our car has a volume counter. I can't bear it being set to a prime number.

[gilbertharding]

It's too abstract to describe even as 'a thing', but there's this dream I have every so often. It's really hard to define, but I recognise it when it happens - something like I am falling through space (sometimes I am deep underwater, or trapped somewhere) for some reason, and for some equally impossible reason I am being compelled somehow to count up to a really high number, or maybe count down from a really high number. It's implied in the dream, but never stated, that success will avert my death from hitting the ground/drowning/whatever. I've been having this dream all my life.

Consequently (big perhaps) maths and numbers always have the potential to trigger mild panic. Not every time - but if they 'sneak up on me'.

[Depressed Beyond Tables]

The only thing close to this is when I hear a ringing tone (brrr, brrr) I automatically fill the silence in with an imaginary rhythm to compliment the two tones. It's quite difficult as the regularity of the tones combined with the length of silence means it does not lend itself to being compatible with any basic time signatures (it's maybe 23/16, just short of 6 counts).

[samadriel]

The only thing close to this is when I hear a ringing tone (brrr, brrr) I automatically fill the silence in with an imaginary rhythm to compliment the two tones. It's quite difficult as the regularity of the tones combined with the length of silence means it does not lend itself to being compatible with any basic time signatures (it's maybe 23/16, just short of 6 counts).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfSndZPynQk ?

[bgmnts]

I count how the number of intrusive thoughts I have every day.

[Glebe]

I do this. OCD superstition.

[Paul Calf]

The only thing close to this is when I hear a ringing tone (brrr, brrr) I automatically fill the silence in with an imaginary rhythm to compliment the two tones. It's quite difficult as the regularity of the tones combined with the length of silence means it does not lend itself to being compatible with any basic time signatures (it's maybe 23/16, just short of 6 counts).

For someone who can find a rhythm in someone walking down a quiet street, I find telephone ringtones challenging. But anyway, it's 5/4, the most frustrating of all the time sigs.

[Replies From View]

Imagine if every morning before work you felt compelled to count all your pubes.

[Twit 2]

And then went to work, where your job is counting your own pubes.

[hedgehog90]

My brain goes crazy if I spend too much time playing puzzle games.
It all started with Tetris. Long after playing a game, like an echo that reverberates into a feedback loop, I'll still be spinning blocks in my head and jamming long thin ones down the side, frantically, at ever increasing speed.
Utterly maddening, but there you go.

There are many games that induce a similar kind of madness, Threes is my current sickness of choice. I can't help myself unfortunately.
Some mornings I'll wake up while half asleep still with a load of numbers in a 4x4 grid fixed in my brain, and I'll push them about to make bigger numbers, endlessly, expending so much mental energy as to exhaust myself before the day's begun.

The worst is when I'm sitting through a dull film at the cinema, I'll imagine the last numbers/geometry based game I've played on the big screen instead.
As a result I've only been out to see a film once in the last 3-4 years.

[manticore]

I definitely wouldn't claim to be OCD.

This is a bit of quibbling tangent, not a dig at you I promise, but I just want to say that nobody can 'be' OCD. When I was in an OCD support newsgroup 20 years ago we had a kind of rule to tell anyone turning up saying they thought they 'were OCD' that that was a bad habit of mind to get into to define yourself by your 'disorder'.

One can certainly be obsessional and engage in compulsions though, and it sounds as if that's what you're doing in this case.

-----------------

(As I think Paul Calf is kind of implying, there's nothing much interesting about having OCD, and it isn't a short cut to having a personality. It's a way of being boring and tedious to yourself.)