Counting Compulsions
Ok so I've been dealing with what I think is most likely OCD for a while now, and I've developed a counting compulsion. Its really horrible, I have to count everything all the time and I'm sick of it. How many sips of water I take, how many times I've scrubbed my hands, ect. And a lot of times this centers around things I do every day like eating, drinking, going to the bathroom, bathing, ect. I have good numbers and bad numbers and okay numbers and its so annoying because I have to keep doing things over and over again until I land on a "good number" or even an "Okay number." It's making me miserable. Does anyone else have this? And how do you stop? Or cope?
@nmsnerd I'm so sorry you are going through this. I hear how distressed you & how compulsive behaviour is affecting your daily life.
When we get very stressed it's common to believe you have forgotten to do things like lock a door or switched off a hot appliance. I couldn't tell you the amount of times I have had to return home to check myself. 9.99/10 I have locked up/turned things off but I did it completely on autopilot because my brain was too consumed with thoughts on whatever was stressing me out.
OCD can be viewed as an extreme version of this where more & more "safety solutions" are added until daily life is hindered, the counting(or any compulsive behaviour) simply becomes habitual, the person has a foreboding sense of dread that something bad will happen if these rituals aren't carried out or all of the above.
It can be helpful to think back to how you felt when your compulsions first became apparent to you. Were you very stressed? Upset about something? Feeling under tremendous pressure? Feeling generally anxious? Was there any kind of "cause" that you feel may have triggered this within you? Sometimes when we can identify the beginnings we can gain clarity & that can help us begin to find a solution.
Here is an article about OCD along with some coping techniques that I hope you will find useful. https://www.helpguide.org/articles/anxiety/obssessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd.htm
Talking to us here today on the forum is a brilliant step forward & I hope you will continue to talk about this with whomever you feel comfortable, whether it be a friend, family or the listeners here at 7 cups. If you feel you'd benefit from more professional help & it is an option for you, CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) has a very high success rate among folk with OCD.
Take good care of yourself & remember you are not alone in this 🤗
@IAmHere83
Thank you for your help. :)
I mean my OCD started out as mostly just intrusive obsessions about a year ago. Some of them are so strong that I struggle to write about them or say them, but basically the counting compulsion is usually an attempt to avoid some "bad" thing happening, and all of my numbers have "rules" to them. The problem is I'm afraid of what will happen if I don't do the counting or if I land on a "bad" number, but once I start counting or giving into the compulsions it just makes me more anxious. I'm not really sure what triggered the OCD in the first place, I know that it started during finals of my freshman year of college, but like, I've kinda always had intrusive thoughts, it was just that one day I kinda started taking them a lot more seriously. Like and I'm really afraid to start trying to talk to people about these intrusive thoughts because some of them are really scary to me to even say out loud and some of them are just gross, and some seem silly, and I've brought up the counting thing to my dad and his advice was basically, "well just stop doing it." I guess I'm just a little lost.
Hi there! ❤
I agree that you should seek help from a psychiatrist.
And yes, counting numbers is a form of mental compulsion and it can be very distressing. Think about why you consider it a "bad number" and what possibly could be the reason behind that specific counting period.
Also, I saw you mentioned that you don't feel your problem is bad enough but it is important for you to understand that if something is distressing you, taking help is the best option. Personally, here's how I deal with it: think of feeling that way as someone feeling hungry because he/she hasn't eaten anything for a day, and then there's another person who feels hungry too because he/she has been starved for three days. Now the first person's hunger wouldn't curb if he/she feels that his reason for being hungry is not bad enough.The only way to feel satisfied is acknowledging both the problems but being considerate towards yourself too. Take care boo.💞💞 If you would like to talk, ping me up. ❤
@1AlwaysThere1 Honestly thank you so much, I really needed someone to say that to me. <3
@nmsnerd
I hope you're doing well, if there's anything you want to talk about, you can ping me up.💞