YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

I'm ruining the nice 0 post thread. OCD people, please help make it a nice even number like 8 or 808 or something that is symmetrical and even...
Anyone have a thing where they have to start any type of media from the absolute beginning? I HAVE to start at episode 1, book 1, page 1, disc 1, etc. and will start freaking out if I can't.
Searching for hours on the web to find episode 71b of some obscure show you've started on a whim isn't that fun.

To be truthful odd numbers bother the heck out of me so I've been wanting to post something but couldn't get myself to be the very first. That and I felt I was posting too much for a while, I've kinda fallen in love with the community here, it's great to see so many open people, so I didn't want to overstep my boundaries or anything. And also my ocd isn't the biggest of my problems so I always worry that someone will tell me I'm not OCD enough. Oh worries.
I do the same thing with media. I cannot enjoy a tv show if I haven't seen every episode leading up to it first. Which has been a bit of the problem in the past when there was a particular anime that I started watching and then found out one of the episodes had been banned and wasn't available in the U.S. Took me six years to finish watching that dang show.
On "good" days my OCD really only effects me in three ways. The first which is the media issue. I have to be wearing an even amount of clothing at all times and have an odd amount of things in my pockets. And I repetitively play the piano in my head, acting it out with my hands, which usually leads people to thinking I have some sort of weird twitch or am being impatient. Fun times
(also the 808 thing just made me start way over thinking things because if you put an 8 on its side it's the sign for infinity so it would be "InfinityZeroInfinity" and that just leads me into far too existential thinking for this time in the morning haha)

I personally have loved the number 81... and 9. Obviously 9x9= 81, 9x2=18 (which is 81 backwards), 8+1=9... Ya feel me? haha

I am awful at starting books from the beginning. Idk why, but I start on a random page and skip around to various pages, then I'll start reading from the very beginning of the book until I get 3/4 into it- or maybe even a chapter away from completing it and then I'll stop reading it. I'll jump to a completely different book. I have no idea why I rarely/never finish a book! I'm usually reading 3 or 4 books at once. I suppose I'm too impatient and 'can't wait' to suck in all the information that is waiting for me in the other books

Anyone know what 'Nonograms' are? I HATE math, but a coworker got me hooked on these puzzles. I was doing them so often that I began seeing everything in 'Nonogram' alignment. I have no idea how to even describe what I'm trying to say, and I'm thinking I sound preeeee-ty nutzo right now... haha But yeah- I was analyzing rows of cars in front of me while I was driving and 'organizing' them in my mind according to color, spacing, and "if they were a nonogram puzzle". Example: "This car needs to go here, move that car over to that space" and so on... WTF?! I feel like such a freak! lol

I obsess over symmetry. I arrange things that I see (furniture, pictures, just about anything) in my mind until I have them 'positioned' symmetrically. Colors take on a role as if they are numbers and can be 'symmetrical' or 'asymmetrical'.

A funny book I was able to relate to in many aspects (including cleanliness) is "Devil in the Details: Scenes From an Obsessive Girlhood" by Jennifer Traig

Ok, it's definitely time for me to head to bed. Hope someone gets a kick out of my confusing post. :/

I can't remember when it started, seems like forever.... I too make equations out of numbers. License plates, street/door numbers, phone numbers, the clock. Only simple ones, but it's a constant thing.