General little OCD rituals

Up until recently my travelcard and photo ID had to be lined up perfectly in the little plastic wallet they live in. I managed to fight this one but it has been replaced by a need to touch raw wood to ward off evil - seems you just can't win.

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When I put my hair up i a ponytail I HAVE to out it up four times in a row and when i do some thing like put on my shoes I always have to do it again eight times and when I'm listing to the radio or the t.v the volume alwasy has to be on an even number I have to do every thing an even amount of times like when I walk into a room I have to walk out and walk right back in an even amount of times and when I drink some thing i have to make sure to take four drinks of it before i put down the cup and when I hear of a new ilnes I always feel like I have it. And every time I try to explain all this to my mom she will not listen and I don't have anyone else to talk to about this so for now I'll just deal with it.

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When I ride my bike and I take one hand off the handlebar to wave to a friend or something, I must then, after replacing the hand, briefly take the other hand off the handlebar, and then very briefly take both hands off. If I do not do this I feel extremely unbalanced and anxious.

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I am always tapping strange rhythms with my fingers. I have to memorize the pattern, do it with both of my hands, then do it backwards. Then I have to do the rhythm backwards and then frontwards, as a way to be doing the frontward-backward rhythm backwards. Confusing, yes, but I find myself doing it at all hours of the day.

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I do not like my food touching unless I decide the flavors will compliment each other. For example, I cannot stand the idea of green beans coming into contact with chicken, but I have no problem putting stir-fry on rice because they are supposed to go together. I mostly think this is because I don't like mixing some flavors. I do not want the soy sauce from my broccoli to spill into my potatoes. It's gross! So, I take great care when I am fixing my plate and become cranky if something goes wrong. Friends and family laugh, but I know I have good tasting food as it was meant to be.

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Whenever I make an important file, such as a term paper, on my computer, I check back many times to see if the file is there. And then, after turning off the computer's power, I have to turn it on again in a matter of minutes just to see if the file is there. I would make multiple backups (at least three), but still I would be obsessed about checking if the original file is there. I'm terribly scared that I might have deleted it by mistake.

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Part of my job is cleaning the toys in the waiting room. I soak the toys in bleach, then set them out to dry on a towel. I always organize them by size and color. My co-workers think it is funny, and one time dared me to just randomly put them down to dry. I tried, but couldn't stop thinking about it. By the time I left I had gone and reorganized them.

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I am a freak about symmetry and balance. If one of my fingers hits something with a sandpaper texture (or ANY texture, really), I have to run all of my other fingers over it so my hands feel the same. When eating (especially M&Ms and candies like that), I have to chew the same amount on both sides of my mouth. And if I can't have symmetry, I have to have balance at the very least. It gets annoying, and my friends tease me for it, but at least it makes for a tidy way of life.

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I can never eat the last bite of food on my plate. No matter how hungry I am, I always come to a halt when there’s one final bit left, whether it’s bread or meat or the last forkful of pasta. For years, my dog supplemented his diet of kibble with last bites of food from each of my meals.

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