Has Anyone Suffered This Kind Of OCD, Is it OCD? Any help would be greatly appreciate

[DanTricky81]

What i have is not behavioral OCD, nor ritualistic OCD. it's mental, thinking and obsessing over numbers. I remember when i was young, for some reason I had the number 3 in my head, the number would spring into my mind every 10-15-20secs etc etc, day and night, I couldn't concentrate, became anxious, lost interest in activities, it just totured my mind. Now its happening again 14 years later, but worse, its every number i think of now, (not just 3) stinks in my mind and i think it compulsively every 10-15-30-40 seconds day afternoon and night. My mind goes passive, then the next thought in my head? The number.. It just never stops... I cant have peace of mind whilst this is happening, and is affecting my life... It causes panic,anxiety attack, lack of concentration, hopeless, worry, fear and worst of suicidal ideation. Is there anyone out there who has had a similiar problem? Anyone who can help please???

 

[LifeInternal88]

Hey. No sorry, not sure how to help. But I just wanted to say that maybe you just have an affinity for numbers.

Maybe use your obsession in a useful way. Go into maths, stats or any quantitative field where you can work with numbers.

I remember watching a movie on John Nash (A beautiful mind) and if I remember correctly, he was always counting and calculating. But then that's just a movie adaptation so they could be making it up.

 

[user deleted]

It's not OCD, but what some people might call 'pure obsession' i.e. you have the obsessiveness but not the compulsiveness. Some medications can be helpful in calming the anxiety, but your best bet is probably cognitive behaviour therapy.

 

[JackOfSpades]

I'm not that familiar with OCD, but maybe it can be channeled like Internal suggests. I remember reading about Tesla counting his peas at dinner and arranging his food systematically as he ate it.

 

[jaim38]

I'm sort of in a similar situation, except that I have certain words stuck in my head and keep repeating themselves instead of numbers. At first I tried stopping them invading my head, but that didn't really work. Now, I tried to aknowledge them instead. When I find my head repeating such words, I take a time out, focus on my breathing, aknowledge I have such thoughts, and then move on.

 

[ebot]

I'm obsessed with the number 222. Everytime I see it I think something bad is going to happen. Guess there's some superstition in me.

 

[live]

I'm sort of in a similar situation, except that I have certain words stuck in my head and keep repeating themselves instead of numbers. At first I tried stopping them invading my head, but that didn't really work. Now, I tried to aknowledge them instead. When I find my head repeating such words, I take a time out, focus on my breathing, aknowledge I have such thoughts, and then move on.

Deep breaths are really awesome, they help to keep me calm at work, at school, on the computer, everything. Just breathe as deep as you can and you will get at least a temporary relief.

But my answer is: Kind of, I do it more with letters and words than anything, I use it to space out. I know know enough about the acutly Disorder of OCD or not, all I can tell you if I obsess about silly pattern like that quite a bit.

 

[live]

I do this thing with letters, numbers, and sentences. I'll count the number of syllables in a sentence, and say the sentence backward, to figure out how to make it an odd number, to say part of the sentence, leave one word in the middle with a pause in my mind, and then finish the sentence. I'll then repeat what I have found to myself several times, backwards and forwards. I actually do it more with the letters in the words themselves.

I do it when I am spacing out or tell myself I can't do something. Like i would say the word "letters." In my head : "L" "E" T".........."T"..........."E" "R" "S"............... "S" "R" "E".........."T".............."T" "E" "L." And I'll repeat that several times for about half a minute. And in elementary school (im a sophmore in college not) I devised a way to make it work if the word wasn't oddm but had an "I" in it. I'd say "I" "Dot" like I was placing the dot on the I, verbally (well, mentally)

I need to figure out what it is, though it doesn't bother me as much as your case does.

Definitely let someone know about what you go through though. (I'm sure you have let someone know.) But talk to like a professional, maybe call a doctors office or ask like the local pharmacist where you can start?

 

[yesman]

Wow. I wish I could help you, but I never had any problems like this.

However, I can see where you're coming from. I have severe OCD, and some people just don't get how detrimental it can be. Msg me if you need help!

 

[HatesOCD]

I have something similar. I obsess on Religious things like Bibical names, numbers, etc. I have a horrible time sleeping because I have to have an image of something before I go to sleep and I have to make sure it's not a religious name example I like to picture my dog but because it is "god" spelled backward I can't use it. It's driving me crazy and I can't find any peace at all for it.

 

[awkwardamanda]

I'm pretty sure that would be classed as "intrusive thoughts," which can be a part of OCD.

 

[hexagon_sun]

I don't have a number OCD exactly but I've steadily become more acutely aware of how certain numbers seem to pop-up all the time. It's no surprising that you see 3's everywhere because 3 is a very fundamental number in the construction of our reality. The most basic and fundamental 2D shape is a triangle. 3 sides; 3 vertices. I believe it's called a tessell in 3D graphic design. Things are often divided into thirds in everyday life. If you divide 100 by 3 you get 33.33333333 (goes on to infinity) If you divide 1000 by 6 (3x2) you get... 666.6666666... Makes me wonder why we don't have 6 fingers and toes and 3 eyes... Or do we???

Tesla, Howard Hughes, and other eccentric men of prominence were obssesed with the #3. Your in good company.

 

[Unspoken]

I wouldn't recommend trying to "use" it, since if it's not only causing you stress but is out of your control it's a problem to be managed, not encouraged.