Letter/syllable counting...

[oliviamccutcheon]

For at least six years now, I've been obsessed with counting the syllables in words and sentences, and making sure that they coincide with the number of letters in the word or sentence. I also imagine the word being typed on a keyboard, and tense my leg or arm muscles (and teeth sometimes) which I have assigned to certain spots on the keyboard. I've ALSO assigned certain voice inflections to certain leg or arm muscles. And I'm doing this pretty much always - needless to say, it gets exhausting. For example, if I were to hear or read the sentence, "The shirt is blue," I would immediately register the sentence as having four syllables. The first word, "The" coincides perfectly since it uses four muscles (the T counts as two since it is capitalized). I'll continue on the finish the entire sentence this way, including spaces and all punctuation. This sentence works if I add a period and the Enter button at the end. If there's no way to make a sentence work, I become anxious. As I said before, my mind is CONSTANTLY focused on counting the syllables and letters and muscles and I seem to have no control over it. I'm not sure if it could be considered OCD or just an anxiety-relieving routine, but either way I'm curious whether or not someone else out there experiences something similar!

 

[whattodo1]

I do something that i think is quite similar..
i have one of those clocks in my room where it projects the time above my bed and its digital.. So whenever I look up at it, which is alot. I always have to find a way to make the numbers relate to each other..
for example if the time is 12:25 I will think 2+2+1=5 or if its 14:35 i will think 5-4=1, 4+1=5 etc.. With some times, I cant think of them atm, I get really cool calculations.. Haha this must sound pretty stupid but its hard to explain..
And with some numbers of the clock there is nothing I can do and then I et frustrated.

 

[groovy]

I do something that i think is quite similar..
i have one of those clocks in my room where it projects the time above my bed and its digital.. So whenever I look up at it, which is alot. I always have to find a way to make the numbers relate to each other..
for example if the time is 12:25 I will think 2+2+1=5 or if its 14:35 i will think 5-4=1, 4+1=5 etc.. With some times, I cant think of them atm, I get really cool calculations.. Haha this must sound pretty stupid but its hard to explain..
And with some numbers of the clock there is nothing I can do and then I et frustrated.

Haha, I used to have to do this with car plate numbers. ALso, whenever I'm reading, I count the number of syllables in each sentence, and I only feel comfortable when it's in multiples of three.

 

[diagonal_mambo]

This sounds rather similar to one of my more pervasive habits.

Whenever I'm reading, I keep track of words and syllables. Sometimes, it'll be for one sentence, or a few. Sometimes a paragraph. I tend to keep going until I reach some satisfactory number - usually, a multiple of three, or a squared number. I like finding runs of one number, particularly four, and especially if the number of runs is a multiple of three.

This is one of the reasons I don't read as much as I want to. It takes far too long. I've tried to ignore it, and sometimes I can for half a page, but then I realise that I'm doing it again. It can't be ignored.

I also take sentences and divide them up into three symmetrical groups, and sometimes I take a word or phrase and rearrange it to produce a more consistent spread of vowels and consonants.

 

[oliviamccutcheon]

This sounds rather similar to one of my more pervasive habits.

Whenever I'm reading, I keep track of words and syllables. Sometimes, it'll be for one sentence, or a few. Sometimes a paragraph. I tend to keep going until I reach some satisfactory number - usually, a multiple of three, or a squared number. I like finding runs of one number, particularly four, and especially if the number of runs is a multiple of three.

This is one of the reasons I don't read as much as I want to. It takes far too long. I've tried to ignore it, and sometimes I can for half a page, but then I realise that I'm doing it again. It can't be ignored.

I also take sentences and divide them up into three symmetrical groups, and sometimes I take a word or phrase and rearrange it to produce a more consistent spread of vowels and consonants.

This sounds pretty much exactly like my issue. I have the same problem and "light reading" can take FOREVER for me unless I really, really focus. I'll rearrange my words and sentences and group the syllables as well. It's a pretty annoying habit.

 

[diagonal_mambo]

Tell me about it. I get really anxious whenever the subject of books comes up, because I can't read like most can (and in my circles, the subject comes up a lot). I try to stay quiet and just not contribute, and hope that when I am forced to admit that I've not read a particular book, no one notices that it's most times I'm asked.

I read heaps before I was about fifteen. I think I mustn't have had this then. It's a shame. I used to love it so much.

 

[Beatrice]

Mmmmhmmmm ah yoosta do diss, yessiree ah deed.

But instead of counting letters of words, I counted the LINES of the letters. For example, the word "the" would have six lines - two in the "t" two in the "h", two in the "e". Weird..... I did that when I was much younger, though, and forced myself to stop somehow. Thank goodness. Now I have other, more severe obsessions.... like my hands. Shoot me. *sigh*

 

[Deus_Ex_Lemur]

*shoots Beatrice with a water gun*

I don't count syllables or stuff but I do obsesses over reading certain number of pages. And used to count sentences. Luckily I dont anymore. Oh but I have plenty of other OCD hiccups still =D