[HalfSwede]

Not sure if this is the right place for this.

Ever since I learned multiplication in fourth grade I've had these obsessive thoughts about numbers. It makes absolutely no sense the few times I've tried to explain it to somebody else, but it makes perfect sense in my head. All I can say is that it has almost a religious aspect to it: 9 is like the Father and the Son, and 0 is like the Holy Ghost. 8 is like Satan and 1 is like one of his minions on earth. If I see a phone number where the digits add up to 8, it makes me anxious. Bizarre, right?

It's kind of like that Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs finds that frog that sings all these Tin Pan Alley tunes, but when he tries to get the frog to sing in public, the frog just sits there. I really start thinking hard about numbers when I'm under stress. Even now, trying to explain it here online, I'm afraid the numbers might go away and leave me for good if I expose them to the light of day, but it drives me crazy the amount of time I spend thinking about something that makes no sense and seems to have no practical application. But if they make no sense to anyone else, maybe it means they're just here to protect ME, and me alone. I guess I could be okay with that.

Man, it's late. Thanks for reading.

[unaluna]

That is such a classic cartoon! I saw the original this past year.

You know that savant guy in England who sees numbers as colors? Maybe it's like that. To me, 3 & 5 are beautiful women, 4 & 7 are men in top hats like Fred Astaire, 2,6,8,9 are all ugly. I guess 1 & 0 don't count!

Hi Halfswede

Maybe you would benefit from some form of treatment? You can try and be as logical in your reasoning as you want but if your thoughts are starting to be dominated by numbers, their actions and what their purpose imposing on your life might be i would suggest talking to someone and see if they can offer you the appropriate support.

It may be a comfort to know that i used to feel this way about words. I became obsessed with needing to think of how they sounded backwards and i wouldn't be able to drive by a sign or read something somewhere without wanting to know what those words looked and sounded like both ways if you see what i mean. It felt like a need to get the most out of them - to experience something fully or otherwise i would be missing out. I agree it can seem very bizarre but your most certainly not alone

[lily99]

Hi Halfswede,
I used to have similar feelings about numbers as a child. To me, even numbers were evil (2 - therefore 4 and 8 were worse) and odd numbers were beautiful - 3 as a basic no. therefore 9 was a "holy" number for me too! I'm not sure why I felt this holy aspect considering I wasn't raised in a religious household. It was just a feeling. I also used to think left was good and right was bad, so I would always tie my laces on the left shoe first I'm not sure why I had this, and it only stayed with me for a few years.

If it's causing you anxiety or concern though, maybe you could consult a psychologist and explore it

[-Astral-]

Some of us are like that with number especially the number 3
like we have to do somethings 3 time for each thing we are doing.
we count 123...123...123 in our head when we are feeling anxious.
3 is a very important number to us.
Paris

[believe26]

I deal with that issue sometimes too but mines is just with even numbers.For an example,if the last 4 numbers on a license plate said 5453 i would add the 5+5=10 and then the 1 from the 10 would be added on to the three so that the three would become 4 and then the number would say 44 instead of 5453.

[dailyhealing]

I am somewhat obsessed with numbers also. I have a good mind for numbers and am forever dividing things out in my head to many, many, many decimal places. I also lke 9s, and multiples of 3. I'm constantly playing with numbers in my head...

[ktwatts89]

I dont know if I have o.c.d as such i used to have obsessios about washing my hands to the point where it caused me to have dermatitis, but i have noticed i dnt know if this is normal or if its not because ive never thought about it before. But i do this thing where if i see a number i draw it over again in my head, the same with a word. And like to count, its kind of hard to explain i like to hold a remote control, and count the buttons, and count my teeth with my tongue, they all have to be in multiples of five. And if I turn the tv up or down it has to be a multiple of five.

[newtus]

i have schizoaffective which has some ocd components. i have a HUGE thing about numbers and placing them in places in my mind and even on my wall and i got this idea from a movie to wear numbers on a necklace based on how im feeling.

[asp1079]

I actually have had this at one point... it always scared me until I realized I have some degree of OCD with my anxiety. But at the time it was always freaking me out since I felt really insane for doing it. I had an obsession with not choosing the number 4 for some reason, since at one point a fortune teller told me that it means death in Eastern astrology/numerology, so 4 became abnormally 'bad' to me, and if it came up excessively in phone numbers, or say if I had to have an appointment on that date, I'd feel worried. I don't think about numbers excessively but these weird connotations were extremely hard for me to shake and still are to this day.

Whenever I learned that the number six was the devils number, I would think of t as bad, but once I got OCD its more like a curse and it bothers me, I feel like God's giving me a message or something, then I try to get rid of the number as much as I can no matter what.