OCD on the Computer

Ergh. Just did an OCD thing with my mouse, and it made me realise just how much OCD wraps itself around my computing activities, as it has done for as long as I can remember. Here's some typical examples of what I experience on a computer:

1. I'll click the mouse harder and firmer than usual, sometimes several times; I don't do this all the time, only when OCD/anxiety kicks in more than normal. I've gone through so many mice because of this, over the years. Something about the "clicking" sensation, has to feel "right", else it bugs me to no f**king end!" I'm not as bad with this as I used to be, but that might have something to do with the fact that I use headphones a lot; I think a lot of it is the "sound", but also if I don't feel that "click", all smooth and .. clicky .. then it bugs me.

2. Much like the above point, I will press a keyboard key harder and firmer than usual, especially if I feel the click wasn't "right", and I have also gone through several keyboards, over the years. It takes a lot of restraint, sometimes, to not hit a key much harder than usual. I particularly struggle with the space bar, and the return key. I also sometimes get very obsessed about the sound the keyboard and mouse make.

3. I don't do this anymore, I think, but I used to somewhat religiously organise my operating system, so that the desktop, start-menu, and settings, and God knows what else, were all set perfectly, in the "right" order. Thankfully, this isn't too much of a problem, now, and I simply keep things moderately organised, as apposed to incessantly perfect.

4. I often obsessively re-read what I submit on forums, Facebook, IMs, and more.

5. I'll sometimes save rather a lot, while, say, typing out a text document, but this is a grey area, as, with how computers can be, it's always good to save now and again!

6. FPS in games (frames per second) get me really obsessive, and is partly the reason I spent well over a grand (GBP) on my PC. I cannot effing stand invariable frame rates, to the point of not playing the game at all. I can't tell you how many times I have spent money on a game, only to not play it, because the FPS bugs the crap out of me. Sometimes I can stomach it, but most of the time, I just cannot let it go.

7. When it comes to fixing, upgrading, or building a computer, I get very obsessive about what I do, whether I'll make a mistake, and so on; this really does get on my nerves, when I'm busy with my head in a computer. ¬_¬

8. I used to religiously defragment my HDDs (basically, I 'tidied' up the storage space, on the PC) but thankfully, ever since Windows 7, I haven't needed to, as it seems to just do it all itself, and is great at managing file locations. I remember back in the day, I used to just run a defrag' every couple of days, and I even recall sitting in-front of my PC, just watching the process take place, even though it used to take up to hours. Granted, I doubt I sat there for the entire process, but I certainly watched a fair bit! (I was fascinated by it, but I think there was an OCD thing to it)

Can't think of anything else, off-hand - how about you guys?

hub has a lot of OCD tendencies, Akuma, to go along with some anger issues (maybe bp??), and adhd. The OCD prob strongest tho. He's not on PC tho, but I have seen him do some similar things that are very important to him. The best, my friend!

I have to save things multiple times to make sure it wasn't my imagination that I saw it save, and just to be sure it actually did save. I used to have a huge problem with the space key too when I was little, and now that you mention it, my thumb is isn't feeling right when I hit it anymore haha.

I think I do the saving thing as well and if I make a typo at the start of a sentence and I'm already at the next, I delete everything just to fix it.

I'm not sure I do these things because of my OCD (perhaps some of them are tics or something) but here are some examples of things I do:

1. I obsessively re-read and edit things I've posted in forums like this or things I've sent in an email etc.

2. Sometimes when I type things it just doesn't feel right so I then erase what I've written and write the exact same thing again until it feels right. I quite often erase full stops or commas, for example, and write them again a few times.

3. Every time I watch a video or read a post like this (etc) I need to move the arrow (the one you move with the touchpad/mouse/whatever, not sure what it's called in English) to the right side of the screen. I move it with my right index finger on the touchpad but then I often feel uneven and need to even it out by moving my left index finger from left to right on the touchpad as well.

4. I save documents a lot and I worry about not having saved them. I also worry that the format of documents I'm sending in to a professor/teacher all of a sudden change, so that the person who's supposed to read it can't read it and I'll fail. So I check the format over and over and over again before sending the document.

5. Sometimes I get the urge to right-click (and I have to do it to get rid of the strange feeling I then feel in my fingers). I do it a quite few times in a row which sort of annoys me because if I do it quickly I sometimes accidentally press "back" (which is the top option when I right-click), which means I sometimes press "back" in the middle of a youtube video or something.

I am this way too, sometimes I end up not submitting anything at all. I have several occasions where I'll spend a great deal of time typing something up, only to scrap it because I couldn't get it to sound right.

Yup I know the feeling, I re-organise my folders& their contents constantly, I re-sort thousands of photos one by one.
I also back things up all the time, to both CD & external hard-drive.
I hoard photos so that doesn't help.
I also have a spreadsheet of my bookmarks that are on my phone and computer browsers just incase something happens to them, and have my bookmarks sub-categorised insanely.

So glad to know I'm not the only one who does many of these things.

I save documents multiple times. I backup files in multiple locations, including online.

If the key press doesn't feel right, I delete the word and retype it, just so it feels right. My mouse has keys on the side that I play with not for function but because I like the way they feel.

Everything must be very organized. My computer desktop has only one icon - the recycle bin. Many more than that and it appears to be cluttered. I can't handle clutter. All of my folders are very well organized and defined so I can quickly find anything I need.

My son has major OCD computer rituals. Sometimes it takes him an hour to start a game because it has to start in a certain sequence, and if he's not sure he did the sequence, he starts over. He can spend hours and hours running virus software over and over when he's really having a difficult day. It takes him days to think of a new username or game name. He can't make up his mind and OCDs about what they mean, etc. I really don't know the full extent of how he's OCDing on there. Those are just the few things I know.

Wow, Missy Muffet - that must be really stressful and tiring for him. I've just replied to another one of your posts - didn't know the "he" to whom you were referring. How old is your son? Do you think he would benefit from an OCD support group? I visited one a while back, and ended up going a couple of times; it really helped, and got me out of the house. Tell him to make a Batch file; he'll know what I mean. (nerd joke)

He's 21. He is a professional athlete who lived independently out of state for the past two years. He has had OCD for the past 7 years, and has resisted treatment and medication for the majority of those years. A few months ago, he developed paranoia because his intrusive thoughts started racing so badly he thought he was losing his mind and doesn't trust his mind anymore.

He hit his OCD rock bottom on a Friday night, came to me for help, I called our MD after hours, and he called in medication to the pharmacy just minutes before it closed. So he's on klonopin, Zoloft (which helped tremendously), and most recently started an antipsychotic.

I'm working hard at trying to find him the right treatment program. Then the biggest obstacle will be convincing him that he should do it. His very life depends on this because paranoia is no joke and could disable him forever.

I feel so badly for him. It's genetic. He inherited this from my sister. Exact same symptoms, each starting at the exact same periods in their lives (adjusting for gender). She was much more functional though.

Thanks for asking. I recommended a social anxiety support group back when social anxiety was his biggest symptom, and he of course was too uncomfortable to go to a support group because of his social anxiety. He has also said he doesn't want to go to the Head Trauma Center (he had a severe concussion in December) because he doesn't want to see people who are more severely injured than him. He also is afraid of OCD support groups because he's afraid he'll hear other people sharing the specifics of their intrusive thoughts and he doesn't want to get any ideas for more things to worry about.

It's a quandary, as you can imagine.

Didn't want to start a new thread so I'll post this here since this is about OCD and the computer after all. I'm sitting here and I'm about to hand in a lab report via email. My lab partner and I sent it in last week but got it back because we had answered two questions incorrectly. This time it has to be correct or we'll fail this lab and won't be able to redo it until August next year (!).

All I had to do was to change the answers on two questions (multiple-choice questions). Pretty simple thing to do since I'm pretty sure the answers are correct this time. But now I can't stop obsessing over how maaaaybe my answers will change as I send the document to the teacher or how maaaaybe the answers I've chosen are incorrect though I pretty much know they aren't or how maaaaybe I didn't change the answers at all. I keep going back to check and I keep going through the document over and over. So now I'm procrastinating instead of sending it (and I keep checking the document every five minutes or something). God. I'm so afraid of failing.

Good example of how OCD affects me when at the computer.

Sorry for hijacking the thread, Zwang.

EDIT: I eventually, about an hour after writing the post, had a panic attack and had to ask my friend (who's also my neighbour) to come over and make sure I had changed the answers and attached the right document to the email. My therapist would be disappointed (ok, maybe not disappointed but he wouldn't have agreed with my actions and I can see why).

Oooh. :| That sounds annoying as heck. I definitely relate to the whole checking and rechecking thing. I'd probably do the same or similar, in your situation. When it comes to important E-Mails or letters, I tend to spend a while typing, correcting, and checking, ... then procrastinate until I feel like it's "right" enough. I've actually been doing OK, lately, with regards to this side of OCD. I've been sending messages without checking a million times; sometimes I've even sent messages without even checking it once! 'o.O OK, granted, I checked it right after I sent them, but hey, it's something.