[heroreco]

It has been suggested I ask this question in the OCD Forum.

I seem to have this compulsive need to physically do something repetitively. It gets replaced with new things as I age. When I was younger, I pressed my teeth, and squint my eyes, fumble with my fingers all the time, or did this weird smirk with one side of my mouth. I still do those, but I managed to reduce the teeth thing, because my dentist caught onto it. Aside from those.. all my life, as long as my memory will take me, I’ve been obsessed with tracing edges. It’s difficult to explain. An example is that I do this on my laptop whenever I wait for something to load. Every time.



Sometimes I even catch myself doing it while completely busy.

The same applies when I eat from a bowl. I’d always take my time to trace the edge with my spoon.

When I used to play Nintendo, I’d follow along the edges of the touch screen from time to time.

When I had braces, I’d feel the braces very often with my tongue.

I’d trail along the edges of my table with my hand sometimes.

Or my laptop itself.

My paper, my books, my pens.

You get the drift now.

This urge has never left me. It bothers me. A lot. I envy people who don’t have this worrying need. While alone, if I’m not careful, I’ll end up doing it for minutes on end. When I’m around others, I try my best to reduce it. But only because I’m the only person I know who does this. Heck, I even trace things in my own head. I try my best not to talk about this, because once I do, I get self conscious and therefore even worse. What is the meaning of this, and is there a way to stop it? What is the psychological trigger of this? It somewhat annoys me, so is there a way to completely make myself stop this?

[glok]

Hello, heroreco. Have you discussed this behavior with your treatment team?