Question on Elektra's and Abby's case of OCD

Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce anxiety, by repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing anxiety, or by a combination of such thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions). The symptoms of this anxiety disorder include repetitive hand-washing; extensive hoarding; preoccupation with sexual or aggressive impulses, or with particular religious beliefs; aversion to odd numbers; and nervous habits, such as opening a door and closing it a certain number of times before one enters or leaves a room.

Compulsions include counting specific things (such as footsteps) or in specific ways (for instance, by intervals of two) and doing other repetitive actions, often with atypical sensitivity to numbers or patterns. People might repeatedly wash their hands, or clear their throats, repeatedly check that their parked cars have been locked before leaving them, turn lights on and off, keep doors shut or closed at all times, touch objects a certain number of times before exiting a room, or walk in a certain routine way like only stepping on a certain color of tile.

That was taken from Wikipedia. Now from a fellow OCD person I can attest to counting as that is one of the things that I do. No matter where I am I always count my steps. Do I know what? No I just do. It is calming and i high anxiety situations counting things be it steps, taps of fingers, bites of the inside lips, eye blinks, people themselves, will help calm a person. I have a fascination with 3, 13, 33, 63, 93. It is something with the number 3. I will tap each finger to my thumb 3 times, then tap my thumb to each finger 3 times when I am stressed. When I walk out of my house I will lock and unlock my house 3 times and end up checking to make sure it is locked 3 times after the final locking. I will bite/chew the insides of my lips 12 times. 3 on the middle upper 3 on the middle bottom, 3 on each side. And if I lose count I will start all over. My lips are fine as they are more of a nibble. I will always wash my hands for 3 mins 33 seconds (as counted in my head).

When I count foot steps it has many reasons. I like to know how far from the door I am, I like to know how far from the person I am out with. I like to know how many steps it will take a person to reach me. On any given night I will have upwards of 50 numbers in my head from counting and I remember all of them and what they pertain to. In a room with 2 exits I will count steps to and from both doors to where I am and if I get to stressed out I will return to my counting and map the fastest way out of the room.

Again it has to do with the calming effect that counting has. Counting ones breath is the best way to calm yourself.

But OCD is more than what is listed. I have OCD when it comes to clothes as well. I have to have ALL of my shirts in order of colors. So blacks with blacks, oranges with oranges, greens with greens. And my closet will run the spectrum. Meaning I will go from white on one end and gradually work my way to black with all the hues in between. I have to have my hangers be all the same color. And they have to be spaced out evenly. I take my for and middle fingers press them together and gap the gap with that. my movies are all in alphabetical order. And I have over 800 movies. My magazines are alphabetical and always in month order. They are also fanned out on my coffee table on each corner each magazine is spaced evenly in the fan. I have my remotes from smallest to largest. My video games for 3 systems (x-box 360 and PS2) are alphabetical and in system order.

OCD while it may seem silly helps us keep things in order. Counting will assist in that, be it how mundane. While most people think of 1 2 or even 3 things at a time I will be thinking of upward of 15 things. It has caused me to lose relationships. I would always ask my fiance what she wanted for dinner at lunch time. She thought it was cute at the time, but slowly it wore on her as I was making her think to far in advance. But by lunch time I had already mapped out the rest of the day part of the night and sometimes the next day. I would always be thinking of so many things that I am able to hold conversations with 6 or more people at once. People with OCD their minds run at a different pace, and as such any point in time when we are "mindless", not thinking about something or the like we find things to fill in and counting is one of them. My fiance would tease me because every time she would ask me what I was thinking I would tell her counting. Because being around her put my mind at rest. Counting was my way of keeping my mind busy. or when my mind was racing I would tell her everything, some times it was so many things that she would be shocked.

So without counting a person with OCD could very well lose it both mentally and physically. If I tried to think as slowly as a "normal" person I wuld go crazy. I can multitask like a person chewing gum. I think I would go crazy if my mind was empty.