Symmetry compulsions relating to the body

Who here has symmetry compulsions relating to the body? I do, especially when it comes to touch, and I often develop itching if my compulsions are not fulfilled.

Like, if I'm walking and I brush my left upper arm against a bush, then I must return and brush my right upper arm against the bush and it must be to the same degree (i.e. with the same amount of pressure and for the same duration). If I fail to attain it to the same degree, then I do that thing like in the story with rice cakes* constantly performing the same act over and over again until the touch on both sides reaches an equal degree to my satisfaction.

I also do this with my eye blinking, where again the issue of degree occurs. I also do it with my thoughts, where usually my thoughts seem to appear in the front center part of my cranium, resulting in pressure there, but sometimes it seems like I'll *mess up* and generate a thought further back or on the left or right side of the brain, resulting in pressure on that part of the head, and then I will have to try to generate the thought on the opposite side at the same distance back to produce symmetry; again, the issue of degree occurs.

Who else has symmetry compulsiosn relating to the body?

* This is the one where two brothers each get a rice cake, but one of the rice cakes is a little bigger than the other leading to a fight between the two brothers. They go to a wiseman to try to resolve the conflict, who proceeds to take a little nibble from the bigger rice cake. Unfortunately, the bigger rice cake is now the smaller rice cake, leading to more fighting, so the wiseman now takes a nibble from the other rice cake, causing the original rice cake to be bigger again. This continues back and forth until the wiseman has completely eaten both rice cakes, ending the conflict, but resulting in disappointment between the brothers.

tl;dr: Symmetry regarding feeling of pressure on the body, with respect to the upper arms, eye blinking, and the locations of thoughts. Asks for examples from others.

lol i created an account on this website JUST BECAUSE I SAW THIS POST

i definitely experience the exact same thing you experience, especially with the touch thing.
when i get like accidentally brushed by something, or someone, without even thinking i'm in some kind of scramble to repeat the exact same thing to the opposite side of my body and TO THE SAME DEGREE TOO...
it's not for everything, but a lot of things. people ask me what triggers it and i just tell them that i have this feeling like something's missing from the other half of my body. it's kind of hard to explain.

"symmetry compulsion"
haha i'm glad i can actually put a name to it. i never bothered looking it up until now!


that thought thing you experience too ... i'm pretty sure i have the same thing but kind of different.
i notice it ESPECIALLY when i'm writing a test, and a concept comes up and i KNOW i'm supposed to be writing it down but when it pops up on the side/back of my head as opposed to the FRONT OF MY BRAIN where it usually pops up, it doesn't fully process... and i have to sit there and force it to go to the front where i'm used to it popping up.
not really exactly what you described but it's the first time that i've heard of someone else being able to localize where their thoughts are popping up


weird :/

Yes i used to have to do things in multiples of three, for exmple brushing my hair, it would have to be done with three strokes of the brush followed by three strokes of the brush followed by three strokes of the brush ect, until i was satisfied my hair was tidy enough. So, i'd count how many times i'd brush the comb or hair brush through my hair but it always had to be multiples of three, if i brushed four times it would be all wrong. Same with hand washing, hands would have to be washed three times, no just once thoroughly and then dried, washed rinsed, and then more soap applied and washed rinsed until the third time. I could think of hundreds if i went into it, i don't really do it so much anymore, pretty much managed to cure myself of it but there's the odd one that still lingers.

Hi!
I'm new on the boards but i can totally relate to this, like if my arm or leg touches a doorframe I've got to touch it three times and then with the other arm or leg three times. Also, i have to keep my eyes straight looking at a object and if they twitch i gotta do it again and again and again…so frustrating! lol

It sometimes feels theres some little guy in my brain and i can sometimes argue with it… but yeah everything has to be in threes like undoing the blind and winding the cord around the hook, waiting for the cursor thingy on here or on my phone to flicker three times if i need to erase a spelling mistake … and yeah my eyes have to be straight and stuff for that too!

Do you sometimes feel if you don't do it 'correctly' something bad will happen to like a family member or yourself or someone you care about?

Also, magpies are b*tches, i have salute them but has to feel 'right' on my face and then blink three times whilst staring at the damn bird! its so odd!
Lorna x

Cool how we kinda share the symmetry compulsion though in a way

When I was little, I was VERY particular about symmetry. I would constantly check the seam of my pants to make sure it was centered, or it drove me crazy. My socks have to be equally "worn." That is, I can't wear one relatively new sock and on that's been worn more often and thinner or stretched out. It just doesn't feel right! I think I've gotten better about this, but it was really bad when I was in school. I still like things to be even.

LornaDoom wrote:Hi!
I'm new on the boards but i can totally relate to this, like if my arm or leg touches a doorframe I've got to touch it three times and then with the other arm or leg three times. Also, i have to keep my eyes straight looking at a object and if they twitch i gotta do it again and again and again…so frustrating! lol

It sometimes feels theres some little guy in my brain and i can sometimes argue with it… but yeah everything has to be in threes like undoing the blind and winding the cord around the hook, waiting for the cursor thingy on here or on my phone to flicker three times if i need to erase a spelling mistake … and yeah my eyes have to be straight and stuff for that too!

Do you sometimes feel if you don't do it 'correctly' something bad will happen to like a family member or yourself or someone you care about?

Also, magpies are b*tches, i have salute them but has to feel 'right' on my face and then blink three times whilst staring at the damn bird! its so odd!
Lorna x

Cool how we kinda share the symmetry compulsion though in a way

Ha ha, i love your post, i can so relate to this. I used to have to salute the magpie as well, (yeah thanks for that one Mum). Yes everything was multiples of three, if i had something important to do one day then every item of clothing had to be put on, taken off again and then put on until i had done it three times, and well, God help me if anything interrupted the routine, like the phone ringing or the door knocking or something, then the whole procedure had to be finished but then started all over again. So it may not have to be done three times but six times, nine times, sometimes it just went on and on.

How i cured myself of it was by deliberately breaking the routine. Like you i would convince myself that something bad would happen if i didn't follow the routine exactly, so what i did was i waited for something really important to come up (it was an exam actually) and then just deliberately broke with the standard routine. I admit it took a lot of doing but i knew i had to try or i'd be a slave to this for the rest of my life and i admit i was getting bored of it. So, i deliberately broke all my routines on the morning of an important exam and waited for the results. Low and behold i did really well, this gave me the confidence to try it again and again. After a while i realised nothing was going to happen so i pretty much sacked it off completely. There's one or two that linger but are pretty harmless, i always rinse my hair three times when i wash it, but most of them i've stopped doing now and i'm glad to be rid of them if i'm honest. It got tiring.

I'm not sure what saluting the magpie is about...is that something from the UK?

sabrdawg wrote:I'm not sure what saluting the magpie is about...is that something from the UK?

Yes the Magpie thig is a UK thing. It varies a bit depending on what part of the country you come from but the basic gist is that if you see a Magpie then it's necessary to wave or some cases actually speak to the magpie and enquire as to his welfare, like i say it varies around the country but the bottom line is pretty much that it's bad luck to completely ignore the magpie, so whatever you do you have to acknowledge his prsecence in some way or another, be it a wave ot vocal greeting. Then there is also variants along the lines of you only have to do it if there's two magpies together, i never used to do that one just in case the soliatry magpie took offence.

I have basically the same problem. For example if something happened on one side of my body, I have to make it happen on the other side, with the same amount of pressure. It gets so annoying! I'm actually quite scared because if I break my leg or something I will have to feel the same amount of pain on my other. And I don't think the doctor would let me get a cast for each leg!
I don't have the problem with the thoughts though, I don't really know what part of my brain is doing what lol.

I am curious if anyone else has OCD relating in the same way I do. I can relate to those on here who have the symmetry issue with touch. Mine is a bit different. I obsess with parts of body being symmetrical. Eg. One arm is bigger than the other or my nose is not the same on each side. My ritual is to " check" my arms or nose by feeling or looking at it. When I conclude they are not even I am able to tell myself that doesn't matter and that it is normal then a few minutes later my compulsion makes me want to check again to make sure it isn't getting more asymmetrical. Perhaps blowing my nose in the " wrong" way slowly is bending it to one side overtime for example. I understand these thoughts are rediculous but I wonder does anybody else manifest these real differences in symmetry of the body and blow them out of purportion?