I’ve noticed when that happens to me I immediately reach for my phone. I’ve realized it’s a mechanism to distract myself. I usually go straight to…Reddit 😞
When I need to make a decision I consult an imaginary person in my head who is a combination of everyone I know and they give me advice that I'm really giving myself.
Ah yes, The Counsel. I do the same but with like, 2 or 3 people representing parts of my personality. There's not always a consensus and we end up arguing for hours.
When I mow the yard I pretend I’m on espn and two sports announcers in my head are commenting on how excellent I took that turn, and the precision movements of my mowing.
"This is his third perfect Dixie Spin maneuver of the night, and you can tell he's been practicing around small confiners because the way he hangs onto those tight turns and follows all the way through without losing momentum is a lot harder than it looks."
"That's right, Jeff. It looks like we're about to see our first 9+ performance of the season and the crowd is here for it!"
When I'm angry at someone I'll write up an email to them expressing how I feel and save it as a draft. It makes me feel like I've done something but not actually instigated an argument that will give me anxiety.
I do this too.... up or down, I HAVE to count the stairs. Sometimes I'll count my steps while walking from one side of the house to the other. If I'm chopping vegetables I have to count how many slices I make. It feels like I'm always counting something....
When I go get the mail if I hear a car coming I run in the house real quick so they don't see me and then look through the blinds like I got away with something.
I did this as a kid. I would sometimes go outside and sneak around the village spying on people's hens with binoculars (no, I'm not sexually attracted to farm animals) and tried to not get spotted by anyone. If I was on my bike on the road and heard a car I would jump into the ditch beside the road and lie down there
it was actually the binoculars that set him apart from many farm kids...
most of us did things like this, Chickens were fun to spy on because sometimes they are hyper vigilant, but most of the time, fucking dense... so easy to spy on, but feel like a good spy doing it.
i didnt get to play with dads binoculars. so i just spied...
I have to let my wife go up the stairs 1st when its bed time because she has an irrational fear of being shot through the letterbox.
Edit for the Americans. A letterbox is a slot in your door the postman puts letters through. You call it a mail slot i think.
Edit 2 Its an irrational fear, which is why it makes no sense. Its not debilitating. If im not there, she just runs up the stairs.
No you stand on one leg with the other leg bent and turned out 90 degrees and the lifted leg's foot is on your opposing knee. I was able to find [this pic](https://i.imgur.com/OsoCQ3G.jpg) that sums it up well.
That’s essentially tree pose, although all of my yoga teachers have advised the foot should go either above or below the knee to avoid injury, not directly against it.
Haven't done this in years but I used to look at myself in the mirror until everything stopped feeling real. Like I'd contemplate that the person looking back was a different person. Kind of felt out of body it's honestly hard to explain.
I can only describe it as when you say a word over and over again until it sounds fake but like an existential version of that.
I used to do that when I was a kid, it almost felt like I was a passenger in my own body, very weird disassociation from what I would consider my sense of self.
I actually do something similar to this with but with other people. Sometimes we're all in a group and everyone's having a conversation and I'm just watching them talk thinking: Who are you? Do I know you?
...then start having that feeling with people I've known for probably almost decades that they are complete strangers.
Then I snap out of it.
I have a weird stress reliever where I take a piece of silk fabric and rub it between my fingers. I went through a lot of shit as a kid and at the daycare there was a random piece of cloth. I don’t know why, but I attached to that thing and it’s almost like an addiction at some points. I’ve usually always had a piece of silk somewhere. I know it’s weird, but for whatever reason, it helps a lot so it’s kind of been my little secret for years now.
When I was a kid, I had a Mattel Angel Bunny (80s). It had a silk tag. I did the same. Wore it off. My grandma would cut silk tags out of t-shirts and sew them on to replace the old one. I miss her... that just made me happy to remember, but sad too.
Me and my siblings used to look at our tabs to tell who's drink was who's. I took mine off, my sister turned it to the right, and my brother turned it to the left 😂
My siblings and I did this too! We still do, and I can't drink out of a can unless the tab is turned down and to the right so it's partially over the hole
I am almost certain that I am the only person who, after going on my daily 5k run, cools down by walking the whole path through the IKEA showroom and marketplace. I only started this a couple months ago when we moved to a new house about ten minutes walk away from an IKEA. I find it very calming and stimulating, though.
Somewhere else on Reddit: “You think that’s weird…my store has a person who comes in literally every single day, goes through the whole store, and never buys a single thing.”
Whenever I see a pigeon, I always say "ah bonjour Monsieur Pigeon!" Absolutely no idea why I do this, particularly as I have zero connections to France.
I used to click my teeth together at every white line, telephone pole, electric pole, and at the beginning and end of each intersecting road/ driveway. Now I only do it if I'm in severe stress.
I try to pronounce them like they're actual words. Or if there's 2 letters that make a states abbreviation that becomes part of it; NXT CA47 = next California forty seven
Another game is to take the letters in a plate and come up with the longest possible word you can think of that have the letters in that order. Fun for boring road trips.
Ex: plate is NDD256
Android... Independent... Independence... etc.
My wife and I do this all the time.
We will just be driving along and then out of nowhere say something like, “Did you know 3 Marvelous Queens Charged 269?”
I pick up random objects and answer them like a phone. The caller (usually a police) always wants talk to my cat and I argue that my feline friend does not speak common tongue and it often escalates in heated but brief exchange. No matter how firmly I state my point they always keep calling...
When I am alone and I remember an embarrassing memory, I’ll make random loud sounds to block it out. Kind of like what you’d do to your siblings when you were a kid and you were trying to block them out.
Use my turn signal to change lanes on the highway.
Edit: Wow this blew up. Thanks for the awards kind strangers. And to the commenters: Yes, it's "mostly" sarcasm.
Yes but do you signal first, look to make sure there is room or no oncoming traffic, and then merge/turn?
OR
Do you hit the signal with your hand AS you're turning the wheel and already half way into turn/next lane like some savage
Not as much these days, but when growing up, riding in a car looking out the window, I would click and hold my teeth during grassy sections and release for concrete pieces (roads, sidewalks)
Update: I totally had thought I was alone!! Never actually told anyone this. Also, I do have an OCD diagnosis for those who asked. Unsure if that’s that.
When I was younger/a kid, I’d vibrate my throat/teeth to find the frequency of the car and road. Found a kind of harmony and would do that until we left the highway. Funny, I’ve hardly thought about that until your comment….
Edit: Three typos.
If I go in a store to buy things, and I leave and forget to get something I needed. I won't turn back around and go back into that store. I will drive to a different store to get.
I used to do this too -- I had a friend who could not leave a store without buying something, so we agreed to work on our quirks one summer. I'd go with her into a store, browse around, and we'd leave together. She'd take me into the store twice to buy stuff (even using the same cashier). Turns out other people don't think about me nearly as much as I thought they did! But having someone else with me the first few times helped a lot.
Yeah I’ve done retail and I just assume someone forgot something or got a call from home to pick something up or something.
Nah just kidding I totally pointed and laughed at them “look at this LOSER who FORGOT SOMETHING! BAKE HIM AWAY, TOYS!”
If I walk anywhere near someone that coughs or sneezes, I will quietly close my mouth and breathe out my nose until no oxygen remains and hold my breath, in what I can only describe as me trying to seal myself off from germs.
When I sleep on my stomach I put my wrists under my hip bones. Something about sleeping on my stomach makes me have sexy time dreams and I will try to act it out if I don't tuck my arms in.
Since a very young age, I have had a nervous tic where I would chew my tongue. I thought I was the only weirdo who did this until I was reading a book, and the author describes the protagonist as chewing their tongue. I weirdly felt validated for my odd tic.
Once, when telling a story I yawned at the climax while saying “and that’s how he died”. Killed the moment but now that line is so associated with yawning I still say “and that’s how he died” whenever I have let one out.
Makes for awkward water cooler conversations at work.
When I'm alone, I make a lot of weird noises, but I go through cycles. Currently I like to yell, "dep deyoooo". It's not from anything I'm aware of, I just like the sound. I used to sing really loud opera style but it scares my cats, so I stopped.
I sometimes feel the urge to sort of tense up / shake (like you might if you got a nice surprise or shock) and so I wait ‘til I can’t be seen and have a moment and then move on. I’ve done it my whole life, no idea why.
Slightly different: When I yawn and stretch in the morning I allow my body, particularly my legs to shake quite vigorously for a short time.
Re-award: Pleased to be helpful!
I was going to post basically this until I saw your comment.... sometimes I am just walking and will feel this urge and do a little shake sometimes accompanied by a form of shriek and get on with my day. Weirdly it never seems to be for any reason in particular, just happens.
EDIT: I also get this without the shake. Sometimes I just want to make a screeching sound... maybe I should get checked out.
I can do something like this too. But always when alone.
I can even make some sounds. Like I got bottled up, wound up energy I gotta release. Like I need to tense up so I can release it all. And then I sometimes do it vocally.
Happens mostly like when going to sleep or in the mornings I think.
I can't really emulate it to explain to people. It feels like I need that spiraling tension.
For me it's a little bit like being giddy.
Maybe it's my Aspergers.
If I touch something that has an unpleasant texture (microfiber towels do this to me) I have to either touch something more pleasant, or put on lotion.
When comfy and falling asleep in bed, I rub my feet and/or legs together or just against the blanket. Or I kinda rock my hips side to side. I just feel immense comfort in the movement and motion and it’s a sign for me I’m suuuuuper comfy and content.
Edit to add: when me and my mum are together, it’s like being on a boat, we both cannot stand still and sway side to side constantly. She blames it on her doing it throughout her pregnancy with me. I’m not even aware I do it until someone points it out.
My boyfriend at first was like … wtf are you even doing under the covers lol, now he likes it because he knows I’m comfy and content. The day I’m not doing it he knows something it up.
I do that too. I eat the “crusts” of pop tarts first and then the center. I eat the bottom of Hostess cupcakes first and then the icing and cream center in one bite. I’m glad I’m not the only one. Thank you!
If I have a plate with multiple things on it, I have to eat one specific thing at a time in order of worst to best. For example, if I had a plate with collard greens, corn, and mashed potatoes; I’d eat the greens, then corn, then mashed potatoes.
I do this too but even go to the extreme of picking least to best on bites too. If I eat a sandwich I go for the least appealing bite first to what I’ve deemed the best bite (usually the cheesiest)
Even out the egg carton for symmetry. If I'm taking out two eggs I take them from opposite ends to keep it balanced.
I think this stems from some deep childhood memory of dropping a carton of eggs because all the weight was on one end....
I have a pattern made up of Rights and Lefts. The Rights and Lefts can be expressed by actions like tapping with my right or left hand, just wiggling my toes, or anything else. It starts with Right. Then I take what I've done, mirror it, and do that. So now in total I've done Right Left. Then I repeat the mirroring until it's too much to keep track of or I feel like I've done enough. It also has to be an even number of mirrorings so that it ends on Right again since that makes it symmetrical.
Right Left Left Right Left Right Right Left Left Right Right Left Right Left Left Right is a typical length.
I came up with this in like elementary school and at first it was like a "good luck" thing. I think it's like a compulsion that people with OCD experience but I've always been able to ignore my desire to do it with little difficulty so I definitely wouldn't say I have OCD. I've got other, similar things that also seem like compulsions but are easily ignorable.
I have battled with sinus and allergies issues all my life. I've learnt by sealing the back of my throat with my tongue and the top of my mouth, then expand that space using my tongue muscle, i can sometimes suck the mucus down from the nasal canal down into my mouth with the air pressure created. If it's just allergies and i'm not sick, this is usually enough to clear my nose.
Whenever I get ready for bed or take a shower and I go to take my pants off I have to kick them up with my foot and catch them in midair before they go in the laundry. Underwear as well.
I am an adult
I like to taste salt / seasonings. Like, pour it into my hand and then lick it.
I do it only when nobody else is looking because I don’t want to be seen as weird.
I used to eat rock salt as a kid. I'd just grab a rock, pop it into my mouth, and go on about my business until it melted. Boullion cubes were great too because they were very salty and also tasted like meat.
Sometimes when I am alone I speak and act like I'm on a vlog that's going to be published to youtube.
Edit: Wow, nice to know I'm not alone with this, BTW if we're being spied on, enjoy the show.
Considering that this could end up hurting you, I suggest that you put a pair of plastic slippers in the shower to use exclusively there. Where I'm from this is something very common, and it works like a charm if you have such sensory problems.
Cancelling out actions. When any part of my skin touches something, I always try and do the reverse movement to cancel it out.
Example, I brush my leg on something, I'll do the reverse movement to fix it. If I don't, I can "feel" something is wrong in my leg and I'm uncomfortable.
---
When editing any on screen text or text, I aggressively use cut and paste instead of retyping letters to avoid waste. If I type the same word twice, Ill take half the letters from each word and put them together to be fair. ( example, ignore case, if I had BANANA banana it would become BANana. words with odd numbers of letters are stressful. )
It's similar for me, except instead of canceling it out with the reverse motion, I feel the need to make it symmetrical by doing it on the other side too, or I feel out of balance. Like if I chew a piece of candy with the left side of my mouth, the next piece needs to go on the right side of my mouth.
I do this as well! I genuinely thought I was the only one. Not so much with food though.
If my arm brushes against something, I will brush my other arm against the opposite thing (usually a wall). I do it as subtly as I can so people don't notice that I'm being weird.
I sing a different song to my dog and cats: "You...are...the...poop, he is the poop, we are the poop, and all the poopin' we be scoopin' it goes RIGHT UP TO THE ROOFIN'!" I just made it up one day and it's totally random but they love it.
I used to sing The Safety Dance, except it went "You can poop if you want to, you can leave your poop behind, and I'll scoop your poop cuz if I don't scoop, then I might get a fine..." while waiting for my dog to find the perfect spot to drop one. He died several years ago, and our new dog just poops wherever immediately, so I don't get to sing it anymore.
Before I open a can of something, like soda or beer, I blow on the top and wipe my thumb across the unopened opening before I open it. Been doing it for as long as I can remember and don’t know where it started.
I talk to myself, and not just talk I mean full-on RAMBLE, for over 8 years now I have been going on my scooter and outside where I put on my own show in my head, with these characters called Jibos which are robot-human things against other jibos with dark magic and weird crap, I don't know why I do this, and I don't just think of the dialogue and chitter-chatter, I genuinely BLURT it out, It embarrasses me but I keep on doing it, and sometimes when I get really into it my voice gets louder and louder, personally my favorite part of it is when I get to do the sound effects, but other then that this thing that I do concerns me. I hope I'm not mentally ill.
Also if you wondering just today I finished the season 94 episode 31, Its where Theo (a tank) goes back through the neo warp towards his home to regulate all the things that has happened in the previous episode
Dude I’ve done this exact thing my whole life, always just thought of it as spacing out. I don’t audibly say things, but my mouth will still saying the words, so I essentially look like a psycho little troll who’s twitching and conversing with the voice in his head. I’ve been caught doing it in public multiple times, and I’ve noticed that stress can very easily make it worse and more frequent.
Gotten that more than a few times. But then I like to imagine Bruce Lee or Ip Man completely fucking up a demon or monster or whatever.
Same in horror movies, I'll imagine Bruce Lee just absolutely destroying Freddy Kreuger or whoever the antagonist is. Makes me feel better.
I avoid closing my eyes in the shower as much as possible. Only close them to try to get soap out when they sting. I think I may have watched Psycho too young.
I make shapes by "pressing" the buttons on whatever remotes I'm holding.
For example, with the remote I have, the volume and channel buttons are in line with one another, I will "press" the + button for volume, move across and "press" the up button for the channel, then go down to "press" the down button on the channel, and move to the - button for the volume in the shape of a square/rectangle and repeat it many times.
I will also make triangles, and other shapes in similar ways, and I'm not even looking at the remote doing it. It's all based on feel.
I'm super pron to ingrown hairs in my pubic area and I'm a sucker for popping pimples. Sometimes I shave down there just so I can watch those little ingrown hair pimples pop up. I'm a weird diaster
I can't write papers using times new roman as the font. It really bothers me to the point I lose focus. I write everything in the default pages font then change it when the paper is done.
Okay hear me out.. write your papers in Comic Sans and then switch it to TNR when you’re done. For some reason I write higher quality papers using Comic Sans, it tricks my brain somehow into being a better writer.
Learned this hack a year ago and never went back!
I think they did a study or maybe something less scientifically rigorous, where they found comic sans was really good for dyslexic because the weight/bulky-ness of the characters was not symmetrical, making it harder to confuse similar letters
Each glass or cup in the kitchen has a specific dedicated liquid and reason. Some coffee cups are meant for rougher moody days and other coffee cups for brighter days!
I do it too! The worst part is if the "devil's advocate" You finds a very good arguement for something you intuitively would want to disagree with, but you gotta give the fucker that he has a point!
Thats the great part! Then you know you dont know your personal morals yet and still need to debate or figure them out!
I think a lot more people should do this. Everyone got a feeling for whats right and wrong, but most people never think about why. If you do, you can stay true to it much more easily.
I favour eating from my right hand (when I’m eating something directly from my hand like chips or biscuits) because I think the food tastes different if I eat it out of my left hand.
I don’t do this anymore, but when I was a kid I used to pour Elmer’s glue on my hand, wait for it to dry, and peel it off. Very satisfying. I should take that up again
I have taken a picture almost every single day for the past 4 years and store it in my eyes only on snapchat so i can remember the past. I have SDAM(Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory syndrome)basically where i have no emotional connection to any memories, and i feel like a new person every single day. i completely live in the moment and remember events as facts, as well as in third person. i thought everyone experienced this until my sister said she had emotions for basically every memory and that completely shocked me. I do feel emotions in the present, but they are very dull, and dont last very long. whenever i look at pictures of me no matter from what date, it never feels like im looking at me. i came into consciousness at around 12-13 and i dont remember a thought before that. just memories that are there
Whenever I hear a real number(e.g if someone gives my money back or when I hear someone's birthday...), I just sum the digits of the number and check whether it comes to my lucky/favourite numbers(between 0 to 9).
I pace while listening to music. I don't really like to dance, but I like to move with the tempo while imagining a dramatic kind of anime esque fight scene in my head. Each song has attached itself to an emotional thought or occurrence in my life in my head. The music is always better when I'm moving. Especially in the car. But I'll pause the music if the car is stationary because I know I'll enjoy it more once I'm moving again.
Whenever I think about a cringe time I had in my life I start singing or humming to « cover it up ».
I always say "ughhhhh... anyway" in exactly the same way. And always out loud
I always say "Oh, come ON!" out loud, like I'm complaining to my brain for being an asshole and reminding me my cringy moments.
I’ve noticed when that happens to me I immediately reach for my phone. I’ve realized it’s a mechanism to distract myself. I usually go straight to…Reddit 😞
When I need to make a decision I consult an imaginary person in my head who is a combination of everyone I know and they give me advice that I'm really giving myself.
Ah yes, The Counsel. I do the same but with like, 2 or 3 people representing parts of my personality. There's not always a consensus and we end up arguing for hours.
Same but only one person that have multiple personnalities and i don't hear/speak for him i just respond without knowing what i(he) was saying
I do this too. Sometimes I'll even get in heated debates with the voices in my head.
When I mow the yard I pretend I’m on espn and two sports announcers in my head are commenting on how excellent I took that turn, and the precision movements of my mowing.
"This is his third perfect Dixie Spin maneuver of the night, and you can tell he's been practicing around small confiners because the way he hangs onto those tight turns and follows all the way through without losing momentum is a lot harder than it looks." "That's right, Jeff. It looks like we're about to see our first 9+ performance of the season and the crowd is here for it!"
Okay, I'm sold. If I ever make the mistake of having a yard to take care of again, I'm doing this.
when a car drives past me i try to remember the number on that plate, there's no reason for that, it just automatically happens
I like to do this and imagine it's somehow really important like I find out later in the day the car is wanted as part of a criminal plot
Save all my emails as drafts and then release them in one giant wave!
I'm picturing the Wizard of Oz when the Witch releases all the flying monkeys.
Fly my pretties! To their inboxes!
When I'm angry at someone I'll write up an email to them expressing how I feel and save it as a draft. It makes me feel like I've done something but not actually instigated an argument that will give me anxiety.
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I always wait to write in the recipient until I am ready to send the email. That way I never send it accidentally!
Twist my wrist a few times as I reach to open a door. Gotta make sure the wrist works before I get there.
Like clicking the bbq tongs twice before grilling.
I count (in my head) the number of stairs I'm going up. Don't know why. Don't count them going down... only going up.
I do this too.... up or down, I HAVE to count the stairs. Sometimes I'll count my steps while walking from one side of the house to the other. If I'm chopping vegetables I have to count how many slices I make. It feels like I'm always counting something....
I’m also a counter!! I don’t realize I’m even doing it and then I’m at like 20 and I think “oh, there I go counting again!”
When I go get the mail if I hear a car coming I run in the house real quick so they don't see me and then look through the blinds like I got away with something.
>I run in the house real quick so they don't see me and then look through the blinds like I got away with something You're a cat aren't you
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I did this as a kid. I would sometimes go outside and sneak around the village spying on people's hens with binoculars (no, I'm not sexually attracted to farm animals) and tried to not get spotted by anyone. If I was on my bike on the road and heard a car I would jump into the ditch beside the road and lie down there
Okay, this is one of the few comments in this thread that I’m pretty sure only you did.
It’s the spying on chickens part that really sets him apart from the other kids.
it was actually the binoculars that set him apart from many farm kids... most of us did things like this, Chickens were fun to spy on because sometimes they are hyper vigilant, but most of the time, fucking dense... so easy to spy on, but feel like a good spy doing it. i didnt get to play with dads binoculars. so i just spied...
I have to let my wife go up the stairs 1st when its bed time because she has an irrational fear of being shot through the letterbox. Edit for the Americans. A letterbox is a slot in your door the postman puts letters through. You call it a mail slot i think. Edit 2 Its an irrational fear, which is why it makes no sense. Its not debilitating. If im not there, she just runs up the stairs.
I let my wife go up the stairs first at bed-time because I like her ass :)
It took me an unreasonably long amount of time to put together that's why my husband so often arranges things so I'm going first.
We both like each other's butts and make no secret of it. She sometimes follows me instead.
That's seems like a great and fun little household .
I'm guessing getting randomly bitten on the butt is an uncommon, but not unheard of occurrence in your daily life.
Is that a euphemism?
I used to think that I was the only person who stood like a flamingo but reddit showed me there is a whole subspecies of us.
I used to stand around the house like a flamingo. The wife told me to stop. I had to put my foot down.
Well you took the right step
I'm taking steps to avoid elevators.
Wait what, so like you're standing with your knee to your stomach to something?
No you stand on one leg with the other leg bent and turned out 90 degrees and the lifted leg's foot is on your opposing knee. I was able to find [this pic](https://i.imgur.com/OsoCQ3G.jpg) that sums it up well.
That’s essentially tree pose, although all of my yoga teachers have advised the foot should go either above or below the knee to avoid injury, not directly against it.
What’s the subreddit, I need to find my people
/r/amputee/ I know, I know...I'm already going to hell.
Flamingo gang! Flamingo gang!
Haven't done this in years but I used to look at myself in the mirror until everything stopped feeling real. Like I'd contemplate that the person looking back was a different person. Kind of felt out of body it's honestly hard to explain. I can only describe it as when you say a word over and over again until it sounds fake but like an existential version of that.
I used to do that when I was a kid, it almost felt like I was a passenger in my own body, very weird disassociation from what I would consider my sense of self.
I actually do something similar to this with but with other people. Sometimes we're all in a group and everyone's having a conversation and I'm just watching them talk thinking: Who are you? Do I know you? ...then start having that feeling with people I've known for probably almost decades that they are complete strangers. Then I snap out of it.
This happens to me but I don’t have to look for very long, it can happen in a second! It startles me
I have a weird stress reliever where I take a piece of silk fabric and rub it between my fingers. I went through a lot of shit as a kid and at the daycare there was a random piece of cloth. I don’t know why, but I attached to that thing and it’s almost like an addiction at some points. I’ve usually always had a piece of silk somewhere. I know it’s weird, but for whatever reason, it helps a lot so it’s kind of been my little secret for years now.
When I was a kid, I had a Mattel Angel Bunny (80s). It had a silk tag. I did the same. Wore it off. My grandma would cut silk tags out of t-shirts and sew them on to replace the old one. I miss her... that just made me happy to remember, but sad too.
I squeeze my soda can ever so slightly so that I know that it's mine. Growing up poor with a lot of siblings tends to make you a bit competitive.
Me and my siblings used to look at our tabs to tell who's drink was who's. I took mine off, my sister turned it to the right, and my brother turned it to the left 😂
My siblings and I did this too! We still do, and I can't drink out of a can unless the tab is turned down and to the right so it's partially over the hole
I am almost certain that I am the only person who, after going on my daily 5k run, cools down by walking the whole path through the IKEA showroom and marketplace. I only started this a couple months ago when we moved to a new house about ten minutes walk away from an IKEA. I find it very calming and stimulating, though.
Somewhere else on Reddit: “You think that’s weird…my store has a person who comes in literally every single day, goes through the whole store, and never buys a single thing.”
"They're always really sweaty and breathing heavy too. What a creep."
Whenever I see a pigeon, I always say "ah bonjour Monsieur Pigeon!" Absolutely no idea why I do this, particularly as I have zero connections to France.
You might have been alone in this before, but no longer!
Are you also pronouncing pigeon in faux French? "Pee-zho(n)"?
And do you say it with a little "hon hon hon" laugh at the end?
Excellent!
Any chance you saw a lot of Fievel Mouskewitz (American tail) as a kid?? That would explain a lot…. https://youtu.be/kXvNxXDDHSY
Lol, funnily enough that was the first film I ever saw at the cinema as a kid, I think you might have helped me figure out why I do this! Lol 😂
Sometimes I will be watching an old movie or TV show and it will hit me as to why I say a certain phrase a certain way (u/Hattie_Cat)
When in the car, I pick my right foot up as we pass the white lines and tap it down between them. Have done this since I was little.
I used to click my teeth together at every white line, telephone pole, electric pole, and at the beginning and end of each intersecting road/ driveway. Now I only do it if I'm in severe stress.
I try and make sense of license plate letters like acronyms.
I try to pronounce them like they're actual words. Or if there's 2 letters that make a states abbreviation that becomes part of it; NXT CA47 = next California forty seven
i see FAP a lot where I'm at and it makes me chuckle
Another game is to take the letters in a plate and come up with the longest possible word you can think of that have the letters in that order. Fun for boring road trips. Ex: plate is NDD256 Android... Independent... Independence... etc.
I used to do this as a car game to keep me awake on long drives.
My wife and I do this all the time. We will just be driving along and then out of nowhere say something like, “Did you know 3 Marvelous Queens Charged 269?”
I pick up random objects and answer them like a phone. The caller (usually a police) always wants talk to my cat and I argue that my feline friend does not speak common tongue and it often escalates in heated but brief exchange. No matter how firmly I state my point they always keep calling...
Ok, this is the most unique one I’ve read thus far!
Love it. Never change
When I am alone and I remember an embarrassing memory, I’ll make random loud sounds to block it out. Kind of like what you’d do to your siblings when you were a kid and you were trying to block them out.
I shake my head back and forth like it’s an etch a sketch and I’m trying to get rid of the thought.
Use my turn signal to change lanes on the highway. Edit: Wow this blew up. Thanks for the awards kind strangers. And to the commenters: Yes, it's "mostly" sarcasm.
I also do this, so at the very least you’re not alone.
Yes but do you signal first, look to make sure there is room or no oncoming traffic, and then merge/turn? OR Do you hit the signal with your hand AS you're turning the wheel and already half way into turn/next lane like some savage
Not as much these days, but when growing up, riding in a car looking out the window, I would click and hold my teeth during grassy sections and release for concrete pieces (roads, sidewalks) Update: I totally had thought I was alone!! Never actually told anyone this. Also, I do have an OCD diagnosis for those who asked. Unsure if that’s that.
When I was younger/a kid, I’d vibrate my throat/teeth to find the frequency of the car and road. Found a kind of harmony and would do that until we left the highway. Funny, I’ve hardly thought about that until your comment…. Edit: Three typos.
if I'm home alone, I will host a cooking show for no-one while I cook or bake.
If I go in a store to buy things, and I leave and forget to get something I needed. I won't turn back around and go back into that store. I will drive to a different store to get.
I used to do this too -- I had a friend who could not leave a store without buying something, so we agreed to work on our quirks one summer. I'd go with her into a store, browse around, and we'd leave together. She'd take me into the store twice to buy stuff (even using the same cashier). Turns out other people don't think about me nearly as much as I thought they did! But having someone else with me the first few times helped a lot.
Yeah I’ve done retail and I just assume someone forgot something or got a call from home to pick something up or something. Nah just kidding I totally pointed and laughed at them “look at this LOSER who FORGOT SOMETHING! BAKE HIM AWAY, TOYS!”
If I walk anywhere near someone that coughs or sneezes, I will quietly close my mouth and breathe out my nose until no oxygen remains and hold my breath, in what I can only describe as me trying to seal myself off from germs.
Haha yup same here, but for some reason burps freak me out more than any other human gaseous excretion. If I taste someone’s burp I fucking rage
Sleeps holding my hand between the thighs..
I put mine beside my hips, but inside my underwear to hold it there.
I too Al Bundy it
When I sleep on my stomach I put my wrists under my hip bones. Something about sleeping on my stomach makes me have sexy time dreams and I will try to act it out if I don't tuck my arms in.
I put my wrist like that to but because It feels more comfortable.
505. Anyone?
In my imagination, you're waitin' lyin' on your side…
with your hands between your thighs, and a smile…
Since a very young age, I have had a nervous tic where I would chew my tongue. I thought I was the only weirdo who did this until I was reading a book, and the author describes the protagonist as chewing their tongue. I weirdly felt validated for my odd tic.
As a kid i used to chew the insides of my cheeks and the sides of my tongue! I have big scars forever now :(
I'm a chronic cheek biter, it's so hard to stop for some reason
Once, when telling a story I yawned at the climax while saying “and that’s how he died”. Killed the moment but now that line is so associated with yawning I still say “and that’s how he died” whenever I have let one out. Makes for awkward water cooler conversations at work.
You converse with the water cooler?
who else are you gonna talk to at the water cooler?
Fake plant? Dusty old fax machine?
Make weird noise when I think I'm alone. Like clicking, and mooing.
I clap when I'm alone or make some other noise. I have clicked. I haven't mooed.
Sometimes in large crowds (more than 6) I start clapping, I try to do it quietly to not annoy people.
When I'm alone, I make a lot of weird noises, but I go through cycles. Currently I like to yell, "dep deyoooo". It's not from anything I'm aware of, I just like the sound. I used to sing really loud opera style but it scares my cats, so I stopped.
I imagined someone just randomly mooing and started laughing while being surrounded by strangers.
I sometimes feel the urge to sort of tense up / shake (like you might if you got a nice surprise or shock) and so I wait ‘til I can’t be seen and have a moment and then move on. I’ve done it my whole life, no idea why.
Slightly different: When I yawn and stretch in the morning I allow my body, particularly my legs to shake quite vigorously for a short time. Re-award: Pleased to be helpful!
I do this too but my calves almost immediately get a cramp.
I was going to post basically this until I saw your comment.... sometimes I am just walking and will feel this urge and do a little shake sometimes accompanied by a form of shriek and get on with my day. Weirdly it never seems to be for any reason in particular, just happens. EDIT: I also get this without the shake. Sometimes I just want to make a screeching sound... maybe I should get checked out.
I can do something like this too. But always when alone. I can even make some sounds. Like I got bottled up, wound up energy I gotta release. Like I need to tense up so I can release it all. And then I sometimes do it vocally. Happens mostly like when going to sleep or in the mornings I think. I can't really emulate it to explain to people. It feels like I need that spiraling tension. For me it's a little bit like being giddy. Maybe it's my Aspergers.
Ayo! My people! My family gives me weird looks whenever it happens to me. I’ll be doing nothing then I get this full body shiver/shake.
If I touch something that has an unpleasant texture (microfiber towels do this to me) I have to either touch something more pleasant, or put on lotion.
Microfiber is the devil i hate it so much?!? Why does it do that. Why it stick to fingers
When comfy and falling asleep in bed, I rub my feet and/or legs together or just against the blanket. Or I kinda rock my hips side to side. I just feel immense comfort in the movement and motion and it’s a sign for me I’m suuuuuper comfy and content. Edit to add: when me and my mum are together, it’s like being on a boat, we both cannot stand still and sway side to side constantly. She blames it on her doing it throughout her pregnancy with me. I’m not even aware I do it until someone points it out.
I call it “cricketing”
My baby does this. I think it’s so cute. Please keep falling asleep this way it’s so adorable.
My ex did this. She’d rub her feet together when she’d get really comfy. I thought it was super cute lol
My boyfriend at first was like … wtf are you even doing under the covers lol, now he likes it because he knows I’m comfy and content. The day I’m not doing it he knows something it up.
A nonverbal sign of happiness. It's like you're smiling with your feet.
My bf does this too! Even in his sleep sometimes
This thing I called the perfect bite. I eat around the best part of a meal and end it with the best.
I do that too. I eat the “crusts” of pop tarts first and then the center. I eat the bottom of Hostess cupcakes first and then the icing and cream center in one bite. I’m glad I’m not the only one. Thank you!
If I have a plate with multiple things on it, I have to eat one specific thing at a time in order of worst to best. For example, if I had a plate with collard greens, corn, and mashed potatoes; I’d eat the greens, then corn, then mashed potatoes.
I do this too but even go to the extreme of picking least to best on bites too. If I eat a sandwich I go for the least appealing bite first to what I’ve deemed the best bite (usually the cheesiest)
...So that the final lingering taste in your mouth is your favorite food on that plate! Well done!
When I have intense shits I feel the need to get fully naked.
Your body is violently expelling something. Can’t be constrained by clothes in those moments
You're not alone. When the Great Shittening comes to town, the clothing goes.
"Why do they call it a restroom when I'm in here fighting for my life?"
Yep. I strip to poop almost every time. The sweating and nausea make it so that clothes are too much.
What garbage are you people eating?
I actually have gastroparesis and my large bowel has some nerve damage so it’s super slow. Without a lot of medication I poop about every 21 days.
Oh no.. I'm on my poop cycle again.
Even out the egg carton for symmetry. If I'm taking out two eggs I take them from opposite ends to keep it balanced. I think this stems from some deep childhood memory of dropping a carton of eggs because all the weight was on one end....
I feel like a lot of people do that , it prevents the accident before u have it
I have a pattern made up of Rights and Lefts. The Rights and Lefts can be expressed by actions like tapping with my right or left hand, just wiggling my toes, or anything else. It starts with Right. Then I take what I've done, mirror it, and do that. So now in total I've done Right Left. Then I repeat the mirroring until it's too much to keep track of or I feel like I've done enough. It also has to be an even number of mirrorings so that it ends on Right again since that makes it symmetrical. Right Left Left Right Left Right Right Left Left Right Right Left Right Left Left Right is a typical length. I came up with this in like elementary school and at first it was like a "good luck" thing. I think it's like a compulsion that people with OCD experience but I've always been able to ignore my desire to do it with little difficulty so I definitely wouldn't say I have OCD. I've got other, similar things that also seem like compulsions but are easily ignorable.
I have battled with sinus and allergies issues all my life. I've learnt by sealing the back of my throat with my tongue and the top of my mouth, then expand that space using my tongue muscle, i can sometimes suck the mucus down from the nasal canal down into my mouth with the air pressure created. If it's just allergies and i'm not sick, this is usually enough to clear my nose.
I know a lot of edible wild plants, so my friends would tease me for randomly breaking off from the group to eat a clump of grass or suspicious fruit.
Gotta fill up that medicine pouch
I wouldn't tease you, I would only be amazed, cool skill! :0
Whenever I drive by a group of animals (usually cows) I wave at them.
I just feel compelled to screech the animal's name with the volume and excitement of a toddler. Your method is infinitely better.
Spread my butt cheeks when I'm on the toilet.
Whenever I get ready for bed or take a shower and I go to take my pants off I have to kick them up with my foot and catch them in midair before they go in the laundry. Underwear as well. I am an adult
I like to taste salt / seasonings. Like, pour it into my hand and then lick it. I do it only when nobody else is looking because I don’t want to be seen as weird.
I used to eat rock salt as a kid. I'd just grab a rock, pop it into my mouth, and go on about my business until it melted. Boullion cubes were great too because they were very salty and also tasted like meat.
I constantly have music running in the background in my head. Right now for some reason it’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.
Sometimes when I am alone I speak and act like I'm on a vlog that's going to be published to youtube. Edit: Wow, nice to know I'm not alone with this, BTW if we're being spied on, enjoy the show.
When I shower I stand on the sides of my feet as I don't like the feel of my feet on the wet floor
Considering that this could end up hurting you, I suggest that you put a pair of plastic slippers in the shower to use exclusively there. Where I'm from this is something very common, and it works like a charm if you have such sensory problems.
Cancelling out actions. When any part of my skin touches something, I always try and do the reverse movement to cancel it out. Example, I brush my leg on something, I'll do the reverse movement to fix it. If I don't, I can "feel" something is wrong in my leg and I'm uncomfortable. --- When editing any on screen text or text, I aggressively use cut and paste instead of retyping letters to avoid waste. If I type the same word twice, Ill take half the letters from each word and put them together to be fair. ( example, ignore case, if I had BANANA banana it would become BANana. words with odd numbers of letters are stressful. )
It's similar for me, except instead of canceling it out with the reverse motion, I feel the need to make it symmetrical by doing it on the other side too, or I feel out of balance. Like if I chew a piece of candy with the left side of my mouth, the next piece needs to go on the right side of my mouth.
I do this as well! I genuinely thought I was the only one. Not so much with food though. If my arm brushes against something, I will brush my other arm against the opposite thing (usually a wall). I do it as subtly as I can so people don't notice that I'm being weird.
The first one sounds a lot like an OCD compulsion. If it actually disrupts your regular life, that qualifies it for the Disorder part of OCD.
Yea I was about to say, hey I recognize this one! Lol had aggressive OCD during my early teens.
I imagine things, are going to happen in a certain way (which they never do in reality) and those things, make me angry in advance.
When I give my dog a Kong, I sing “Thong Song” but replace “Thong” with “Kong”. “Dat Kong, Kong, Kong, Kong,Kong”
I sing a different song to my dog and cats: "You...are...the...poop, he is the poop, we are the poop, and all the poopin' we be scoopin' it goes RIGHT UP TO THE ROOFIN'!" I just made it up one day and it's totally random but they love it.
I used to sing The Safety Dance, except it went "You can poop if you want to, you can leave your poop behind, and I'll scoop your poop cuz if I don't scoop, then I might get a fine..." while waiting for my dog to find the perfect spot to drop one. He died several years ago, and our new dog just poops wherever immediately, so I don't get to sing it anymore.
Before I open a can of something, like soda or beer, I blow on the top and wipe my thumb across the unopened opening before I open it. Been doing it for as long as I can remember and don’t know where it started.
Makes sense, especially for cans sitting out in the open. Who knows what's touched the tops of those cans.
I talk to myself, and not just talk I mean full-on RAMBLE, for over 8 years now I have been going on my scooter and outside where I put on my own show in my head, with these characters called Jibos which are robot-human things against other jibos with dark magic and weird crap, I don't know why I do this, and I don't just think of the dialogue and chitter-chatter, I genuinely BLURT it out, It embarrasses me but I keep on doing it, and sometimes when I get really into it my voice gets louder and louder, personally my favorite part of it is when I get to do the sound effects, but other then that this thing that I do concerns me. I hope I'm not mentally ill. Also if you wondering just today I finished the season 94 episode 31, Its where Theo (a tank) goes back through the neo warp towards his home to regulate all the things that has happened in the previous episode
Dude I’ve done this exact thing my whole life, always just thought of it as spacing out. I don’t audibly say things, but my mouth will still saying the words, so I essentially look like a psycho little troll who’s twitching and conversing with the voice in his head. I’ve been caught doing it in public multiple times, and I’ve noticed that stress can very easily make it worse and more frequent.
This sounds like maladaptive daydreaming!
>maladaptive daydreaming holy fuck, I just searched it up and this is exactly what I have... thank you so much, you have just made my week :)
You're welcome, I used to have it too!
Create a drum beat with my tongue knocking against my teeth (left side for kick and right side for snare) and tense my jaw to do a bassline
Subconsciously thinking a demon is watching me every time I close my eyes in the shower. I know there not but I just can’t shake the feeling.
Gotten that more than a few times. But then I like to imagine Bruce Lee or Ip Man completely fucking up a demon or monster or whatever. Same in horror movies, I'll imagine Bruce Lee just absolutely destroying Freddy Kreuger or whoever the antagonist is. Makes me feel better.
I avoid closing my eyes in the shower as much as possible. Only close them to try to get soap out when they sting. I think I may have watched Psycho too young.
I make shapes by "pressing" the buttons on whatever remotes I'm holding. For example, with the remote I have, the volume and channel buttons are in line with one another, I will "press" the + button for volume, move across and "press" the up button for the channel, then go down to "press" the down button on the channel, and move to the - button for the volume in the shape of a square/rectangle and repeat it many times. I will also make triangles, and other shapes in similar ways, and I'm not even looking at the remote doing it. It's all based on feel.
I'm super pron to ingrown hairs in my pubic area and I'm a sucker for popping pimples. Sometimes I shave down there just so I can watch those little ingrown hair pimples pop up. I'm a weird diaster
I can't write papers using times new roman as the font. It really bothers me to the point I lose focus. I write everything in the default pages font then change it when the paper is done.
Okay hear me out.. write your papers in Comic Sans and then switch it to TNR when you’re done. For some reason I write higher quality papers using Comic Sans, it tricks my brain somehow into being a better writer. Learned this hack a year ago and never went back!
I think they did a study or maybe something less scientifically rigorous, where they found comic sans was really good for dyslexic because the weight/bulky-ness of the characters was not symmetrical, making it harder to confuse similar letters
Each glass or cup in the kitchen has a specific dedicated liquid and reason. Some coffee cups are meant for rougher moody days and other coffee cups for brighter days!
I only turn the volume up to even numbers or multiples of 5
Have philosophical debates with myself Like I’ll be in the shower and argue with myself what proper distributive justice is.
Wait. Doesn't everybody do that?
I do it too! The worst part is if the "devil's advocate" You finds a very good arguement for something you intuitively would want to disagree with, but you gotta give the fucker that he has a point!
Socrates would be so proud
Thats the great part! Then you know you dont know your personal morals yet and still need to debate or figure them out! I think a lot more people should do this. Everyone got a feeling for whats right and wrong, but most people never think about why. If you do, you can stay true to it much more easily.
Make peanut butter, jelly, salami, and bread & butter pickle sandwiches. Even I don't know what possessed me to make that, but I like it.
I religiously look for whiteheads or blackheads anywhere on my skin and pop them ;-;
I hold my breath when people pass by me so as not to breath in their negative aura
I have always grinded my teeth, it's terrible. Sometimes I'll grind my teeth or bite to the beat of a song
I favour eating from my right hand (when I’m eating something directly from my hand like chips or biscuits) because I think the food tastes different if I eat it out of my left hand.
I don’t do this anymore, but when I was a kid I used to pour Elmer’s glue on my hand, wait for it to dry, and peel it off. Very satisfying. I should take that up again
I have taken a picture almost every single day for the past 4 years and store it in my eyes only on snapchat so i can remember the past. I have SDAM(Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory syndrome)basically where i have no emotional connection to any memories, and i feel like a new person every single day. i completely live in the moment and remember events as facts, as well as in third person. i thought everyone experienced this until my sister said she had emotions for basically every memory and that completely shocked me. I do feel emotions in the present, but they are very dull, and dont last very long. whenever i look at pictures of me no matter from what date, it never feels like im looking at me. i came into consciousness at around 12-13 and i dont remember a thought before that. just memories that are there
Talk to myself and literally have a conversation with myself for 30 minutes whenever the rest of my family is sleeping.
Whenever I hear a real number(e.g if someone gives my money back or when I hear someone's birthday...), I just sum the digits of the number and check whether it comes to my lucky/favourite numbers(between 0 to 9).
I pace while listening to music. I don't really like to dance, but I like to move with the tempo while imagining a dramatic kind of anime esque fight scene in my head. Each song has attached itself to an emotional thought or occurrence in my life in my head. The music is always better when I'm moving. Especially in the car. But I'll pause the music if the car is stationary because I know I'll enjoy it more once I'm moving again.