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#1
09-26-2005, 07:13 PM
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Obsessive-compulsive walking patterns / cracks / lines / etc.
So, I met this girl recently. I commented on her walking pattern and it really freaked her out. She thought she was the only person who did stuff like this. What I'm talking about is doing things like:
Not stepping on cracks. If there are square patterns, stepping in the middle of the squares, never on the lines. If there are lines/grooves on the sidewalk (like, at a corner), orienting your feet/steps in the same direction. If there is a painted line on the crosswalk, either walking only on the paint or not on the paint. Who here know WTF I am talking about and/or partakes in such obsessive compulsive walking quirkiness? 
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#3
09-26-2005, 07:15 PM
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Re: Obsessive-compulsive walking patterns / cracks / lines / etc.
[ QUOTE ]
So, I met this girl recently. I commented on her walking pattern and it really freaked her out. She thought she was the only person who did stuff like this. What I'm talking about is doing things like: Not stepping on cracks. If there are square patterns, stepping in the middle of the squares, never on the lines. If there are lines/grooves on the sidewalk (like, at a corner), orienting your feet/steps in the same direction. If there is a painted line on the crosswalk, either walking only on the paint or not on the paint. Who here know WTF I am talking about and/or partakes in such obsessive compulsive walking quirkiness? [/ QUOTE ] heres what ive always done since I was a kid. imagine nyc sidewalks, with fairly large squares/rectangles. in my mind i draw diagonals from the 4 corners, and i also avoide stepping on those imaginary lines as well as the real cracks. i started doing this as a little kid, probably just ADD and needing something else to focus on while walking. also, great idea for an OOT thread.
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#4
09-26-2005, 08:06 PM
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Re: Obsessive-compulsive walking patterns / cracks / lines / etc.
[ QUOTE ]
heres what ive always done since I was a kid. imagine nyc sidewalks, with fairly large squares/rectangles. in my mind i draw diagonals from the 4 corners, and i also avoide stepping on those imaginary lines as well as the real cracks. i started doing this as a little kid, probably just ADD and needing something else to focus on while walking. [/ QUOTE ] I've done the same thing since an early age. I concluded a few years back that it had something to do with wanting to find patterns and order in the world. I went a bit farther however in that I would draw these imaginary lines in other situations as well - like looking for patterns of alignment between tables and desks etc. in classrooms.
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#5
09-26-2005, 07:18 PM
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Re: Obsessive-compulsive walking patterns / cracks / lines / etc.
Nicholson did this in As Good As It Gets.
OCD is a very strange disease. In extreme cases, some people will repeatedly circle around the block to make sure they didn't run anyone over.
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#6
09-26-2005, 10:40 PM
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Re: Obsessive-compulsive walking patterns / cracks / lines / etc.
OK, I'm calling BS on this entire thread. WTF????? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]
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#8
09-26-2005, 07:19 PM
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Re: Obsessive-compulsive walking patterns / cracks / lines / etc.
I used to do this alot when I was a kid, probably some sort of ADD/OCD/POP physchobabble. Not so much now. I also used to stare at the power lines on the side of the road during car rides and pretend there was some guy doing crazy acrobatic stuff on them running along to keep up.
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#9
09-27-2005, 12:34 AM
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Re: Obsessive-compulsive walking patterns / cracks / lines / etc.
I'm guilty of a lot of the stuff in this thread. This one in particular struck a chord.
[ QUOTE ] I also used to stare at the power lines on the side of the road during car rides and pretend there was some guy doing crazy acrobatic stuff on them running along to keep up. [/ QUOTE ] I really thought I was the only one in the world that did this. I always pictured the guy on a skateboard grinding along the power lines and sometimes hopping from billboard to billboard. I also catch myself counting my steps when I'm walking sometimes. I don't normally don't notice it until I'm in the 80's or 90's but it may be the 280's or 780's because I start over at 1 after i get to 99.
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#10
09-27-2005, 02:11 AM
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Re: Obsessive-compulsive walking patterns / cracks / lines / etc.
In a weird way this thread is kind of comforting, I wonder if this OCD is more prevalent in poker players. I do so much of this stuff it's crazy, from the avoiding cracks on sidewalks to the clacking my teeth each time I pass a light pole when I'm in a car. Similar to what others did, sometimes when I'm in a car i'll extend horizontal lines that pass through two close light poles and clench my teeth when my car is fitting right between them. If I still have my teeth clenched while I pass the light pole then I lose.
Another quirky thing I do is I'll say the letters in sentences in multiples of four and hope that the last letter of the sentence ends in a multiple of 4. So if I see the phrase "makes your teeth whiter" on TV I'll get quirky because as I say them four at a time (spaces count as letters) I still have two letters left. I move my fingers along with this as if I'm typing it out. I get restless if the phrase doesn't end in the multiple of four or three or whatever so I'll add punctuation which count as extraneous letters to make the letters "fit"
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