Published on 12, July, 2020
Unfortunately, I'm having to re-type this as yesterday's one went into the spam filter and hasn't been retrieved
So, do you have habits and are you able to differentiate your habits from stims?
For me, my diagnosis has put my habits into a new stimmy light.
Also, although not diagnosed with OCD, I know I have it and have always had it, so again, how do you differentiate habits from OCD.
I will for example do the same thing more than once and re-arrange things so they are properly aligned.
I also having controlling thought related OCD.
Here are some:
As a child I would eat everything in my hand including my toys, pencils, pens etc
I ate the whole trunk of a knitted elephant.
Biting my nails and skin, until they bleed. My mum made me wear gloves in the house to try to stop this but I just ate the ends of the glove fingers.
I used to twiddle with and eat my hair when it was long.
Twiddling my toes.
Scratching, picking my scalp.
Rubbing my fingers together.
Blinking.
Biting my lip.
Grinding my teeth.
Making strange sounds + humming little tunes (I once got asked to stop by a work colleague because I was unconsciously humming the Funeral March).
I know I wrote more yesterday but can't remember them all at the moment.
Most of mine are lifelong.
With regard to habitual behaviour, I find this interesting:
Great question that I was researching an answer to yesterday without finding satisfying one. I can't tell the difference between an OCD related habit or a stim. I pick the scalp skin and it could go for hours. I don't organise and reorganise but I organise and have the need to have things in their original place and original state (order, cleanliness, function..ext). I have a small box in my pocket that I open and close repeatedly, if it's not with me then I rock right and left whenever I'm expected to stand still (waiting for a bus..). I adjust the location of my shoulders again and again during conversations, not sure why. When I'm nervous I do bite some nails.I like stress balls too.
If someone could discuss with us the difference between stim, habit and OCD It would be great
.
As I understand it, OCD actions are compulsions to mitigate a specific anxiety. Stims are repetitive behaviours that bring comfort or relief in sensory way. They might be done when we are anxious but they seem to have less of a "psychological" component. Eg if I don't click the box something bad will happen therefore I need to click it vs I'm clicking it because it feels pleasant. This is my understanding (and extremely simplified) but I could be wrong.