Published on 12, July, 2020
I have Aspergers and OCD, and for the last five years I have really struggled with having obsessions over letters and numbers, and having specific preferences and orders. I don’t know what it would be classed as, or how to deal with it.
Two of my big interests are football and politics. However, both of these can be ruined when my perfectionism about letters and numbers do not go my way. For example, with football, I have an obsession with wanting the home team dugouts on the left, and away on the right, all shirt numbers to be 1-11 (and in line with positions, as they were up until the 90s), , and all players to not have the same first letters in their forenames or surnames. I also have a problem with numbers. For example, in political elections, I don’t like numbers that end with 0 or 5 (unless all parties win seats with either 0 or 5 as last letters), 1, or 9, and all of these things ruin my enjoyment of either watching football, or thinking about politics. I don’t know if it is a form of perfectionism OCD or something else, but if someone could tell me if there is a term for it, or how to deal with it, I’d be very grateful.
Hi. I also have OCD and numbers were a big issue for me - I had to do everything a certain number of times, or for a certain amount of time. I also had certain trigger words that really distressed me and would lead to a compulsion.
I had cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) on the NHS last year and it really helped - it's definitely worth giving it a try. You can usually self-refer online with your local NHS mental health service. One element of my OCD has relapsed (the fear of contamination), but I think I'd still be in a good place if the pandemic hadn't happened. I'm pleased to say I'm no longer afraid of certain words/numbers :)