Does anyone else ‘count’ letters and numbers?

[PersephoneParlormaid]

I’m not sure if this is just me, or if this has a name. For many, many years ( not sure when it started) I’ve been counting letters, and sometimes adding in numbers. So for example, Cat would be 4 because it’s 2 points for the capital letter and 2 for the two lower case letters. Cat123 would be 16, as I add in the numbers too. It differs with different size fonts, and if the answer is more than 10 I’ll add those number until I get a single number.
Sometimes if I’m walking I’ll find myself saying 1,2,3 over and over again in my head, and I have to force myself to stop.
I do have a mind that never stops, I’m either thinking things, talking to myself or get a song going round and round in my head. If I wake in the night my mind immediately kicks in and I actually have to make it stop to go back to sleep.
Its exhausting at times, and I wonder if it’s just me?

Not necessarily that but I often count to 4 over and over again in my head - I think it's a sort for self soothing when I'm anxious as it means I can't really think about anything else.

Not me but I have definitely heard from others who do this - you're not alone. I know what you mean on exhausting - I have a constant background narrative which I'd often like to turn down. A friend of mine said her mind is pretty quiet until thoughts just pop in every now and again, which sounds quite dreamy!

I do it with anagrams.

So if I hear the word “south” for example, I’ll mentally list the words you can make from those letters:
South
out
outs
shout
shot
shut
hut
hot
tosh
etc

Obviously I don’t do it with every word I hear!

The specific counting thing sounds like it is just a chance habit that your compulsively agitated mind has seized on and developed as a habit. Meaningless in itself - just like, say, having one particular song as an earworm, rather than another song.

Naturally it is pretty entrenched, since you have been doing it for a long time, but I'd say the real issue is having an exhausting mind like that in the first place. I'm the same (and I seem to be getting more disinhibited in acting it out as I get older). Constant songs, words and rhythms circling in my head.

I pasted your post into Google AI. Compulsive number assigning and counting are features of OCD, calked Arithmomania. Please look this up @PersephoneParlormaid 💐

I do it differently to you but I use it to distract me from anxious thoughts. So if I can feel I’m focussing on something negative I’ll find a word or phrase on a magazine etc and work out my method so to speak. tends to kill off the anxious thoughts

I don't but have a friend who does something with numbers. I can't work out if it's comforting or exhausting

I don't do exactly that but I definitely look for patterns & symmetry in numbers. I'm another person whose mind never shuts up. Ear worms, repeated phrases, auditory patterns, my brain is constantly playing these. On the other hand, if I get involved in a task, I am completely oblivious to what is going on around me.

Omg. I dont do exactly this but if I hear a sentence, I take the first letter from each word and see what word it makes. I have no idea why I do it but its exhausting. An example of my favourite one: I was watching a film ages ago and the character said 'I Can't Even Die The Way That Im Supposed To' = ICEDTWIST. Its alot, but I cannot stop.

Yes. Every letter has a numerical value according to where they are in the alphabet. So A is 1, B is 2 etc. i then add up the words.

Not the same as you OP, but I do count things as I do them. This weekend I was hand washing my bras, and I count them as I go. I count them as I peg them on the outside line. I count the pegs as I take them down. I do a lot of counting, and it's something I have always done.

Even on a drive I do every day, I mentally divide the road into stages, and I count off each stage until I get home / to work.

I do something sort of similar.
I look at a word or phrase or road sign or car reg etc and I 'count' various things

• the number of vowels or consonants
• The number of 'strokes' needed to do each letter in the word eg WORD would be 10, then I do just the straight strokes (7) and then the curved ones (3). I can then go on to do the enclosed bubbles - word has 3
• Sometimes I count the points where stroked meet or the ends of strokes that dont connect to anything.

for me and even number is bad and an odd number is good as if I dont count numerically I do go along yes / no so if the last one ends on a no or even number thats not good.

I have done it since I was young. I think it was just a way of my mind trying to find some reassurance and control as I had a very chaotic/traumatic childhood.

No, but I have a pattern for counting my fingers which I’ve done as long as I can remember. I tap or move them in a certain order and go through a whole routine in parallel with whatever else I’m doing. I assume (hope) it’s so discreet that no one knows what I’m doing.

If I see a pattern in words, that word glares at me in my mind for days or weeks. Currently it’s the name Hannah. I briefly met a woman called Hannah in the summer. In my mind, the two H’s stand very tall, the a’s are medium and the n’s are small. It is perfectly symmetrical and taking up far too much space in my mind!

Everything has a name these days. I wouldn't leap straight to OCD, which is intensely distressing and disabling. I'd think of it as the mild version of something which can become OCD, in conjunction with other stressors and neurological traits, such as intense anxiety.
OCD is about control. The restlessless underlying all the behaviours we are talking about here is more like agitation. I don';t doubt that it could figure as part of the pathway to OCD, but it's not OCD in itself.

Not in the way that you do, but I add numbers down until I get a single digit.

ie. If the number is 256, I'll mentally add 2+5+6 = 13, then the 1+3 = 4)
It's not obsessive, but I do find myself doing it quite frequently...I wouldn't example do it for a phone number (too long, faffy) but door numbers, number plates etc.

It's something I'm aware I've always done, it must be some sort of comfort for me (I liked number puzzles as a child) and I am pretty sure I'm autistic/AuDhd...so....?

Yes! Very similar to @MellowSubmarine actually. I count letters, divide words, anagrams are a particular favourite (I crush at TV word games!). I have always done it, but I know I do it especially in times of stress, arguments and so on, probably that's self-regulating, although I didn't know this when I was a child.

Only when watching Countdown and being outdone by the contestants on most occasions.

I have two weirder ones:- I type out words on a keyboard in my head, and if I'm in a room draw the outline of the room with my finger.

I count, do sums in my head, visually trace lines...

I was diagnosed with OCD 30 yrs - not for the above, however. I read a novel by Orson Scott Card about a planet where a significant number of the population had OCD...and suddenly everything made sense.

I manipulate numbers in my head and see patterns in numbers all the time, but I put it down to my entire career in banking and finance.

Mind you, it could be that I ended up working in banking and finance because I think in numbers all the time!

@MadFroggy yes I add numbers up like that too.
I often cross my fingers and touch wood as well.
I really would like to be able to switch my mind off sometimes, but I’m glad I’m not alone.

I do the finger tapping count for words, even just words floating around in my head. My loved one used to tell me to stop counting on their back when i was giving them a hug.

I do the keyboard thing too sometimes, how a word would be typed if doing proper touch typing (which I can do). I also sometimes visualise words as written in shorthand, sometimes there’s a couple of options and i think about which I’d choose. I don’t do it constantly, my mind is not overactive particularly. I often have an ear worm too

I do not count letters and numbers, but I count things. I can tell you the amount of stairs in different buildings, which is very useful in a power-cut or when you're carrying something big and heavy down a staircase!

My mind doesn't switch off, either. It is very hard to fall, and stay, asleep! The rest of the time, I'm thinking of something completely unrelated to what I'm doing at work (I largely work alone, and sometimes I come up with fantastic solutions to problems that my house has!), talking to myself/animals, and I listen to music a lot, so that I get more variation than having the same songs stuck in my head most of the time. I also have anxiety, if that makes a difference; apparently, the non-stop chatter in my head is quite normal for people with anxiety. A friend with anxiety just calls that bit 'being intellectual', because you have to think of more than just what is for dinner that evening!

I find myself counting whilst waiting at traffic crossings, for example. I tell myself the lights are going to change when I hit 27, for example, and see how close I get. It’s a game I play.