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?

I have a habit of drawing a hand with my thumb on each finger or nail - just a rough 5 lines and in my head i go thumb 1234, thumb 1234 repeatedly, I don't know when it started but I've done it for years. I suddenly realise I'm doing it and try to stop but I start again wiithout realising.

I don't count letters, but I do count steps. Not in a fitbit kind of way, but in my head.
I only count to 100, but then I stick a finger out for each 100, then once they're all out, I'll bend them back into a fist one finger for each 100.
Half the time I don't even realise I'm doing it until the voice in my head will be on something random like number 56 or something.
Not something I've admitted to before 😂

I count the letters in a word, add the number of syllables, divide the answer into even parts and recite (silently!) the various combinations that result. It sounds completely nuts, but I’ve done it for years. My brother divides the big number in a car reg by the smaller number (we’re not in the UK - different car numbering system) and calculates the remainder.

I think habits like this are very common, especially among people who are good with figures in a general sense. Unless you either find it distressing, or use it as a means of relieving anxiety, it’s not at all concerning.

I count socks and things when hanging them on the line and tell myself to stop doing it.

No, I don't have this.
It sounds like a compulsion OP, especially with the needing to touch wood etc too. A friend does vaguely similar, but she has OCD and is ND.

My people! I thought I was the only one.

I had a horrible childhood filled with bullying and abuse and it started then. I count the letters in word/sayings and then see if I can extend it by making it plural. I also count stairs, ceiling tiles, windows etc.

I’m constantly hyper vigilant though and my brain never stops. I’m also terrible for ear worms like my brain has to have something to churn over.

Agree I think my counting is a bit obsessive compulsive, I try to stop myself but still find I'm doing it, but as long as it doesn't affect your life in a bad way it doesn't really matter, if it gets to having elaborate rituals that's a different thing.

I segment people’s names into phonemes and count up how many schwas there are. Get excited if more than three.
Then in my mind I write the name in beautiful cursive handwriting, as if I’m teaching someone how to form the letters.

If I’m bored in a waiting room or work somewhere I will look at posters and outline the words with my mind over and over again like I’m writing it until I feel sick because I have read it too many times.

Actually yes I also count the ceiling tiles at work over so it finishes on 10 and will go round again and again until 10 is the last tile on the ceiling.

It’s an adhd thing yes. And yes is 3 counters but if you put a full stop after it then it makes it a nice rounded up 4 😂

People love to diagnose people online 😅

Counting things and looking for patterns in daily life is very normal thing to do. It can be relaxing. I love to anagram things and love number patterns just as lots of other people do. If I go through my photos I’d be able to find quite a few photos of random palindromic numbers, from things like my car’s dashboard or whatever. I send them
to one of my sons and he send me some too.

Do you play board games or word games? I play lots of scrabble as well as other word games and, I play board games with friends or family at least a couple times a week.
People do all sorts of things to relax, if you were spending your time knitting, exercising or decorating would you find that a more acceptable thing to do.
I think having a busy mind it totally normal but if you are feeling unduly anxious then maybe that’s something to get help with.

I count syllables in sentences and phrases and kind of tap them out on my fingers trying to make them total an even number. I hate it but I have done it forever.

I do a combo of splitting and counting, depending where the syllable splits are and splits between vowels and consonants. I absolutely hate it, and know it is tied to anxiety. If I am reading, or listening to a podcast or something it doesn’t happen. However if I’m in a cinema and obviously can’t speed up the film to my desired pace, my mind fills the gaps with counting and dividing words. Theatre isn’t as bad for some reason.

The way I do. It, my mind will fix on a word like ‘mountain’.

Mountain has 8 letters
It can then be split into 2 syllables moun / tain
Then I can break it down between vowels and syllables m/oun / t/ain
And again m/ou/n t/ai/n
And then split the vowels m/o/u/n/t/a/i/n
so that was 5 moves to get to single letter breakdown. 8 letters x 5 moves = 40. 4+0 =4. So mountain has a final number value of 4.

It takes a a second or two to work it out and it’s a hard compulsion to break, I’ve often tried to stop myself as I start to do it and it’s just too anxiety provoking. Thankfully these days it doesn’t happen that much, I think I’ve just found ways to fill my head with other things (not necessarily useful things, things like have a TV or radio on in background as I read or scroll).

Blimey, I thought I was the only person who did this kind of thing. I split words and sentences into batches of 3 letters and say them that way in my head. If there are 1 or 2 letters 'left over' at the end of a sentence it makes me feel a bit unnerved so I find myself adding another word or words to make it all end with a batch of 3 letters. It's exhausting and I wish I could stop it but I can't, it just sort of happens and I can't control it.

I am a counter too. I can’t remember not doing it, I am inwardly anxious and I do think it’s a form of OCD for me. It’s definitely worse when I’m stressed and anxious.

I tend to count things; angles (of mirrors, tv, doors- anything), tv remote buttons (then the sides and angles), steps, paving slabs, walls, my fire place, kitchen units, all their sides and angles, the table, chairs, all the legs, then all the possible angles… you get the picture! It’s constant and I often don’t realise I’m doing it.

It doesn’t cause me distress but it does distract me from doing what I need to do sometimes. If I’m struggling with anxiety it’s worse. I never remember the end number, and have to repeat several times, especially if the end number is odd, I have to start again and keep trying to make it even.

Typing this out has made me realise how odd it might be 😂

I divide words in sentences into 7s for some reason.

I have found my people!

Since I was about 7 I have counted the number of letters in sentences when people are speaking to me. If the total is divisible by 3 then it is “good”, and if not it’s unsatisfactory! I often do this without thinking and find it somehow relaxing or a way of staying focused in a boring situation.

I also count the number of colours on outfits people are wearing: this has rules - hair, eyes and skin count for 1, jewelry 2, jacket with buttons 3 etc. The total number of colours must always end up being divisible by 3, so I negotiate with myself to take away or add colours.

My DS does a few similar things but he also has synethesia.

@backslashrubyyours sounds similar to me with the focus on 3. I sometimes do the same when I am speaking and have to make the sentence end correctly

Yes, but in my way of doing it "cat" would be 8 - 3 letters, 2 spaces between the letters, 1 space at either end then 1 for the word as a whole. I can find myself doing it per word or per sentence when I'm reading, or just looking at say fence posts, things on a shelf etc. it's exhausting.

I don’t understand why Cat123 is 16?
Cat = 4
1+2+3= 6
i know I’ve missed the point, but it’s bugging me! 😆

Cat is 4 - two for the capital letter and one each for the single letters.
123 adds up to 6, and the numbers are the same size as the capital letter, so that’s mother 6. And it all ads up to 16.

When I get different fonts, so say the lower case letters are 2/3 the size of the capital letter, it all gets added up different. So in that case Cat would be 7, 3 for the capital letter and 2 each for the lower case.
I also add in punctuation marks, it can get quite complicated!

My dad always had to have the TV volume on a certain number, and he used to buy things in 3 or 5 depending on what it was. I suppose we’ve all got our quirks.

Mine is similar to this. 3s but I like sentences to finish neatly in 12s or some multiple of 3. I add names to the end that correspond with the first letter of each word so that it fits neatly.
Not sure if I’m explaining that properly.

So pleased to find some similar minded people. I also have a very busy mind. Wouldn’t it be great to meet each other, we could finish off each others sentences nice and neatly 😂

I have to sort the letters into 3 columns of each word. Ones most like T on the Left, ones most like E on the right. Anything in the middle especially rounded like C or symmetrical so A H I O V. If I get it all balanced it works. If it is not balanced I have to work out what word with go with the original word to balance it out. I can have extras in the middle if they are symmetrical.

So SCOFF would have no letters on the left, C and O in the middle and SFF on the right so I'd spend ages working out a word to add before or after to make it fit.

Until something happens then I forget all about it and count the next word/s.

I know exactly where it comes from, when I left home very skint, with 5 carrier bags of stuff and was living in a room in a lady's house, I had a poster on my wall with the word THE on it, and no TV for a while so I just sorted the letters again and again as I was falling asleep. Then when I got a tiny B&W TV, I added more words in. 40 odd years later I still do it.

I also count steps/stairs, done this since I was a kid and if I end on an odd one I have to take 2 smaller steps to even it out or one large to keep it even. I had 11 stairs in my old house so I'd carry on the counting from 12 to 22 when I went back downstairs. I knew it would even out in the end if I left by the front door which I thankfully did.

I also count the gaps between the words as 1 bonus letter if my division by 7 hasn't worked, to try to bring the remainder upto 7.

I do this counting all the time and have never mentioned it to anyone!

Wow, that is complicated! Thanks for the explanation!

I’m so relieved that I don’t do this! 😆

I do have to have even numbers in volumes and things. Multiples of five are acceptable at a push.