This weird thing my brain does - is this stimming ?

[byb]

So ever since I was 15, I've noticed that my brain counts stuff.

It's hard to explain, I don't do it consciously.

I count surfaces with my fingers from afar.

So say right now I'm looking at my walk and I see wall / curtain /wall / curtain / wall. My brain will count the different surfaces automatically. It's not conscious. I think my fingers slightly move when I do it. It's always 5. So starts with wall little finger/ curtain ring finger/ wall middle finger/ curtain second finger and wall again / thumb.

My brain is basically always trying to scan the room or whatever it is for surfaces which fit into that order of my fingers - so 5. It's super random and I hadn't thought about it consciously in ages, but I do it a lot.

Now I'm looking at the wall opposite and counted door/ wall / TV / wall/ door.

Does anyone else do something similar ?

I cancel out the letters in words or phrases. based on their position in the alphabet.

-Duplicate letters cancel out
-A consonant positioned next to a vowel is cancelled out by any vowel but it's more satisfying if it's the adjacent one
-Vowels can cancel each other
-Consonants can cancel each other if their position in the alphabet is the factor of the other consonant
-adjacent letters cancel

I have been doing this for over 40 years so it's automatic, all day long.

MUMSNET is cancelled as MM UN ST E left over
HABIT is cancelled as AB HI T left over

It's OCD behaviour, my adult DD is diagnosed and counting is one of her behaviours, she has had extensive CBT and has really reduced it as it can be overwhelming.

I have to add up the numbers on number plates. I sometimes remove duplicate letters or numbers. I HATE large prime numbers.

I organise patterns on carpets or wallpaper into groups.

How many people here already know that the numbers on the train engine number plate in Roy's cafe in Coronation Street add up to 28?

When on a motorway, I always organise the cats eyes into fours. Luckily I don't drive! 😁

I group phonemes in words too. I like things that can be grouped into 16 or 15 depending on how I count them.

Very much this! It's how we understand the world - collectively in terms of knowledge-building, and individually because it's just how we're wired.

I'm awestruck by some of your complicated calculation brain chat, though! Some of you sound pretty OCD-like. Most of you don't; you must have amazingly active brains looking for things to do.

I only 'count' like this when I feel discombobulated. It's grounding for some reason. I don't have rituals, I just count various stuff and it soothes me.

But ... I match colours. I've done it since infancy, I do it all the time and I can't help it. I'll move things around on a restaurant table, for instance, so matching colours or graduated shades are together (if I can get away with it without being weird). Once in a blue moon, I'll happen on a clothes shop where all the garments have been hung in perfect lines of shade gradations, and I'm in seventh heaven 😂

This is literally the most interesting/strange thread I've ever come across. I wonder if there is some evolutionary/survival reason for this.

I divide areas into five in my head all the time. And it’s always five too.

I count the number of people in a room, could be a gp waiting room, the Q at the coffee shop. Only people though, I don't add up anything else. I think it is a control thing. Know your enemy kind of thing?

I'm very good at maths and know family members have wondered if I'm on the autism spectrum.

157 messages in this thread! Do we all have OCD then or is it normal? Is it NT or ND behaviour?

I understand OCD to be an overwhelming condition. I count letters in words all the time or steps I take (not often) but it isn't causing me problems. I have heard of 'arithmomania' as OCD for counting and wondered if I had it or if everyone does this kind of thing but not to the extreme!

Lines on the road
panes of glass in windows
car regs
hum a tune and count the beats with my fingers, I have to end on a multiple of 5

Oh my word! This is so reassuring. I’m a letters in words counter.

But also, if I’m walking along with someone else, I imagine a cord between us, so if I go one way around a lamp post and they go the other, i have to backtrack and go round the way they did so as not to snag the cord. I try to resist, but it gets quite insistent!

PS What does stimming mean?

No counting here. But I do have to play air piano to every song I hear and when I am not doing that I am doing air scales. I also have a constant blog post going on in my head. It’s exhausting.

Me too -on top of the previous stuff I mentioned. I have to count the number of times each pitch occurs.😜

I once read a novel called “There are Doors” by Gene Wolfe. In it, if you accidentally walked through an invisible door between worlds, the only chance you had of returning to this world was by exactly retracing your steps, backwards I think, to go back through the invisible door. If the world was very similar to ours, you wouldn’t realise till it was too late to work out where the invisible door was. The people around you would have just seen you disappear.

Dammit, now if I’m not holding hands with DH I have to follow him around lampposts, between bollards etc, just in case invisible doors lurk in places like that.

It really is time I stopped reading fantasy!

I seem to remember numbers really easily, without trying, and know everyone's car number plate! I spot a car by its number plate rather than the car itself and am always pointing out people we know because I've seen their number plate way before recognising their car or them in it. My kids think I'm bonkers!

I wish I could remember useful things so easily. I do know my debit card details, which is handy, but remembering number plates from decades ago seems pointless, as does still knowing all the phone numbers of my friends from my youth, even though they haven't had those numbers in years!

Also have to have the TV on an acceptable volume number. Even numbers are all ok, numbers ending in 5 are fine, but I will never ever watch the TV with the volume on 23 or other ones that aren't acceptable!! Kids think this is mad too.

I see spelling mistakes so easily too, also without trying. It's like they leap off the page at me! Back in the days before spell check, my colleagues always used to get me to scan any important reports for them. Have often thought I should have been a proof reader and made some money out of this!

... haven't yet admitted to anyone that I always peel potatoes (but not carrots...) in 20 strokes or less. If I'm getting close to 20 and it's not going to be fully peeled in time then I have to do really long strokes to make sure I don't 'run out'. Huge potatoes with eyes or bruises are a nightmare!!

I find these odd things that we all do so interesting!

I count in 4s! Bathroom tiles are a nightmare ! Must end at 100 . I can count the tiles in different ways if there arnt enough ! don’t do it as much as I used to thank goodness

And 4s for me

I dont count things but I say hop or scotch in my head everytime there's a change in the surface of the pavement (like a crack, or drain or a kerb). If I lose track I have to go back to the last known hop or scotch I remember.
In nearly 48 and have done this all my life.

I count things in my head a lot. When I was at secondary school I counted windows I liked(random obsession 🤷🏻‍♀️)n 3s, and I’d do 3 lots of 3 for ones I really liked. Now I just count things like steps/steps I’ve taken and won’t really realise for a while that I’m counting. If I’m not counting on humming. Wonder if I’m on the spectrum at times.

Sounds exhausting

I do it.

When my mum was really elderly, she told me that she did that to keep herself calm.

One member of our family has an official diagnosis of ASD, but many of us seem to have similar traits. I have an official diagnosis of OCD - obsessive ruminations.

I count the syllables in short sentences (particularly ‘sing-song’ type sentences) that I hear throughout the day by tapping my thumb discreetly against my other four fingers and repeating the sentence a few times in my head. Then its over and forgotten. I find myself doing it again when I hear another snappy sentence.

I probably do it more frequently when I’m stressed but I think its just a habit, really. I’m in my fifties and have done it all my life. I have no diagnosis and have had no social/educational experiences that lead me to think it might be indicative of a spectrum disorder. I have no ‘visual’ imagination though and see strings of words rather than objects when I’m asked to use my ‘mind’s eye’ - maybe that’s connected?

I count the number of letters in a sentence then divide the amount into a star shape with several points. I do have OCD but not autism.

It’s not something I talk about much, but I did meet a woman who mentioned she did the counting letters part. I didn’t know of anyone else who does it until this thread!

I do this! It's more with proportions like the length of a bed would be 4 and the end would be 2. I'd also mark the distance between lamps etc. it's hard to explain and it's weird and I'd prefer not to do it but have done forever

I do this. I have a (late received) diagnosis of ADHD. It's a way I focus my attention. It's not conscious, it's a regulation strategy. OCD would be more that you felt if you didn't do this something bad would happen. Stimming is more to do with regulation (nervous system/attention as well as emotion).

so is it only a neurodivergent thing ?