Bouncelot Posted October 7, 2014 Posted October 7, 2014 So, this morning I was getting my morning coffee the same way I always have... Sleeve seam over top the cup seam, drinking hole opposite the seam. Always hold the seam when I take a sip. Nothing severe, nothing overly strange, but it got me thinking. Are OCD type behaviors related to our pasts? or are they something else? As a child I had very little control over my environment. Could something as simple as getting a cup of coffee be a way of exercising that control that I had lacked early on?
HordOfTheFlies Posted October 7, 2014 Posted October 7, 2014 A fellow coffee seamer! I would very much say that these behaviors are related to past events. I too had very little control over my environment growing up and spent a lot of time on my own trying to figure things out. I think these small behaviors are a way of finding a domain of control within the mind. It seems all conscious things want the solace of making sense of the chaos around them. I think I use these patterns because they are the only thing I was ever shown I could control and therefore I'm managing what I can. It never feels to me that if I can control the coffee cup I can control other things, though. Do you notice that you have multiples of these? And do they always manifest as touch sensations? I wonder if that's significant as well because that's how I experience it. For example, I have methodical routines that I perform when parking my car. It's a very mechanical act that I can perform as almost a single motion and it's all driven by a physical sense of where my arms, legs and car are. I've told myself for years that it was just a way to be efficient, but it literally saves 5-10 seconds. I find the motion of it comforting, though and that's why I still do it. Maybe I'm also needing to be reassured that reality still exists. 2
shirgall Posted October 7, 2014 Posted October 7, 2014 So, this morning I was getting my morning coffee the same way I always have... Sleeve seam over top the cup seam, drinking hole opposite the seam. Always hold the seam when I take a sip. Nothing severe, nothing overly strange, but it got me thinking. Are OCD type behaviors related to our pasts? or are they something else? As a child I had very little control over my environment. Could something as simple as getting a cup of coffee be a way of exercising that control that I had lacked early on? OCD is a comorbidity to a number of brain-affecting conditions, both physiological and psychological, including trauma and stress. Just remember that the "D" part of OCD means "disorder" and you should reflect on whether you really cannot function in normal life because of it, or if it's just a quirk. Do you really need to develop a coping mechanism to address it? It doesn't sound like a coffee ritual is bad at all, but self-knowledge and mindfulness about how the ritual makes you feel is certainly worth exploring. The development of ritual and habit is often a good thing when it comes to dealing with an overflowing inbox or a large to-do list, for example. Are you setting yourself up for a good day at work? When the ritual is interrupted (coffee is wrong, cups are different, out of straws) does it disrupt your day? ObligatoryCredential: My kids have OCD quirks related to ADD.
Jot Posted October 7, 2014 Posted October 7, 2014 I also have some kind of strange OCD...I feel the need to always manage my PC's folders I cannot stand that ugly names and codes that you find in C: the place where you have your windows files, I was not only one instance that I had to reinstall my Windows because I deleted or altered some characters of some titles.
dsayers Posted October 7, 2014 Posted October 7, 2014 Once upon a time, Freud noticed that a number of his child patients described sexual contact with their parents. Society was not (and largely still is not) ready to accept that parents are fallible. As such, his very consideration that these children were being sexually abused was so controversial that he had to alter the narrative to being an actual desire in the child out of self-preservation. As a result, child molestation was able to continue on to this day, largely under-recognized. What a truly horrific story. Similarly, there are a LOT of psychological disorders that are given fancy names to conceal the fact that these children were abused. If you want to know whether or not a psychological disorder is real, it needs to fit certain criteria. For example, what is the test for it? Is the test and its results objective? Does the test and its results identify a naturally occurring phenomenon? If the answer to one of these questions is no, then the "disorder" is a work of fiction to conceal child abuse for the benefit of the abusers especially and everybody's comfort who does not possess self-knowledge. I think that OCD is one such thing. I must not be a coffee guy, because much of what you described, I cannot even visualize. Though I did read, "hold the seam" and visualized a hand holding the cup in such a way as to reinforce its structurally weakest point. I wouldn't call that a problem, even if most people don't look at a seamed cup that way. Is your focus on it such that you would experience anxiety if it wasn't or anxiety if you witness others not doing it that way? If not, then it's a preference, for whatever reason, and should not be considered a problem. Regarding not having control in your childhood: There might be people out there that do things a certain way in order to have control over something in life as a result of an abusive childhood of child erasure. However, in order to be a problem I think the person would have to be oblivious to the child erasure and/or the damage that it causes. If you can identify this in your childhood and hold those responsible accountable, and have the presence of mind to at least consider if a preference of yours is problematic, then I would say it likely isn't. So drink on however you prefer!
Bouncelot Posted October 7, 2014 Author Posted October 7, 2014 Great comments guys! To clarify my own relationship to this, I do not consider my behavior in this regard OCD, I will say it is a minor (resistible) compulsion. If i go through a drive-through and they give it to me "wrong" I will fix it. It does not bother me if others have it any other way. It was merely the catalyst for a random though of "I wonder if people with OCD, are compelled by childhood events?", and if so, what does that say about my own compulsion with my coffee?
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