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Obsession with Letters and Numbers - Can anyone relate and help?

cfc

Well-Known Member
One of my big obsessions is letters, and the first letters of things in a list not being the same. So for example, one of my big interests is politics, but I feel like I can't really enjoy it properly because of the fact that Labour and the Liberal Democrats both have the letter "L" as their names. I want the names of all parties, and things in a list so have different starting letters, and sometimes I can feel physically a bit sick when this is not the case. Does anyone else have (or had in the past) any similar experiences, do you think this is Aspergers or something else (I also have OCD), and do you have any advice?
 
I have OCD as well.

Drives me crazy that I use alphabetization in listing songs in MP3 files so they play in a specific order on my car's Bose audio system. The rub?

We have only 26 letters in our alphabet, and sometimes I have artists with more than 26 songs per album. I despise having to assign more than one letter of the alphabet per song. Where I'd rather just limit the album to 26 songs than have to add another letter after I get to "z", making the next song "za", "zb" and "zc" and so on.

Most people would just scratch their heads wondering what the problem is, if any. But they don't live in our world.

OCD more often than not appears to be comorbid to ASD.

Comorbid: Denoting or relating to diseases or medical conditions that are simultaneously present in a patient.

Advice? Most psychiatrists seem to rely on cognitive behavioral therapy for OCD. Something that never seemed to work for me.
 
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l become a little miffed if things are similar. Also if something is named incorrectly, then l will think what a stupid name, who came up with that *thought* almost every time l see the name. l don't like things( possible answers) number 1a 1b 1c in tests. No idea why.
Sometimes l freak out When PeOple wriTe sentences liKe this. l am old school, l immedately think of ransom demands - where deranged lunatics cut out letters of magazines for demand requests. Think my brain farts are defintely tied to nureodiversity plastmactic spectrum circuits rewired at birth as a gov experiment. Lol ☺
In fact l think l will use this to request time off from my job, my boss will see my cut and paste job of letters and give me a month off. Maybe with a raise too. I need to scratch off my lottery cards now, peace out.
 
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I have OCD but not that specific issue. It only bothers me when things are not in order alphabetically. I also hate when books that are part of a series aren't the same size, especially when the ones published later are bigger (because in my head, the bigger one is supposed to go first).
 
I'm a little that way with automotive... I love European made classic cars, which use numbers in their names far more often than American companies... Like the ever popular Peugeot 404, or the Triumph 2000 I (kind of) almost purchased a few years ago... 356 of course being the magical sports car number (Porsche), or of course 7 being the ultimate sports car number (Lotus)... That being said, when I see some numbers the first thing I think of (if applicable) is the car that used that number as the name...

I saw this also mentioned above, but I like to be extremely accurate as much as possible when identifying cars, not that I've owned a vintage car before... Just one example, the Imperial name brand of Chrysler corp, it drives me crazy when people incorrectly call them "Chrysler Imperial", incorrect depending on the year, because... From 1950 to 1974 Imperial was sold as an individual make with the larger company, so please don't call your car a Chrysler Imperial! :p It just drives me crazy when I see that, but then I'm likely the one who noticed that
 
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I have OCD as well.

Drives me crazy that I use alphabetization in listing songs in MP3 files so they play in a specific order on my car's Bose audio system. The rub?

We have only 26 letters in our alphabet, and sometimes I have artists with more than 26 songs per album. I despise having to assign more than one letter of the alphabet per song. Where I'd rather just limit the album to 26 songs than have to add another letter after I get to "z", making the next song "za", "zb" and "zc" and so on.

Most people would just scratch their heads wondering what the problem is, if any. But they don't live in our world.

OCD more often than not appears to be comorbid to ASD.

Comorbid: Denoting or relating to diseases or medical conditions that are simultaneously present in a patient.

Advice? Most psychiatrists seem to rely on cognitive behavioral therapy for OCD. Something that never seemed to work for me.

Sometimes I wonder if we really have OCD or if the world is not "obsessive" enough. RIght now if a Drs offices, schools, supermarkets, etc. hired people with OCD they would drastically reduce COVID cases. We would be as important as contact tracers.
 
Sometimes I wonder if we really have OCD or if the world is not "obsessive" enough. RIght now if a Drs offices, schools, supermarkets, etc. hired people with OCD they would drastically reduce COVID cases. We would be as important as contact tracers.

Good point. I often wonder if l had been a tab more obessive, would l be further along or worse off? When l was getting divorced, I had an obsessive need to know all the donut shops within a 14 min radius distance next to my LA pad and to create divorce cartoons at least 2 a week.
 
Similar case with me about language, I study too hard into a language of interest; the litters I get obsessive over as well I become obsessed over the grammar then sometimes language almost falls out of my subconscious mind for a split second then I snapped right back into reality.

I had look into many scientific studies at 13 maybe 14 year's old I read what paraphilia meant in a scientific sense. These particular scientific definitions are filled with biased views about human nature in my opinion.

I been isolated growing up as well been sheltered a lot as a child and teen, I think that isolation was what gave me some irrational fears; though people on certain parts of the internet have shown me some intensely disturbing imagery. Corpes scare me.. I liked horror but nope.. that was too dark.
Learned that I don't like horrific imagery there.
 
Agree with @GreenfieldFox, imagery is too much sometimes for me. Especially animals. l can't look at road kill. l just hope the animal isn't in pain.
 
One of my big obsessions is letters, and the first letters of things in a list not being the same. So for example, one of my big interests is politics, but I feel like I can't really enjoy it properly because of the fact that Labour and the Liberal Democrats both have the letter "L" as their names. I want the names of all parties, and things in a list so have different starting letters, and sometimes I can feel physically a bit sick when this is not the case. Does anyone else have (or had in the past) any similar experiences, do you think this is Aspergers or something else (I also have OCD), and do you have any advice?
Can you modify the names so the have numbers and letters that symbolize them like writing hexidecimal notation?
 

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