'ok.. so i have no idea what I have, all I know is I've had this thing for a couple of years. When researching online it seemed like OCD but I dont suffer alot of what they suffer. I dont wash my hands obsessivly, not afraid of dirt etc. What I do tho is follow a process controlled by rigid guidlines or rules to make my problems go away. For instance I might cough a set number of times while walking in a set perimeter till I feel an urge to stop coughing, in which I will finish the ritual by jumping out of the perimeter. I tend to do these alot, over the littlest problems, and I cant stop. These rituals change depending on the situation, for instance if a family member or someone close by is around while im in the middle of a ritual I would have to make them say a specific word at a specific time during my process. Its only temperary relief tho, as these thoughts are repeated throughout the week. I have no idea what I have and I am quite desperate to find out and treat it before its too late. Is it possible to talk to my councelor (im in highschool) about this? Help?'
Hi, I have gone through your post and based on what you have explained to us about your conditions, I think that's most probably just a symptom of
hypochondriasis - chronic and abnormal anxiety about imaginary symptoms and ailments (which may not exist at all in reality). So, my advise to you is that, if there's nothing which is potentially health-threatening actually happens to you at all in reality, and especially when such medically-diagnosed / confirmed symptoms and illnesses actually do not exist at all, it is simply unnecessary for you to worry so much about your health conditions. So, when that's the case, just be happy-go-lucky and get on with your everyday life like the others.
Whilst about those little 'weird things' that you would be 'urged' to do under certain circumstances, well, actually many of us, if not most of the people, even the perfectly normal ones, we would tend to develop certain foibles, which may seem to be a little odd to others, at any stages of our lives due to certain causes specific to different individuals.
For example, I have seen lots of people in certain countries, who would tend to associate the number '4' as a taboo to them simply for no logical reasons at all. And based on their interpretation, it would mean 'death omens' to them. Next, such a baseless subconscious fear would then take them to such an extent of trying their best to avoid anything associated with that number, and in some cases, I actually come across certain elevators in such countries which doesn't even show that number. And instead, they have such alternative 'expressions' like '3 + 1', 13 + 1 etc. However, are these people actually having a mental problem with them, well, I don't really think so. And that's simply something passed on to them by the different cultures and backgrounds which are distinct and unique, as well as habit-forming to them.
Whilst in your case, I believe that those little 'strange behaviours' of yours may also have original causes with them. And maybe they are simply associated with certain unpleasant experiences of yours in the past. Subsequently, the fact that you simply feel an urge to doing them under those specific circumstances, and simply cannot stop such behaviours, well, it may just be due to the fact that you have repeated all those things again and again until they are habit-forming to you already.
In this regard, in the case where you actually wish to quit all those little 'strange behaviours', maybe that would take some self-reasonings, self-rationalisings, self-controls and self-disciplines on your part to stop doing those things gradually, slowly, step by step and little by little.
Essentially, the logic behind this is that, if those little 'weird behaviours' can actually become habit-forming to you over a period of time with you keep on repeating them over and over again, I believe that you certainly can form new sets of personal normal and natural behaviours on your own, or with the helps of others, by repeating those new normal natural behaviours over and over again, until they completely replace all those little ' weird behaviours'.
Besides, since there're in fact no actual physical dangers or threats at all associated with any attempts to quit all those little 'weird behaviours', you may just proceed naturally in a mind-easing way without any cause of worries.
