Is this obsessive/repetitive behaviour?

[orphan]

I do this as well. One song. Jolene by R LaMontange is the current song... can last for years. I think I'm trying to memorize the "feeling" of it.
Also repeat one line of poetry in high stress situations.

"Focus tight on nothing. Not the sound. Not the singe. Dissever."

 

[annannannann]

This happens all the time. Specifically, certain moments in songs--sometimes only a couple of seconds long--will get stuck in my head and I'll replay that moment over and over again. Sometimes its the chords being played, sometimes its the lyrics, and sometimes I just can't put my finger on why.

 

[Diagnosed2015]

To clarify; I have obsessive thoughts ... much more than compulsions. In fact, I wasn't aware of many compulsions (except not touching newspapers), until I realized that many of them are also "in my head."

It was explained to me that OCD is often compulsions which are relieved by obsessions or vice versa. In my case, one has nothing to do with the other.

It becomes a problem when it interferes with your life. I had never really had a "problem" with mine until I was in my 50's, when the thoughts skyrocketed.

 

[Destinyz12]

I definitely have obsessive tendencies with my music, where I will listen (or mostly watch videos actually) of certain favorite bands performing live over and over. Somehow it's so much more exciting than just listening to the recorded tracks, and I end up becoming obsessed with a particular bands performances for a long stretch of time before I move onto the next- but will eventually go back to the previous bands/singers at some point and go back and forth between the same few. Youtube has been a godsend when looking for live music, lol. I do have some other bands that I enjoy that I will listen to (or watch videos of) less often but still consider them a band I really like, but my taste used to be much more broad when I was younger and I didn't have as much of an obsession with particular bands back then.

 

[QuestionKid]

Its almost like a cycle... I have a playlist of lots of different artists that I will listen to for a while, but then I get stuck on a specific artist and only listen to them for weeks at a time, before suddenly stopping and doing the same thing with a different artist... Its always the same ones aswell

I don't think one particular artist is obsessive or repetitive but one particular song from sun up to sun down definitely. Who cares as long as you are not driving someone else crazy doing it?

 

[Limited_Moon]

Yep, I do this too. I have a go-to set of songs, that just get repeated to death for years. It may be a little bit odd for a NT, but I think it's really normal for aspies/auties.

 

[Mia]

Listening to one specific artist and playlist for a week or more, from waking up to going to bed everyday?

It just occurred to me that I'm doing the same thing in the last few weeks, except it's not music, I've been reading all of Shakespeare's plays. Music is not as much my thing, but reading is. So I do exactly that, morning to night. What is it about this kind of repetitive behavior that makes us feel good? Or safe? Or is it the change of seasons. Don't know, but I do it often enough for it to be a pattern.

 

[Judge]

What is it about this kind of repetitive behavior that makes us feel good? Or safe? Or is it the change of seasons. Don't know, but I do it often enough for it to be a pattern.

Those are the sort of distinctions I would make to differentiate an autistic need for routine as opposed to comorbid manifestations of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

That in my world there's nothing "pleasant" about my OCD rituals as opposed to the routines of my life involving things that make me feel content or even fulfilled in some way.

Simple example: I'm compelled to constantly check the lock on my front door.

However when I work on my hobbies, they're for leisure and perhaps a passion to create something. How often I indulge in them IMO cannot be so easily labeled as an obsession- or a compulsion.

Though I suppose a nebulous need for routine and order could transcend either ASD or OCD. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

 

[ksheehan88]

It just occurred to me that I'm doing the same thing in the last few weeks, except it's not music, I've been reading all of Shakespeare's plays. Music is not as much my thing, but reading is. So I do exactly that, morning to night. What is it about this kind of repetitive behavior that makes us feel good? Or safe? Or is it the change of seasons. Don't know, but I do it often enough for it to be a pattern.

I'm not sure, but its an interesting subject.

For the record, I'm still on Blink 182 lol.

 

[Mia]

However when I work on my hobbies, they're for leisure and perhaps a passion to create something. How often I indulge in them IMO cannot be so easily labeled as an obsession- or a compulsion.

Don't think of the reading as an obsession or compulsion, it's something I feel a need to do that makes me happy even content. Don't have any indications of obsessive compulsive disorder as far as I know. Maybe cleaning?
Came across my father's shakespeare when I was looking for something else. And realized I hadn't looked at it since I was a teenager. And then realized I could look up the entomology of words online that I didn't understand when I first read the plays and sonnets. Instead of plodding through a heavy dictionary each time. Oh and when I don't understand a phrase, I read it aloud, which makes people crazy. There's so much there; death, murder, lost love, obsessions, ghosts, hatred, revenge, insanity, sadness, politics, insight.

 

[Judge]

Don't think of the reading as an obsession or compulsion, it's something I feel a need to do that makes me happy even content. Don't have any indications of obsessive compulsive disorder as far as I know. Maybe cleaning?
Came across my father's shakespeare when I was looking for something else. And realized I hadn't looked at it since I was a teenager. And then realized I could look up the entomology of words online that I didn't understand when I first read the plays and sonnets. Instead of plodding through a heavy dictionary each time. Oh and when I don't understand a phrase, I read it aloud, which makes people crazy. There's so much there; death, murder, lost love, obsessions, ghosts, hatred, revenge, insanity, sadness, politics, insight.

I'm thinking that enjoyment of something is perhaps the best indicator of not considering it an obsession or compulsion. Even more so if you structure your time and life to allow yourself to enjoy such a pursuit.

Cleaning? Tidiness and the physical order of things...for me that's strictly in the realm of my OCD. When I have to place my remote on a surface in a specific place and have it parallel the edge of the surface with my tv set. No joy in that. Just a compulsion to do it every night when I turn off the tv.

 

[Mia]

So maybe I do have OCD, when everything has a place and all the pictures are aligned perfectly. All kitchen implements have to be put specifically in places where there is easy access, and I can reach for them without looking. When they are not there, it makes me angry.

 

[Judge]

So maybe I do have OCD, when everything has a place and all the pictures are aligned perfectly. All kitchen implements have to be put specifically in places where there is easy access, and I can reach for them without looking. When they are not there, it makes me angry.

Could well be. For me the worst of it is when I attempt to resist such feelings. When they nag at me like an itch to be scratched. It's a sort of "private war" for me. The one redeeming aspect of it all is that unlike traits and behaviors of ASD, most people who superficially interact with me aren't likely to notice the degree of my OCD. But then a lot of that might be because I'm able to "draw a line" between objects in my care, custody and control and those others.

If I use your bathroom, don't worry about me rearranging the toilet paper to flow over rather than under the cardboard roll.

Still it's weird that I have that control, yet am often powerless to resist that within my own environment. But then none of it makes any sense anyways.

 

[JoyChaos]

i dunno, but ive been listening to the same bands few albums for the last 10years lol if that helps

 

[Mathalamus]

i dunno, but ive been listening to the same bands few albums for the last 10years lol if that helps

ive been listening to the same thousand songs, more or less, for years.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

Don't think of the reading as an obsession or compulsion, it's something I feel a need to do that makes me happy even content. Don't have any indications of obsessive compulsive disorder as far as I know. Maybe cleaning?
Came across my father's shakespeare when I was looking for something else. And realized I hadn't looked at it since I was a teenager. And then realized I could look up the entomology of words online that I didn't understand when I first read the plays and sonnets. Instead of plodding through a heavy dictionary each time. Oh and when I don't understand a phrase, I read it aloud, which makes people crazy. There's so much there; death, murder, lost love, obsessions, ghosts, hatred, revenge, insanity, sadness, politics, insight.

If reading be the food of love...

Did Shakespeare love ants?
(Pedant of the week award )

Ironically or strangely numerous times I've used etymology nearly everyone has corrected me...

Sesquipedalionist a propos of nothing.,

 

[Danny 74]

I have repetitive thoughts about songs i cant stand..., at the moment im having the scorpions wind of change song going on and on and on..., i dont even like that bloody song but find myself singing it or humming it,.....!

 

[Mia]

Eating fritos plain corn chips with every meal for the last week.

 

[icesyckel]

So what if it is? We all have our obsessions.

 

[Streetwise]

Its almost the same as purring cats do it to heal themselves
same as singing yourself it stimulates the healing process
for instance in a hospital if a persons blood pressure is dangerously the area they are in has to be silent ,hangover s from intoxication ,

Listening to one specific artist and playlist for a week or more, from waking up to going to bed everyday?