Obsessions or compulsions that annoy you :(

[AsheSkyler]

I literally shut off the power to my home at night, when I'm ready to lie down. If I still want to read, I use candles. I'd rather deal with flames I can see than potential fires that I can't. Flats are rough, as you can be as "safe" as you wish, but the bloke next door might be utterly negligent.

I quite enjoy candles and lanterns. They have a special lighting electricity can't create. Shutting down the power at night sounds like fun. When we last moved, it took about two weeks to get our power turned on. It would have been a great pseudo-campout if it wasn't for it getting down below freezing at night and barely the 50s F during the day. I might have toughed it out with blankets, but I'm not sure how tough toddlers are in that kind of cold.

 

[Frances]

Anybody else have one? Or more than one? I have a couple that are a constant annoyance to me. I can barely stand to watch tv or movies because I continuously write the word NOW on the screen, forwards and backwards, over and over for the entire length of time I'm sitting there. I always end up with a massive headache because of it. Matter of fact, I'm doing it right now as I write this. I can force myself to stop for a little while, seconds usually, but it always starts up again, most of the time without noticing it. Those few seconds when I can stop it's like a reverberating stillness in my head, kind of like after you're finished mowing the yard with a push mower and your hands still feel the vibrations.

The other is when I'm driving or riding in a car. I use my feet to "jump" the lines and turn offs on the road. I've done this since I was a kid and I've never been able to stop it.

It feels frickin' weird talking about this. I've never mentioned these before to anyone, but I've also never had the proper audience until now to say anything about it. It's a bit of a relief.

My Mum is an Aspie, and has a compulsion to ask questions. If you let her, her questions will go on and on and on, getting more irrelevant as she goes. She knows it exhausts us, to the extent that some members of the family actually avoid telling her anything, as they know it will result in a raft of tiring, intricate questions. Any comments folks? We don;t want to upset her, but Christmas and a family gathering is coming up....! Thanks.

 

[epath13]

I managed to lose my first pocket knife when it fell out of my pocket. I replaced it with the same kind, but Amazon was running a special sale that had a smaller one at a discount, if you spent a certain amount (less than the cost of the first knife), so I ended up with two. The smaller one is nice, when I don't want it to be obvious. The bigger one is pretty obvious in my pocket. [emoji14] I got my first one because I'd been watching way too much MacGyver. I use the scissors a lot. I prefer them for clipping my nails, over the clippers. I seem to always have loose threads or tags that need to be cut off and they never bother me until I'm away from home, so I'm always having to fix those. It's gotten to a point where everyone who knows me, knows I carry one, so everyone asks me for it, when they need to cut something. Even when other people in the room have something, I'm always the first asked, just because of that reputation. (My cousin always carries one, too, but that seems to have been forgotten somewhere along the way.)

after reading your post I remembered another thing. When I was about 9 I begged my parents to get me a Swiss knife. But my mom thought it was too dangerous. I watched boys in our neighborhood play a game - "knifes", where you make a circle on the ground, divide into sections and then throw you knife to get another players section. I told my girlfriends that we'd also play that game, we just needed knifes. Well, I didn't get one. And then in high school my dad made me one. In college other people also asked for it all the time, something like, "can I use you giant knife to sharpen my pencils?" To be fair, it did cut wood like butter

 

[tree]

While I was looking around to see whether "compulsive" was
ever used without the term "obsessive" along with it, I came
across this, about a man who accumulated books. He went
to jail because he accumulated them without permission.

Went to jail twice, in fact.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Blumberg

Word for the day =
bibliokleptomaniac
bibliokleptomaniac
1. A book thief who is often regarded as insane.
2. Someone who has uncontrollable or compulsive desire to steal and possess books.

Found on http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/2735/2

 

[Nitro]

Hmmmm...looks like a cut and dried case of bibliokleptomania here at the library...

"Book 'im Danno" and check with the librarian for his past due books

 

[Cinnamon115]

My brother's obsession with nail clippers. He always has a pair with him and clips his nails and skin a lot. It's gotten to the point where he barely has any toenails, as they are all clipped so short. I really wish there was a way to get him to stop.