The Student Room Group

Does anyone else draw shapes in their mind?

Im trying to work out whether this is normal, or whether im slightly more weird then I already knew i was.

I cant stop drawing imaginary shapes around/through/across every object I see or think about. Like when im standing in a car parking space there will be lines connecting the diagonal corners of the rectange, forming 4 quadrents, then I always stand in one of the quadrents.

Another example is the volume control on windows media player. Its a triangle shape, so when the slider cuts the triangle in half, i imagine the smaller side moving across and turning upside down, flipping around and sitting on top of the bigger side, making a column. I try and position the slider so both halfs fit together nicely.

Its weird - its actually impossible to stop myself doing it, another very good example is when im sitting in the passenger seat of a car, i will try and position my line of sight so that the white lines on the road pass through the corner of the windscreen.

Another one i do with a lot of object is try to get them the same 'flatness' to a surface they both are on. Like if 2 books are stacked on a table near the edge I will move them so both spines are vertically aligned with the edge of the desk. I do the same with pint glasses on beer mats. Align the glass so the side of it passes directly flat with the edge of the beer mat, either that or position it directly perfectly in the middle, or in acccordence with whatever pattern is on the mat.
I dont do this kind of thing all the time, just most... :rolleyes:

Its not a problem, just wondered if i was the only mad person out there? :s-smilie:

*cough* OCD *cough* :smile:

J,

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Reply 1
nah, my brother is obsessed with tracing outlines of things.

Like we got a new car and he sat in the passenger seat and traced around all the buttons with his finger...or he will sit with the TV remote in his hand and draw lines between the buttons.
I guess we all have weird ways of passing the time, don't we?
Reply 2
I do that all the time and I'm pretty sure it's perfectly normal. :p: I like making zig zags in my mind and I sometimes picture myself drawing them with my thumb but my thumb never actually moves.

I just like patterns.
Reply 3
i do the book thing with my books, pencil case, keyboard etc.

its fairly common..and certainly not OCD.
Reply 4
it depends. with OCD people usually think something terrible will happen if they stop doing the behaviour (is that how you feel). on the other hand you might just be doing it to pass the time- for example when ever i am a passanger in a car i always tap my toes between each street lamp/cats eye. when i'm sitting down i make shapes by connecting different muscles.

not because i feel any compulsion to do so, or because there is any great dread if i don't, just because i get bored when i'm not doing anything!
Reply 5
BluesMan
Im trying to work out whether this is normal, or whether im slightly more weird then I already knew i was.

I cant stop drawing imaginary shapes around/through/across every object I see or think about. Like when im standing in a car parking space there will be lines connecting the diagonal corners of the rectange, forming 4 quadrents, then I always stand in one of the quadrents.

Another example is the volume control on windows media player. Its a triangle shape, so when the slider cuts the triangle in half, i imagine the smaller side moving across and turning upside down, flipping around and sitting on top of the bigger side, making a column. I try and position the slider so both halfs fit together nicely.

Its weird - its actually impossible to stop myself doing it, another very good example is when im sitting in the passenger seat of a car, i will try and position my line of sight so that the white lines on the road pass through the corner of the windscreen.

Another one i do with a lot of object is try to get them the same 'flatness' to a surface they both are on. Like if 2 books are stacked on a table near the edge I will move them so both spines are vertically aligned with the edge of the desk. I do the same with pint glasses on beer mats. Align the glass so the side of it passes directly flat with the edge of the beer mat, either that or position it directly perfectly in the middle, or in acccordence with whatever pattern is on the mat.
I dont do this kind of thing all the time, just most... :rolleyes:

Its not a problem, just wondered if i was the only mad person out there? :s-smilie:

*cough* OCD *cough* :smile:

J,




I don;t do that but when I hear people talking.. I listen to what they're saying and I count the syllables on my fingers by just moving my fingers a little bit (not sitting there counting each finger with my other hand)

And I get irritated when there is an odd number of syllables in the sentence they said..
When I'm trying to sleep at night I sometimes get pictures in my mind that flick between two pictures - one in neutral colours, soft shapes, like a desert or something - and then suddenly I'll flick to the same image but with jagged edges and like it's been inked around, really heavy and black, and loud, and then I'll flick back to the previous picture of 'calmness'... and keep going between the two until I fall asleep.

Okay, now I sound like a nutter :p: but I reallly wouldn't worry about it :] You don't sound mad to me, just a bit logical :smile:
Reply 7
I play Tetris in my head. It's sound as.
Reply 8
this thread is hilarious!
Reply 9
scribble_girl
When I'm trying to sleep at night I sometimes get pictures in my mind that flick between two pictures - one in neutral colours, soft shapes, like a desert or something - and then suddenly I'll flick to the same image but with jagged edges and like it's been inked around, really heavy and black, and loud, and then I'll flick back to the previous picture of 'calmness'... and keep going between the two until I fall asleep.

Okay, now I sound like a nutter :p: but I reallly wouldn't worry about it :] You don't sound mad to me, just a bit logical :smile:



ahahahaha I'd be afraid of myself if I started doing that.. I dono why, but when I tried to imagine what YOU imagine every night before you sleep, it started to remind me of that scary video in that film The Ring.
I draw pictures in my mind all the time, always have. Not only that, I also associate my emotions with a metaphorical cliff edge.
scribble_girl
When I'm trying to sleep at night I sometimes get pictures in my mind that flick between two pictures - one in neutral colours, soft shapes, like a desert or something - and then suddenly I'll flick to the same image but with jagged edges and like it's been inked around, really heavy and black, and loud, and then I'll flick back to the previous picture of 'calmness'... and keep going between the two until I fall asleep.

Okay, now I sound like a nutter :p: but I reallly wouldn't worry about it :] You don't sound mad to me, just a bit logical :smile:


That's scary, I do the same thing. :eek: I also have a recurring dream about a dragon in a submarine, dunno what that's about. :confused:

I imagine lines emanating out from my eyes and reflecting off the surfaces I look at, which is odd. I also hold my breath when driving and passing a marker bollard on the side of the road... odd, I know. :redface:
Reply 12
I tend to count up the numbers on lisence plates on cars lol :p: I'll be going past a stream of traffic thinking 7...11...4...6 lol. It's made my mental arithmetic very good though.

EDIT: oh and i used to trace around objects in my mind (usually letters in words) but i dont do really do that anymore.
Reply 13
have you been doing a lot of acid?
Reply 14
This is so strange! Although I'm not as hardcore as the OP I've always thought it was a peculiarity of myself.

I'm a computing student and I spend a lot of time building websites, writing software, etc. I usually find myself trying the find the central point of an element on the screen and position my mouse there (and I mean pixel perfect). Annoying but I just can't help myself :smile: Same thing with other objects, my monitor always has to be at a precise height and angle when I watch movies on it. Then there's when I go to the gym and position my hands on the bench press so they're at the exact same position on either side of the bar. My brother has always said how I spend so much time 'faffing' on like this, at least I know I'm not alone :smile:
Reply 15
lol a lot of those things made me laugh - especially the counting syllables one.

I dont feel compulsed to do anything - just do :smile:
Reply 16
I like drawing on people in my head- such as making my mum look like a pig when she is nagging at me :P
I've never heard of anything like this. I personally don't like to leave book open once I've left my desk, hehe.
OCD indeedy!

only jesting, i do stuff like this. Its probably because you are bored at the time? If i'm sat at the dinner table and there are lots of dishes/sauces/bits and bobs on the table i tend to arrange them to form straights and diagonals and stuff like that.

On a lighter note, have you ever played the acid game where you cannot let any part of your body touch the floor? there is a video of this on myspace called the acid game, look it up. NOW!!
Crimson Black
That's scary, I do the same thing. :eek:



Ooooh, creepy!!:eek:
That is in its own way slightly cool though. Ahh maybe I'm twisted :p:


And hapa_girl, it doesn't.. well, I didn't think about it like that at alll until now, but now I'm creeped out because that film scares the crap out of me :s-smilie:....

Hehe, we're such a load of weirdos ..