When I was a kid I used to constantly flex my fingers and eat paper. I don't have any repetitive habits now, but I have a really interesting story to tell.
My grandmother had a big Bible containing many color pictures depicting the life of Jesus, up to his Crucifixion and Resurrection. One day when my sister and I were kids and we were visiting her, she opened it up to show us. I noticed something strange. In the pictures showing Jesus being tormented by the Roman soldiers, all the color on the soldiers was rubbed off. There were white patches all over their arms and legs.
"Grandma," I said, "What happened to the pictures?"
"Oh, I did that," she said. "I hit the soldiers because they were hurting dear Jesus." Then she demonstrated by striking the pictures with her knuckle. Every page showing Roman soldiers was damaged in this way. I thought Grandma was weird and I felt scared. But now, I believe this was Grandma's repetitive and obsessive habit. There are other things about her behavior that indicate to me that she is the one from whom I inherited my AS. I have very good reason to believe that her eldest son, my dad, had it too. So did one of my nephews when he was little, and now I have a ten-year-old grandniece who has processing disorder, which can be one of the symptoms of autism.
rebbieh wrote:
Just curious about what kind of repetitive habits/behaviours you've all got (no matter if they've got anything to do with ASD or OCD or something else). I'll start by giving some examples of my own habits/behaviours:
- I listen to the same song hundreds and hundreds of times (on repeat) until I find a new song and do the same with that one.
- I have a tendency to watch movies I like over and over and over again (not necessarily on the same day).
- I use to solve my 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube over and over and over again. Pretty much every day.
- I always wear black jeans.
- I always walk the same way to places and cross the streets at the same places.
- I put on my clothes in the same order every day.
- I talk to myself a lot.
- I think about the same things every day.
Those are just a few examples. What about you?
EDIT: Also curious about the repetitive habits of you NTs out there
