Does anybody else count the words or sentences when reading?

[tigerblossom55]

I love reading, but I usually get so annoyed with myself that I have to put the book down. I end up reading a few sentences, and then going back and counting every word, and then repeating that to check if I counted correctly. I feel so dumb for doing this, but if I don’t I get this unexplainable anxiety and this huge pit in my stomach. My throat feels clogged, and I can’t think straight. Even flipping the pages is a problem. I have to flip the page back and forth until I feel “okay” about flipping the page. Sometimes I can go a few pages without doing these things, but most of the time it’s a constant battle with my mind just to enjoy READING A BOOK. It’s just these little rituals that are the most tedious and annoying to constantly live with. Does anyone else have troubles with reading and counting words/letters/sentences?

[sligoguy]

Yep it's a classic ,stuck on the same page word, sentence.It is real pain in the neck and take s the good out of reading ,even a label or instructions on a box ,"did I understand the sentence,did I understand it properly ,the whole uncertainty crap ,,,so yep it's defo ocd , if it's important you will not get it wrong ,this is just an ocd trick ,read on regardless, everyone forgets bits of the book they are reading at times it's not a biggy , important stuff will not slip through

[tigerblossom55 in reply to sligoguy]

Thank you for responding! It’s nice to know I’m not the only one.

[DeathtoOCD]

I had times where I would have thoughts while trying to read and couldn't get through it, also, the "flipping it in the right way" or even how to deal with bad words, and I re-read a lot with the "right" though in mind.

[tigerblossom55 in reply to DeathtoOCD]

Yes, that’s exactly how it is, I can relate on another level. Thx sm for sharing

[DeathtoOCD in reply to tigerblossom55]

No problem. I am much better now so you know.

[Cyclistdude]

I thought it was just a me thing about counting letters in sentences. Also have a weird game I play with the letters next to each other in a sentence. If they are an even number away they get canceled and slowly the letters in the sentence gets trimmed down by it Not the easiest to explain this inside my mind game. Plus it’s been a little bit too.

[kaffeenut]

No, but I count other things for no reason but ocd.