Repetitive things....rituals...

[Skye81]

Just wondering about this.. Do you do things over and over... The same things.. or have rituals.? Or are there things which are subtle?
Are the things you do now much different to when you were a child?
What repetitive things or rituals did you do as a child?

 

[DC1346]

Hmmmm ... I don't want to talk about my childhood but I will tell you about one of my current personal habits.

Once a month I go to the Outback Steak House. I ALWAYS order a 12 oz. prime rib, cooked medium well with au jus, a loaded baked potato, a steamed lobster tail, and a salad with Ranch dressing. The meal always come with a complimentary mini loaf of whole wheat brown bread with a small crock of butter. I was a bit put off about a month ago when I went to the Outback and found that they had discontinued their mini strawberry shakes. I went into a momentary brain freeze over this but since I had been treating a colleague to dinner, my guest suggested that change might be nice and I wound up ordering an oreo mini-milkshake which was good ... but not as good as the strawberry shake which had always had a dollop of whipped cream on the top.

I am now thinking of discontinuing my trips to the OutBack and making everything at home INCLUDING the whole wheat bread and the strawberry milkshake. This wouldn't be as difficult or as time consuming as it sounds. Smith's Supermarket has started selling individual portions of prime rib that are really quite good. Since I have a freezer in my garage as well as a 2nd refrigerator, I typically buy a half dozen and freeze them. I can steam my own lobster tails (which are also stocked in my freezer) and I can make my own garlic butter sauce. I can zap a "baked" potato in the oven in 4 minutes and easily put together a salad with Ranch dressing. I can make my own brown bread or use a store bought variety. While attending a Sysco Food Fair last year, I picked up a bag of instant au jus which is really quite good - especially when I add in the juice from the defrosted prime rib which I steam instead of microwaving so as to keep the product moist.

Best of all, I can MAKE my own strawberry shake.

 

[Nacho]

I have a lot of rituals. For example, when I finish showering, the towels have to be in an exact position in order for me to be calm, also I leave the laundry in another exact position. I clear my ears, after that I dry myself out, then I put the towels away, then I open the door halfway for the coolness to come in, and then I shake 4 times my deodorant and apply it to myself. Only these steps make me comfortable.

Another case is, that whenever I have to open a door, I have to touch the door and then the handle, and then open the door. If not, I think I'm gonna get electrocuted.

 

[AGXStarseed]

One of my rituals for me as an adult is every weekend (mostly Saturdays but on occasion a Sunday depending on the weather), I always go to one of my local pubs to have my lunch there.
On weekdays when I'm coming home from work, I always go into another local pub on my route home, get a J20 (Apple and Mango or Garden Rose) and then continue home.

When I was a kid, I remember one of my routines on a Friday was coming home from school, having dinner and then bagging myself the best seat in the living room to watch a double bill of The Simpsons and then watch Robot Wars. After that, I'd retreat to my bedroom and play on my GBA.

 

[Skye81]

Thanks for the replies. When I took my daughter to see a paediatrician the other day he kept asking about if she does repetitive things etc.. like does she put her socks on and off on and off.. or keep watching a programme over and over or turn lights on and off.. ?? I was like... well no.. and I don't do those things either. She does have to touch things symmetrically and she is a perfectionist.. as well as being clumsy and messy.. yep.. that's a tricky combination but I am the same so I know how that feels. The doctor was looking for greatly repetitive things and I wonder whether some people aren't so extreme. My daughter makes things 'just right' hates stopping what she's doing.. occasionally does do a crazy light switch thing but not always... she does do things which I think are repetitive when she's doing them bit these things don't always happen or happen at the same time each day. And as I said she does touch things symmetrically but not the same thing all the time like the door handle thing mentioned above.

 

[updownrightleft]

I alternate between two paths on one particular road that I walk, everyother time, both leading to equal destination. I exercise by running, always through the same route. IDK. As a child during weekdays in winter I'd get home from school, be hungry, eat dinner, view Star Trek TNG on television, then I'd take the bus to the indoor skatehall in town to head back home to bed at approximately 21:00 or 22:00. Cannot remember having had any major rituals really, my life's really had much volatility. Maybe one thing, really young, I don't know if it counts, but I used to profoundly bathe my green stereotypic elasticly stretchable alien friend in a miniature plastic bathtub with hot water. He was so fascinating, but the water got the best of him and rendered his limbs easily cut off.

 

[Progster]

I'm not huge on ritual, but have one or two quirks: I always have to have my coffee or tea mug filled right up to the top, even if it means that I risk spilling it (I usually do). I hate it when somebody else makes me a drink and it's not filled right up. When this happens, I immediately want to go and top it up.

I do certain things at certain times. I have meals at a certain time, coffee breaks, and showers. I hate it when the order gets mixed up. I have a thing about always checking the mailbox when I pass the front door, even when I know that the mailman has been and I already checked it.

When I was a kid, I had to have my dinner at 6pm on the dot, and was very, very upset if it was late.

 

[Wolfmother]

I have a lot of rituals, but they are more or less innocuous at this time. When I get stressed sometimes I have to repeat them over and over, or get out of bed to repeat them. We've made our nightly walk out to check the gate (which involves a rhythmic pulling at the latch, looping finger around the latch with the carabiner that holds it and holding it until it feels right) into a family ritual. I also have to turn the oven nobs a certain way with a certain feel a certain number of times before going to bed. Most nights I get away with doing it about twice, but when stressed it can get up to five.

When I was a child it was a door in the bathroom that first I had to touch with my hip and then the side of my calf and then had to be set to touch the metal latch part, but not closed, before leaving the house. And there was lining things up before sleeping in conjunction with calisthenics. Sometimes this would really interfere with sleep, as you can imagine. Is this what you mean by rituals?

 

[Tom]

Just wanted to note that repetitive rituals are actually something that defines our species, Homo Sapiens Sapiens and our ancestory before that, if you subscribe to the evolution theory. So its not something really weird for us to do.

 

[BIMOG]

My entire life has consisted of series of repetitive activities. It takes me roughly an hour to get up each morning because I walked around my bedroom and the spare room mentally saying "good morning" to a variety of objects in both room. I do the same thing before I get into bed each night, although obviously I change my thought to "good night" instead. I check doors and windows are locked, at least three times, before I go to bed. Likewise I check that electrical sockets and the gas controls on the cooker are turned off, at least twice. There are numerous other repetitive rituals that I feel compelled to perform every day.

 

[Etzelaire]

I touch my nose when something goes wrong.

 

[RidingDutchman]

I don't really have many rituals, but when I get nervous or high on stress or am in a very busy place i do get quite a lot of them

Compulsory straightening and aligning of cutlery and chairs, walking in straight lines with my hands on my back and stuff like that. I check if my PC is off by jamming the spacebar a lot of times and I always check my alarm at least 7 times (lock phone to hear if sound is on, open it to check the time, check if alarm is on and check if wifi is off, repeat this at least 5 times depending on how stressed out I am)
I also get nervous tics and sounds I make, but when I'm in a calm mood with no stress nobody ever notices.

 

[Southern Discomfort]

When I was a child and alone in the garden I couldn't allow myself to be seen by anyone who drove past our house, I'd hide behind corners of the house or the hedge. I used to think that if I didn't then something bad might happen.

Nowadays I have a few, my biggest is my tendency to be secretive about the things I do, amazingly, thanks in part to medication I'm able to share these things. I also do things like when I'm wiping up the cutlery, I like to neatly stack the forks and spoons into their own groups. I also have a thing with lights and electronics, I don't keep them on any longer than needed, I turn everything off at night time.