[shocksleeper]

I have always dug under my nails with my other nails, traced patterns in my skin, spelled things backwards and correctly in my head and traced x's inside of boxes, among many other things...I do this frequently but especially when I am really nervous around people, when I was a kid the doctor thought I had fungus growing under my nails because I dug my nails raw so often. Does anyone else do things like these?

 

[kev]

Spelling things backward in your head sounds like a mental tic to me. Digging inside your nails and tracing x's inside of boxes could be either tics or OCD (I'm not really sure which).

I have some annoying motor tics like blinking and grimacing and scrunching my nose and tensing my muscles. I do these things all day long, many times a minute. It's just a part of me. It's a little annoying but whatever.

 

[SomethingTangible]

You have some pretty complex tics, I sort of envy you for having ones that really work your brain like "spelling words backwards." My tic is like Kev's, I tend to grimace a little when I'm nervous, like Tweek from south park. It's coincidentally gotten better since I've stopped ingesting caffeine.

 

[shocksleeper]

I used to do that quite often. I've also noticed that when I'm alone for long periods of time, I chew or suck on my lips, or flex my fingers a lot which makes my hands and mouth very sore. I feel like I do this to make up for not doing what I would usually be doing when socializing with people.

 

[styler5]

Now I'm a bit confused if I have OCD, a tic or both. :S

 

[march_hare]

I rub/scratch the skin around the edge of my fingernail, but I'm not sure if it's a tic.
I never really thought of this, but I think I have a mental tic like yours too... In my head I imagine certain words being typed out on a keyboard over and over again, and it's sort of satisfying if there are an even number of letters on each row, and a few other things like that. Sometimes it gets annoying because it always seems to be there in the background of my thoughts.
How does one get rid of a mental tic??

 

[shocksleeper]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive-compulsive_disorder#OCD_with_Overt_Compulsions

I rub/scratch the skin around the edge of my fingernail, but I'm not sure if it's a tic.
I never really thought of this, but I think I have a mental tic like yours too... In my head I imagine certain words being typed out on a keyboard over and over again, and it's sort of satisfying if there are an even number of letters on each row, and a few other things like that. Sometimes it gets annoying because it always seems to be there in the background of my thoughts.
How does one get rid of a mental tic??

Yes, the 'mental tic' (I don't know if that's the correct term but it's seems to be the one we're all using) thing gets really complicated for me, I do the spelling thing, and I also alphabetize the letters in words, I used to trace the letters of words that people were saying with my fingers, and driving is just a whole lot ordering of numbers and letters of people's license plates...and at the end of the day I have some random word, or someone's name, or a street sign, stuck in my head.

I've gotten all of my tics to be less distracting by smoking pot...the first time I did was really powerful and I had this sort of trip where everything anyone was saying was floating in front of me and spiraling around, and it was all spelled wrong I don't know if that had anything to do with it but anyway, after smoking heavily for about half a year a lot of my tics and general anxiety subsided. I think it just made me forget a lot of my fears :b and it definitely lowers you inhibitions. I don't know if this is for everyone though, and I don't smoke much anymore because it actually increases my anxiety these days. But a lot of people with anxiety respond positively to marijuana...I'm just sayin.

But besides that, tics should be less frequent if you are under less stress. I am not a doctor so I'm kind of just talking out of my *** here, but that seems to help me, to just do everything to decrease my stress level helps. But talking to a doctor probably would help.

I having started doing a lot of things to help get rid of them, like make sure there are no posters with words visible in my room, and before I go to bed I cover up my digital alarm clock with a hat...it used to drive me nuts, I would always know the numbers were there and I would look at them and add them up and arrange them blah blah blah...but now I guess I just have weird habits to cover up my weird compulses :|