Will my OCD affect my long term health?

[RJam]

Hey everyone,

I have had OCD for as long as I can really remember, luckily it was only minor, yet it has gotten worse over the last few years.

My rituals are:

Running the mouse to each corner of the screen whenever i touch the mouse,
Holding down letters that i miss hit for ages and then deleting and repeating,
Running my fingers along edges to corners etc
Toughing things when i have been told not to.
Washing my hands after toughing anything foreign (other people, dirt, floors, bottom of chairs, desks etc)
Oh, and it's damaged my speaking, i stutter more because i miss pronounce a word and must rectify them. And I can't sing without looping on a line with a note i miss hit, i can be looped for 10 repeats sometimes more.

All of these are very hard in my day to day life as I used computers on a regular basis......... Each of these adding to stress (the full stops were meant to be 3 but i can't allow myself to delete them) and the higher my stress the higher the grip of the OCD, vicious circle.

However the MAIN thing is: Cracking.

Over the years my body has had some cricks in them, you know the ones when you move and you get a short crack from your bones? Well my OCD picked up on these and now i can feel them ready to be cracked and cannot stop cracking them!

I can do my neck, my spine, both shoulders, elbows, wrists, ankles, knees (on occasion), and finally: all my toes and finger.

I crack all of these at least 2/3 times a day, with shoulders, fingers and wrists definitely over 10 times.

Recently my joints have started to ache more and hurt a little on occasion, i sometimes feel numbness in some fingers too, not much though.

I have tried to stop but i can't! And i fear i will end up with severe arthritis / rheumatism by my mid 20's (i'm 18 now)
Does anyone have any solutions to taking you mind off these kind of things? I really want it to go away, i can live with the other stuff...

Thanks in advance :)

[Vega]

While some of these seem minor, they aren't when you add them all up. I noticed you said as you get more stressed,your OCD tends to get worse. You could find a natural way to deal with stress like yoga or exercise. But I think the best thing to do is talk with your doctor. It's very hard to treat OCD by treating yourself. Your doctor should be able to provide you some help through medicine or through therapy or he may recommend a specialist.

[vios1102]

Thanks all for your post

[leivina]

According to the few studies that have looked at knuckle-popping, there is no link between cracking your knuckles and arthritis. The mechanism is the same for any joint so I would assume that also applies to all of the places you feel the need to pop. The actual motion of stretching your joints in the way that gets them to pop is the only part that can be harmful. It does stress your ligaments so don't overdo it and try to refrain if you're actually feeling pain in your joints. There is a possibility that you will end up with decreased strength in your joints because of the stress of constantly stretching those ligaments, but cracking your joints is probably more low-risk than you're worrying about. 2 or 3 times a day doesn't sound particularly excessive. 10 times a day for your hands sounds a little high but again, there is nothing especially damaging about popping them besides the actual stress of stretching the ligaments.

A lot of google results compare it to the damage that a baseball pitcher ends up with in his hands in old age. It's not the best thing you can do for your joints but you'll hardly end up crippled.

I value my finger dexterity a lot since I'm a programmer, and I love popping my knuckles, so I've looked into it a bit. :)