Did you just say that aloud?
You’ve been thinking intently about something all morning, and now in the world but still preoccupied, you accidentally blurt out what’s on your mind — a Homer Simpson-esque thought cloud burst into actual speech. What’s wrong with you? “That happens all the time, where you might be walking down the street, and think something or say something, or be replaying a conversation in your head and respond to it out loud,” says Dr. Shannon Bennett, assistant professor of psychology at Weill Cornell Medical College at Cornell University in New York City. “That’s totally harmless.” Phew. But when is it not?
Your mental health on a continuum.
“We all have our quirks. We all behave in funny little ways,” says Evelyn Behar, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It’s those eccentricities that family and friends tease one another about. “But those little funny quirks don’t necessarily cause us distress, and they don’t cause us to be impaired in our social lives, in our relationships, our jobs [and] our everyday functioning.” Or they shouldn’t, experts say. When they do, the same idiosyncrasies could be the sign of a more serious psychological issue. Consider these normally harmless examples, and when it might be something more pressing.
When an internal monologue becomes a conversation.
Though usually benign, one reason talking to oneself can make a person feel self-conscious, of course, is that it actually can be a sign of psychosis — if an individual is responding to voices they think they hear, or auditory hallucinations. “A voice that’s not your own in your head that’s talking to you or telling you to do things — that’s something that’s a little more concerning,” says Bennett, who co-directs the Weill Cornell Pediatric OCD, Anxiety and Tic Disorders Program. Though such psychotic experiences are not always a sign of mental illness, auditory hallucinations can be a symptom of a range of psychiatric diagnoses, from schizophrenia to very severe depression or even very severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. So experts say it’s important to see a mental health provider if you have concerns about yourself or a loved one.
Getting really into a routine.
“Everyone has habits or routines that we develop for one reason or another that can be helpful or make us feel more in control of our day or our environment,” Bennett says. But she cautions to be wary if those habits take inordinate amounts of time, lose their function — whether it’s rewriting a to-do list five times instead of once or doing things in multiples of threes — or interfere with the actual business of the day. When involved routines cause a person to avoid what they actually need to to get done, like work, and when a person experiences significant distress if they try to revise that routine, Bennett says that could be an indication of a more serious psychological concern, like OCD.
Knock on wood.
“We know knocking on wood has no predictive ability to make something happen or not happen,” Bennett says; at least, we should know that. However, some who have obsessive-compulsive disorder engage in what’s called “magical thinking,” or superstitious thought patterns that link unrelated actions or events — like an unnecessarily long or repetitive cleaning ritual — to not getting sick. “Whereas washing your hands one time or cleaning something one time is helpful and important, those extended rituals no longer serve their purpose,” Bennett says.
Admit it: You’re a drama queen — or a drama king.
You enjoy attention — even if it means stirring the pot. Then again, you know how to dial it back. “But when the person is no longer a little bit of a drama queen, but rather all of the attention has to be on that person, it might be histrionic personality disorder, where it’s characterized by excessive attention-seeking and excessive emotions for the sake of getting attention,” Behar says. She adds that the same spouse who’s the life of the party could bring dysfunction into a marriage by seeking attention so avidly he or she ends up cheating.
Everything has to be “just so.”
You’re a hyper-organized perfectionist who loves Excel spreadsheets and keeping everything in its place. That may be all well and good — even if it leaves you vulnerable to ridicule from laid-back counterparts who just don’t get it. “But at a certain point it can actually reach [such] a level of rigidity and conforming to rules and perfectionism and over-control, that it starts to interfere in that person’s relationships and overall quality of life,” Behar says, adding that it can manifest in what’s called obsessive compulsive personality disorder, which differs from OCD. “It really is about the relationships,” she says, and the damaging effect being overly controlling can have on those relationships.
‘Check yourself’ — and your quirky habits.
“It’s really helpful that we all have our little idiosyncrasies and patterns and habits,” Bennett says. “It’s OK to check yourself that you can do things differently every once in a while, and look out for when it’s taking up too much time, it’s preventing you from actually doing things that are important or helpful in life, or it’s interfering in other people’s lives. Then that might be time to try to change that behavior — or seek help.”
More from U.S. News
10 Fun Kid Activities for Adult Bodies and Minds
5 Ways to Cope With Mild Cognitive Impairment
9 Foods That Can Keep Your Brain Sharp
Is It OK to Talk to Yourself? originally appeared on usnews.com
