Am I Nuts II

Do you twirl your hair? Count ceiling tiles? Can't ever make a choice?

By William Speed Weed

From Reader's Digest

Images from this article

Illustrated by Ingo Fast

Some quirks make us unique while others can signal an underlying problem.

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Illustrated by Ingo Fast

Magical thinking is normal for a four-year-old -- but definitely not for an adult.

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Illustrated by Ingo Fast

Serious psychopathology, or just a quirk?

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Illustrated by Ingo Fast

When you get right down to it, there's no such thing as "normal."

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Illustrated by Ingo Fast

Some quirks make us unique while others can signal an underlying problem.

Self-manipulation habits like hair twirling are a subtle message to others to stay away. If someone is constantly checking fingernails or tapping a toe, you get the idea she doesn't want to talk to you.

Comfort Habits

But we should distinguish between unusual behaviors we can tolerate and troublesome patterns we should try to fix. The line between quirk and crisis is very thin. To help us out, we presented your submissions to top psychiatrists and psychologists for analysis. So here, dear readers, is the professional assessment of just how nuts you are.

Just be glad you don't have trichotillomania, the impulse to pull out your hair in clumps -- from your head, eyebrows and other fuzzy body parts. Your behavior is just a quirk, not harmful and probably quite helpful. Chances are you developed your bookish hair twirling as a body-language clue to people around you. What does your finger in your locks say? It says, "Leave me alone! I'm reading." According to Yale psychologist Marianne LaFrance, PhD, "Self-manipulation habits like hair twirling are a subtle message to others to stay away. If someone is constantly checking fingernails or tapping a toe, you get the idea she doesn't want to talk to you."

Question:
I'm 47, and I love to rub satin. As a child, I would rub the satin on my blanket while sucking my thumb. Now I carry a satin hankie with me everywhere, and I can rub it in my pocket. It always calms me down. Is that nuts?

Not at all, says Lori Perman, PsyD, a licensed therapist with a private practice in Santa Monica, California. "Most of us never outgrow the need for comfort -- we just get it in ways more 'adult' than dragging around a baby blankie like Linus." Indeed, if we didn't find ways to relax in this stressful world, we'd go nuts. And plenty of adults pursue unhealthy comforts such as smoking or overeating. A little private satin rubbing never hurt anyone.

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