Is it normal to be obsessed with numbers?

To what extent is it normal to be obsessed with numbers? Is it a sign of psychopathology?

In any literate society, numbers are an aspect we cannot escape from. They are everywhere: on the doors of houses, on the license plates of cars, when making the tax return....

But they are not only written. They are also in our minds, in the form of favorite numbers, which give us fear or a preference when doing things like, for example, making sure twice that the door of the house is closed.

All of this is part of many people's daily lives. However, there are those who seem to think that numbers have taken over their lives and wonder: is it normal to become obsessed with numbers?. Let's try to answer this question.

Is it normal to be obsessed with numbers, or is it a problem?

Numbers are a fundamental aspect of our lives, no matter how much we may dislike mathematics. They are everywhere, like letters forming words. Regardless of what our profession is or what hobbies we have, at some point in the day we have to look at numbers, whether it is to make a phone call, count money, pay, do the tax return or any other activity where numerical aspects have to be dealt with.

But they are not only written, they are also in our mind, but they are also in our minds.. We all have some kind of behavior and thinking related to numbers. A classic example is having to double or triple check the door to make sure it is locked properly. Another might be having to buy four packs of tuna at the supermarket, not one more and not one less.

These behaviors can easily be justified. Double-checking if the door has been closed makes sense, checking that the door is indeed closed. The tuna packs may be simply because you think that it is the right amount to last you through the week or until the next purchase. But let's be honest, on many occasions it is because we have a certain preference for those quantities. The problem is when we are not talking about two or three, but 50, 60, 130?

It can also happen that we are obsessed with the number itself, that is, the symbol and what it represents.. In a certain way it is normal that we have a favorite number and another that we associate with bad luck, in the same way that some people have a favorite color. The culture has a very strong weight behind this choice. For example, in Spain and other European countries 13 is the unlucky number, while 7, 9 or 11 are seen as good luck numbers.

Having a favorite or unlucky number is not a big deal, until it becomes an obsession. Avoiding at all costs to go through a door with the number 13 or wanting our phone number to have, yes or yes, a 7 are aspects that, however slight they may seem, limit the life of those who suffer from this obsession. What happens if we are invited to a house with the number 13? Do we not enter? What do we say to the person who has invited us?

Seeing these small introductory examples, it is not difficult to get the idea that, although thinking about numbers, either as a symbol or doing X amount of actions, is normal but with certain limits. If we go too far, if thinking about numbers becomes an obsession that limits our life, we have a problem. It is normal to double check the door, it is not normal to check everything 10 times before leaving the house.. This is called arithmomania, closely related to OCD.

OCD and Arithmomania

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive, recurrent and persistent thoughts that produce worry, apprehension, fear and restlessness, as well as repetitive behaviors. Among the main characteristics of OCD we usually find aspects such as anxiety about hygiene, order and symmetry, closing the door twice... aspects that can be included in obsessions or compulsions.

Among the most common obsessions associated with OCD we have: fear of contamination, fear of causing harm to others or that, either by action or inaction, harm will be done to loved ones, obsessions of sexual content, concern for health, need for order and symmetry, excessive religiosity....

As for compulsions we can find repetitive behaviors such as washing hands or brushing teeth, opening or closing doors, touching an object with the hands, tapping the floor with the feet, placing objects in a specific order or checking if things are as they should be (closed doors, disconnected electrical appliances...). Also in compulsions we find repetitive thoughts such as praying, counting numbers or repeating words silently, over and over again.

The obsession with numbers is called arithmomania and it is, in essence, it is the obsessive-compulsive disorder but with special obsession for numbers. People with this disorder have a strong need to count their actions or objects in their environment, making sure that they have counted them or have done the behavior a certain number of times. It may also happen that the patient develops a complex mental system in which he/she assigns values or numbers to people, objects and events, compulsively looking for a relationship between them to make them coherent.

People suffering from this disorder may keep a count that can be done aloud or quietly, and may even keep more than one simultaneous count (e.g., counting street lamps, red cars and dogs). This counting gives them security and, in case they do not do it, they may start to think that something bad will happen.This is along the same lines as the rest of OCD.

Some examples of obsession with numbers

To mention all the cases of arithmomania, both associated with obsessions and compulsions, would give us a list as long as the number of numbers is infinite. There are obsessions with absolutely any number, transformed into all kinds of compulsions. If something characterizes the OCD is that each person who suffers from it has different pathological thoughts and behaviors.And being obsessed with something as extensive as numbers makes it even more different. Here are a few examples of obsession with numbers.

Odd and even numbers

There seems to be a special obsession with odd and even numbers, one being seen as good luck while the other would bring bad omens.. Usually it is the even numbers that bring good luck. One of the most common explanations is that, since they are pairs, they can always be divided by two and that is a very good thing, according to the logic of a person obsessed with this type of values.

2. Preference or fear of prime numbers

Prime numbers are those that can only be divided by one and by themselves. Some of them are 1, 2, 3, 5, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19... As these numbers are so unique they can be seen as especially beneficial or, on the contrary, very unlucky numbers.

3. Checking things by means of a pattern

Within this compulsion we can find to be constantly checking if the doors have been closed, the lights, deactivated the alarm ... turning on and off several times, always following the same pattern. For example, opening and closing the faucet using the pattern 1, 2, 3, 4 (open and close; open, open and close; open, open, open and close; open, open, open, open, open and close), thinking that if we do not do so, something bad will happen.

4. Anxiety activator and deactivator number

There are cases of people who associate a number with anxiety and another as a kind of "anxiolytic" for that same symptom. For example, associating the number 3 with stress and 7 as relaxation, making that, when seeing the first number (passing through a doorway with the number 3, seeing a license plate with such number...), you have to say 7 times "seven".

5. Number that cannot be missing in daily life

Obsession with a number so that it is in your life.. For example, being obsessed with 3, asking for a hotel room with that number or a multiple of it, always having 3 apples...

6. Touching things with both hands a specific number of times.

There are people who need to touch something the same number of times with both hands when, by chance, one of them has brushed against something. For example, walking down the street and unintentionally touching a lamppost with the right hand. This forces the person to touch the street lamp three times with his left hand and two more times with his right hand..

7. Counting the letters of words

The obsession with numbers is not exclusively towards numbers. It is also extrapolated to letters, which are sometimes seen as the counterpart of numbers. For example, there are cases of people who hate a certain number, let's say 4, and avoid using any word that has that number of letters, avoiding words like "love", "alone", "turkey"... having to substitute them with "filia", "individual" "gallinaceous"....

This can be especially problematic if the number feared is very low (1 to 3) since the most used words in any language are usually the shortest ones, including grammatical particles (e.g., of, the, in, in,...). Since the person cannot use them, their language may become very difficult to understand or make use of words and expressions that make their language very grandiloquent.

8. Driving at a speed that ends in a specific number.

This is especially dangerous. The person feels the need to drive at speeds ending with the same digit, or to go at a speed above or beyond the speed limit X number of kilometers.

9. Counting steps

Constantly counting steps. For example, be counting the steps from 1 to 10, making sure that, when you reach the same digit, you are counting the steps from 1 to 10.making sure that, when you reach your destination, you have finished at step number 10 of the last count.

10. Complex mathematical operations

Some people with OCD perform really complicated arithmetic operations, of all the types that we can imagine, just because they come across certain values.

Let's take a clear example of this: walking down the street and seeing the numbers of the license plates of cars, adding their digits and adding another operation, for example 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1, followed by the number of our phone number and ID number, assigning a value to the letter of the ID number and multiplying it by the result obtained.

Conclusion

Obsessing about numbers is quite common, but in terms of health and quality of life it is not normal. One thing is to have a favorite number or have some kind of daily mania, and another is to have to make X number of times the bed, believe that thinking about the number 3 we will have a very bad day or start doing arithmetic calculations by the simple fact of crossing with numbers on the street.

As syndrome related to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).arithmomania is a disorder that should be treated by a professional. It can involve a high degree of intrusion in the daily life of the affected person, since he/she can lose a great amount of time doing the compulsions to calm his/her anxiety. In addition, as the disorder worsens, the person will become more disconnected from his or her environment, which will not understand why he or she has such an obsession with numbers.

Bibliographical references:

• Bloch, M.H.; Landeros-Weisenberger, A.; Rosario, M.C.; Pittenger, C.; Leckman, J.F. (2008). "Meta-analysis of the symptom structure of obsessive-compulsive disorder". The American Journal of Psychiatry. 165 (12): pp. 1532 - 1542.
• Grant, J.E. (2014). Clinical practice: obsessive-compulsive disorder. The New England Journal of Medicine. 371(7): pp. 646 - 653.
• Rhéaume, J.; Freeston, M.H.; Dugas, M.J.; Letarte, H.; Ladouceur, R. (1995). Perfectionism, responsibility and Obsessive-Compulsive symptoms. Behaviour Research and Therapy 33(7): pp. 785 - 794.