I need help on this thing my brother does. He is absolutely mental

Classic OCD. These rituals give him peace of mind. Symmetry.

>>18482502
But why does he only care about right side?

Not sure if I mentioned in op but he doesn't care about a left touch, only right needs to be fixed

>>18482509
I don't have an answer for you but read up on OCD in general. It is typical that people start with simple stuff and then they grow used to it and need another fix. For example, at first washing their hands after touching something "dirty" is fine. Then they need to wash twice. Ultimately they need to wash every five minutes with antibacterial soap and still don't feel clean. (Not everyone gets this bad, just to illustrate.) It's like a mental trick to feel calm that stops working when it becomes the new normal.

Lots of people have a favorite side of their body or just prefer left vs right. I think your brother just picked it up that way (or the very first time he felt the urge something happened to touch his right side and it stuck) but in time it will probably pass on to either the other side of his body or just branching out in other ways.

>>18482518
I don't like the sound of that, I've thought about using some kind of "exposure therapy" where I just keep doing it in hopes of him realizing how strange it is, but I'm afraid that'd probably not help like I expect

>>18482563
Absolutely don't man. He knows it's strange, that's why he was so reluctant to tell you about it. He isn't doing it because he thinks it's normal but because it makes him feel alright in a way he can't explain.
Didn't you ever had things like this as a kid, you know where you got a bad feeling when you stopped on the black part of a pedestrian crossing? Stuff like that? It's irrational but these little rituals help to keep anxiety low. Yet like many stuff that helps (like drugs) the cure often ends up being the problem.

Having said that your brother doesn't necessarily have to go off the deep end. It could be flaring up a bit when he's stressed, and if he feels more relaxed the urge goes away. Just keep a check on it potentially getting worse and if so, encourage him to find help.

>>18482563
Get him some help, from a psychiatrist. I have OCD, and cognitive treatment + therapy and/or meds is absolutely necessary. The disorder isn't logical, so don't attempt to find logic in his obsessions and act fast, before i gets worse. It can get unbearably worse, specially if he starts with obsessive thoughts. Those can be much worse than the manias he has, to the point of being suicide inducing due to the stress they cause. Get him help, and do it fast.

>>18482585
>>18482584
I'll have him read up on the thread, he was ok with me posting when I asked him thanks for the insight

>>18482599
No problem, best of luck!

>>18482563
Also, what >>18482584 said. We know it makes no sense, hence why sometimes it's shameful to talk about it. If he doesn't oblige his rituals, he has a feeling of impending doom, that something terrible will happen. Think of how you feel once you have an assignment for tomorrow and you didn't write a single word. That feeling of incoming disaster is what he feels in regards of those rituals. It maakes no sense to you, but neither does to him. It's the disorder speaking. It's like his OS is corrupted, and he has a constant voice in his head telling him to do things or he'll get extremely anxious for ''something will go wrong''.

Now i only have obsessive thoughts, and rituals only come as a temporary thing. In my first sexual act, even if fully protected, i was ABSOLUTELY certain i got HIV. I was so damn sure, you have no idea. But i knew it was the OCD. However, the part of my head that disregards things as worthless didn't work with OCD. See it like a ''bug''. No matter how sure i was that thought wasn't my doing, my unconscious didn't believe it was any less real than as a thought of my own, as it was already a fact. And that's just one of many episodes. It can come anywhere in his life. To character's names in games, to diseases, to hygiene, to crimes (going to prison for no reason), to sudden death. You can expect anything really. And don't bother telling him it makes no sense, he knows that already.