Thursday, February 23, 2006

Nervous Habit?

I am always fidgeting with something. Any time someone asks me to come to their desk so they can ask me a question I automatically look around my desk for something to carry with me. A highlighter, an eraser, a binder clip, a pen. Always something. I almost have a mild panic attack if I can't find something quick enough to carry with me.

At any given point in the day you can walk up behind me and I will either be messing with something with my hands or I will have something in my mouth. Okay, mostly I just put things in my front teeth, again binder clips the ends of pens, etc. (Much to my husbands dismay this mouth thing does not carry on into my personal life ;-)

Every once in awhile I will be messing with a binder clip and I will pinch my finger. It is at this point that I chuck it across my desk swearing that I will stop fidgeting with things. However, inevitably within a few minutes I will have picked up something else.

In my line of work this can actually be quite distracting as I have to frequently put things down or in my mouth to type.

Do you think the mouth thing is because I wasn't nursed as a child?? (See mom, you managed to scar me for life!!) What about the fidgeting thing? What habits do you have that you have NO idea where you picked up?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I totally chew on the end of pens when I am working-- almost all day long. I am aware of this and try to not do it when people are around... for fear that they are disgusted with it.

I also peel my finger nails... I know.. REALLY GROSS!!! but I recently found out the reason... I sucked my thumb 'till I was 9 and I think that this is a decendant of that habit. Hmmm.

BTW- I was breast fed- so I think your excuse does not hold water- sorry!

Anonymous said...

It could be worse you could bite your toe nails....OK FOLKS....in case you haven't seen me lately I obviously can't do it any more, however at one point in time I did.

Anonymous said...

I share your affliction! always fiddling with a paperclip or highlighter...chew on pens (multile cracked teeth & subsequent root canals as a result), although I've worked hard to limit this one due to aforementioned root canals.

Jen said...

I don't fidget too much, but I'm notorious for bouncing my right leg while I'm sitting and concentrating on something. I do it all the time, even when I'm not nervous, and it annoys the hell out of everyone around me. The upside is that I now have an extremely strong calf muscle in my right leg. The downside is that since I only bounce my right leg, I consequently have a disproportionately puny calf on my left leg. Real attractive.