The Letter of the OCD Law

The first time I remember OCD affecting my writing was in sixth grade (approx. 13 years ago). Certain letters had special significance. The letter "d" represented my dad and "m" represented my mom. (Those were two of the big ones. There were more, I'm sure, like "j" for my sister's name or "g" for my grandma, but these are the two I remember best.) I had to make sure that I wrote the letters right, so nothing bad happened to Mom and Dad. This was especially hard with the "m"s. The letter "d" is a closed letter, but I didn't want anything to violate the "m" (which has two open spaces on the bottom), so I had to be careful that a letter with a protruding top wasn't right under the "m". By protruding top, I mean tall letters like l, t, h, etc. I don't remember exactly, but I think other letters had significance (like "h" could represent hell, or "s" could represent Satan), so I'd have to make sure that those letters weren't right under the "m"s or "d"s either. I scribbled out so many things in my writing. I would take notes in class, but they were so messy that I would borrow my friend's notes to recopy them at home.
In a Bible class (I went to a Christian school), we had to keep a devotional journal. There were times when my journals were just a few letters with some scribbles. I knew what I meant, but no one else could--I couldn't write legibly because I couldn't "get it right" with all the rules OCD put on my writing. My teacher confronted me about the messy, nonsense entries. I was so embarrassed. I hadn't been diagnosed with OCD at this point, so I just thought it was me being crazy or quirky.
It didn't help either throughout the years when overzealous people like teachers or youth leaders wanted to show us videos of things that were "evil". One time in Sunday school we watched a video about Halloween. It showed evil symbols, witches, etc. One of the symbols was an upside-down cross. Great. From then on I had to make sure that the cross of my "t"s was above the middle of the vertical "t" line so that it wouldn't look like an upside-down cross.
The simple act of writing something on a piece of paper became a frustrating and challenging exercise because of all the baggage the OCD added to the letters.
My troubles with writing continue to this day. Not necessarily the same specific troubles I had 13 years ago, but the trouble of having to scribble out and rewrite things if I don't "feel" right when I write them. "C"s sometimes give me trouble. "C" could stand for "Christ" or it could stand for "curse". I have to feel like I'm writing it right, or I have to scribble it out and start over. This could also happen if I have a bad thought or something while I'm writing. I'm afraid that if I don't go back and re-write it, I'll be cursing God, or doing some other bad thing.
Sounds affect this compulsion, too. If I hear a sound that sets me off while I'm writing (like someone chonking gum, or making noises with their mouth), I'll have to scribble out whatever I'm writing and re-write it. I've had to do that a lot in the past when I took sermon notes at church.
Besides scribbling out letters, I've also had to scribble things like bullet points or dashes out. Really--how can you mess up a dot or a dash? **Sigh**
Even typing is not exempt from the shackles of OCD. Sometimes I have to type a letter or punctuation mark a certain number of times, or erase what I've typed if, for example, a noise sets me off. I should note that these compulsions aren't' debilitating--I can still function, but they are freaking frustrating and add more stress to my life.