A chance remark from my son yesterday leads me to think I may be becoming obsessive compulsive. He said that if he ever finds himself doing the same thing every day, he deliberately changes his routine and I realise that my routine is exactly the same each day and I like it that way! I also straighten up the canisters on the worktop so that the handles are all pointing the same way!
I have known a few OCD types in my life and very few ever needed help from their issues. None were at the point to be considering "crazy" or anything along those extreme lines. I guess it would depend on how OCD you really are though.
I do not have OCD per se' , but I am somewhat the same way . My books on the shelves must be perfectly aligned with the tallest to smallest with all the spines even . There is a place for everything and everything in it's place . I can come in the house and know something has been moved . I am especially OCD like with my animals . My fish and dogs are fed the same times everyday , my aquarium light comes on at the same time and is turned off at the same time everyday , water tests and changes are done religiously at the same times every week .
I see no harm in wanting things to be a particular way or doing the same thing every day. I do know someone that was OCD about hand washing and she would wash her hands between every class and use hand sanitizer in class, that was a little extreme I thought.
Well it's nice to know that I'm not alone, and it doesn't sound as though I'm all that bad either. I do like to do things at the same time each day but I think this is just so that I don't forget to do them at all and my ornaments have to be symetrical on the wall unit but that's so they look nice.
Now a days, most everybody has a form of OCD or another. Fortunately, most of them are not extreme cases. The problem is when the routines and rituals interfere with having a normal life. Feeding the animals at the same time each day is fine until it becomes the whole purpose of your life.
"Feeding the animals at the same time each day is fine until it becomes the whole purpose of your life." True , but it does come close . I schedule my outings around their feeding times , unless there is no way around it . I am somewhat obsessive about it , they get measured amounts at the same time and if the wife and I are both out when it is getting close to feeding time I start watching the clock and she knows it is time to go home . I also agree that we all have a little OCD in one form or another . My friend makes fun of me for how obsessed I am over the care of my animals , but this is the same person who washes his truck every other day , who not only cleans and armoralls the outside of his tires but the inside walls also and even cleans the treads , who will borrow my truck to haul stuff in so as not to scratch up the bed of his truck , q-tips the air vents and shop-vacs under the hood . His truck must be clean and waxed at all times or he trips out . And I on the other hand only wash my truck once a year when spring hits to wash all the salt off my truck .
I asked my wife if she thought I was obsessive when it came to my animals and their schedules to the point to someone on the outside would think it was OCD and she said it more than likely would . She has a sister with it and has lived with it for years . I don't look at it that way , I have taken it upon myself to care for them , but some thinks I go beyond that and sometimes it seems they are the center of my world because I love animals so much but I guess I can see it .
Ocd A routine is one thing. If your repetitive actions interfere with your life or cause any damage, i.e., from excessive hand washing, or damage your relationships with other people, then they may qualify as Obsessive-Compulsive actions, as traits or as a disorder. If you have a routine to get things done in an efficient manner, then that's probably just life... S&F
Have I got OCD? Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe...
Actually, I have CDO - it's just like OCD, but all the letters are in the right order like they should be.
I think most of us have the "OC" part. It's when the "D" happens that it's a problem. The only part of Ash's story that bothers me is that feeding the critters sometimes gets in the way of other things. There are autofeeders for all kinds of critters. Maybe you need one for each type of critter?
Just keep on repeating to yourself: "I'm not OCD!", "I'm not OCD!", "I'm not OCD!", "I'm not OCD!", "I'm not OCD!", "I'm not OCD!", "I'm not OCD!"...
I see you studied some psychiatry at some point. What most people here are describing is "Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder" which, while it's similar to OCD, has one key difference. That is, as above, the presence of lack of function. In cases of OCPD, the person is simply seen as being a "perfectionist". It's the only personality disorder that is actually considered be desirable to most people. The only time when OCPD becomes OCD is when there's a lack of function or a derangement of normal functioning. Since everyone here seems to be able to function, that's not really a concern. Can you tell I just finished taking a psychiatry exam this afternoon?
But the problem that you can't see with internet, and the responses on the forum, is that it takes 1 1/2 hours to put together a response. It takes a lot of time turning around 3 times to the right, rapping 3 times on the door, and waiting for a response each time you type a letter. hmmm, just think about what I just wrote.
Yeah, pretty much the same answer: People all seem to have some amount, perfectionists more than others, OCDs are those who have impairment in their lives because of it. In six weeks, will you remember much of it? Psychiatry (as a PA) is my second career, after retiring from ~30 years working primary care in a psychiatric hospital. Ah! No more rubber gloves!!! S&F
