Obsesive compulsive disorder

[tradtke]

I don't know to much about OCD, but sometimes I feel like I have it. I'm not obsesive about every thing, but the one thing I can't NOT do is having lists. To do lists, long term, short term. if i'm working on a project I make a list of what has to happen and when. I have calenders of ovents. At one point I had a list of the lists that I need to make. Camping gear lists, Lists ofmy fishing lures and catigorized. Most people keep calenders, but I have daily lists of things i want to get done, and if i don't get them done it really bothers me. Instead of all these fancy electronic devices i use note cards. very rarely, if ever will you find me without a notecard of some type of list in my pocket and sometimes 2 notecards with a third just in case I need another. I don't know what to do about this. i like it in a way because it keeps me in order, but then I hate it because If I don't list, or catigorize things it gives me severe anxiaty and i can't concentrate on anything else. I don't even know how to handle it so i just continue on.

www.selfworthy.wordpress.com/

 

[paulo]

OCD has a lot to do with feeling safe and in controll, if i do this or that everything will be alright but if i dont something terrible will happen.
so ofc you like doing it cause it makes you feel like your in control,
organised and safe.
its onely a problem when it becomes a problem for you really.
if you cant live a normal life because of it.

it gets worse or starts when your not happy with yourself or if your having some kind of problems.
its not really about what you do but just the feeling it gives you.
something in your life isnt going well so you make list so you feel in controll and safe.

i refuse to do it if its something useless i need to do.
i get really angry if i feel i have to do something stupid or useless that anger helps me not to do it.
i dont really have it that bad and it doesnt always work though.
but if its something small or even usefull i dont really mind doing it.
making list seems usefull just dont overdo it.

try building it down if it bothers you.
if you feel you have to, postpone it as long as you can.
the feeling might just go away if you give it some time.
carry less cards if you feel your gonne need 3 that day take 2 with you.
untill that starts to feel ok and than go to just 1.
than try not using em at all till that feels ok.
you can always carry 1 just in case, thats not gonne hurt anyone.

its something you do when you feel powerless for any reason.
theres prob a reason why you feel you need to do it and it prob has nothing to do with lists.
makes you feel your in controll, prob because theres something else in your life you dont have any control over.
finding out what that is and dealing with that might help a whole lot.

some people are more sensitive to it, mostly people that worry a lot.
its a way you made up of dealing with things you cant or dont know how to deal with.

 

[tradtke]

thanks for the suggestions. It makes me feel better. I find myself forcing myself to cut back like you said. I start catigorizing things, look a my list and think thats crazy, so Instead of catigorizing somethign I just make one topic and be done with it. for example a home improvement project, I find msyelf makng steps to which is to be completed in and then when done I relize its almost impossible to make it happen that way so i just label it as Kitchen on-going (for example) i think I put to much pressure on myself to get things done on a time-table. Of coarse sometime things need to be, but others, not so much. I think I have a fear of forgetting what i'm thinking about so i write that little thought on a paper and stick it in my pocket that way I'm not thinking all day about that one thing so i don't forget. i can forget it and not have to worry because I have it on my notecard.
http://selfworthy.wordpress.com/

 

[Alaric]

A lot of people make lists about pretty much everything. When you get anxious about it then, yes, it's a problem. Not to anyone else, mind you, just to you. The big thing is that YOU see it as something that needs to be changed. You need to challenge yourself to find out what happens if you DON'T make a list. Just one... Not all your lists... Just pick one list, and challenge yourself not to make it. See what happens. If the world dos not fall to pieces around your ears, then you might consider not making a second list, and then a third and so on.

But even with all that, if this feels like a problem, you need support. Face to face support. Usually OCD is taken care of through CBT, because it is anxiety based, and CBT challenges those anxieties. One thing you can do, however, is to make a LIST of the things you would like to change. You might be surprised at what you put on it.

 

[evanescencefan91]

have you tried taling with a psychatrist?

I have some OCD, like I am really germaphobic,

and soemtimes i can get really into something like a task or somehting and i'll spend hours on it before i can put it down, even if it's completly meaningless