QotD: Can't Help Myself
What's the most obsessive-compulsive thing you do in a normal day?
Submitted by Nikki.
I am just a big ball of OCD and in the course of an average day I will...
... keep checking that I have turned off and unplugged my hair irons, the stove or the iron before I leave for work. (When we were in Colorado this summer at our friends wedding I called the hotel in a panic to get them to check if I had unplugged my hair irons. Throughout the wedding I had obsessed that they were on and would burn the hotel down.)
... sometimes get to the stairwell, foyer or corner of my block turn on my heels and come back to triple check. If I have made it to the subway station I will try to involve Alex by texting him to check for me.
... double check that the windows are closed and if I am the last one to leave repeatedly lock and unlock the door.
... check to see if I sent the email to the correct person and open envelopes just to check that I did put the document inside.
... repeatedly check that all my belongings are still in my handbag.
... jump out of bed to check the stove (even if I haven't used it that evening).
I find that these manifest themselves more intensely when I am stressed and it has been a few years since I have been stuck at the front door repeatedly locking, testing then unlocking the door, and at the moment I only check it once or twice (which is nothing). The worst part is that knowing that it isn't rational and these days I try to "think" my way around them.
I think I have always been like this and I always will. As a little girl I went through a spell of obsessively washing my hands because I was haunted by a fear of generic germs, and it is possible to harness my obsessive nature for good. I find it very easy to focus on revising for exams and studying because I let my dogged obsessive self take over.
As I was proof reading this I got to think of other things I do that probably count as OCD. I can listen to the same song over and over again, would happily eat the same food everyday and obsess over things that I have no control over...
