OCD?

LegacyUser

Hey there, I was wondering if any of you had any advice on this. For years, I have always had this very strong irrational fear of horrible stuff happening to me or my family, if I didn't perform a number of rutines and rituals a day (I know its stupid, but it kind of feels like when you have a good day, you have to recreate everyhing you did that day so that the next one will be good too).

This rutines change from time to time, and somtimes I man up and stop, but only temporarily, because when I have some stress in my life I find myself going back to them or adopting new ones. These 'rituals' can be the stupidest things: never leave the room if all my clothes aren't folded a certain way, always leave my stuff in the exact same places on the table, make breakfast in a very specific order, don't drink from a cup that is a certain colour, etc. There are lots. It obviously affects my life, if nothing else because it makes me waste lots of time, and it makes me very anxious and nervous, sometimes avoiding certain social situations, etc.

This makes me feel incredibly guilty, because there is nothing 'real' stopping me, and it's only in my head, so I feel like a weak whiner if I give in to it.

I have read about the symtoms, and some of it sound like it could be Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, although typical OCD always seems to be tied to a fear of germs, which is not really my case (I don't worry so much about thing being clean as abouot them being in a certain order) but I would't want to be calling it anything before I got diagnosed by a professional. So anyone else had similar experiences? Know anyone with OCD?

I'm not even sure where I would go if I wanted to get treatment for it, and how exactly to go about it. I am not ready to embarc into a long psych treatment mainly because I don't think I have the means to pay for it.

sam34

you should see your gp for advice on diagnosis and management

dan_d

Go see a GP - I won't diagnose over the internet, but some of what you say does sound like part of OCD. But absolutely go see your GP for a full diagnosis..