You do not have OCD but you are OCD about what?

Sometimes I lock my car and check for me keys 3 or 4 times in a row. I’m just paranoid of locking myself out.

Things that can catch on fire. I need to make sure my curling iron was unplugged, that I don’t leave a room with candles lit (I rarely light candles) the stove is off, that sort of thing.

Another, I guess, is making sure everything is locked. Doors and windows. It’s not like I check all doors and windows every night. I just make sure I lock it after using it. Is that obsessive or compulsive? It’s just automatic for me.

I am obsessed with not getting sick. I don’t worry about dirt or regular ol’ every day germs. It’s when I know I was around someone who was sick, and worse I was touching the same things they were, then I will have in the back of my head I was near a sick person, hoping I will feel all clear if I don’t get sick within 48 hours. It’s heightened when I have something planned like a vacation. I am really unhappy when illness interferes with what should be a happy time.

Ech….I hesitate to use the phase as it really bothers real OCD people to hear laypeople saying “omg I’m so OCD I need my desk to be clean all the time lol.” Just sayin’.

But as for the spirit of the question…I have a lot of obsessive habits. My most destructive one is that I hate to have any peeling skin on my body – particularly my fingers – so I’ll usually pick at any skin imperfections around my fingernails. This always – always – makes the skin worse, and creates more imperfections to pick at, but it’s like I can’t stop. My fingers are always sore and bleeding. It’s a vicious cycle for me.

I agree with @Mariah about the incorrect use of OCD but I too have some obsessive habits. I can’t leave the house without going to the loo. I have to double and triple check I’ve turned the iron off. I always check my car has locked before I leave it. I have to unpack my shopping trolley in a particular order or it just feels wrong! I’m sure there are other things I do that I can’t remember right now.

@Mariah Isn’t excoriation a legitimate OCD disorder?

- alphabetize music and book collections and by genre (not just mine)
– straighten crookedly hung pictures in stores, restaurants, other people’s homes
– eat multi-colored candy (M&Ms, skittles, gummy bears, etc) in order of excess (I will eat the ones of the most frequent color until all the colors have the same quantity)
– check all of the burners before bed or leaving the house (might be from having a roommate who used to always leave the stove on and went to class)
– I fold new bills into perfect quarters
– I count to 20 for each part of my teeth-brushing routine (15 total)

I’ve mentioned some of these habits to my therapist, who shrugged them off. He says a lot of people have obsessive habits. It’s only OCD when it begins to cause you distress. The only one that really bothers me are crooked pictures. The other ones I just do absentmindedly because I’m bored.

Toilet paper has to roll over and not under.

@Pied_Pfeffer

I agree.

The only situation where it might be better to have the roll under, would be if the roll was above the user’s eye level.

@Brian1946 Do you mean one of those industrial-sized contraptions mounted to the wall? At least they are high enough for a hand to reach in through the opening and claw away at roll in order to make it turn enough to dispense enough paper to do the deed, and often with enough left over to either leave a mess on the floor or stop up the toilet.

Shutting cabinet doors and drawers.

Being tidy. I hate clutter and while I have no issue letting the dusting and vacuuming go an extra few days or a week I cannot stand clutter, surface clutter, unwashed dishes, stuff everywhere. My good friend is a total clutter bug, borderline hoarding type. She is bright, creative, educated and a total slob. lol

I love her but I can’t stand her sloppy habits. Laundry everywhere, nothing ever gets put away, 400 pairs of shoes all over tripping you. haha
Drives me nuts!

Does saving my urine in mason jars and arranging them by color count?

@Pied_Pfeffer Toilet paper has to roll over and not under.
Do you feel you must change the roll around if it is not over the top?

@Blondesjon Does saving my urine in mason jars and arranging them by color count?
Surely you jest…....

@Hypocrisy_Central Yes, and I do if it isn’t locked down.

When I was working I’d sometimes drive all the way back to work after hours to make sure I’d locked the door. I finally started doing something a little odd, like jumping up and down or something when I locked the door, so I could say “Oh, ya. I jumped up and down.”

@marinelife Two of my closest and dearest friends lived together straight out of college. One of them, we’ll call her Evelyn, used to get very frustrated that she would walk in the kitchen and cabinet doors were left ajar. She never said anything to Giovanna, her roommate, but it mystified and annoyed Ev that Gio couldn’t just close the cabinets.

Then Gio got married and moved out. Ev would walk in the kitchen and cabinet doors were still left ajar. It seems she had been doing it herself all that time. LOL.