Does anyone have a type of OCD where you go down a rabbit hole of researching random terms using an endless amount of sources on the internet? Not sure if there’s a name for this. The thoughts associated with it are typically, “I need to figure this out and become an expert on this.”

It’s comforting to know another person is going through this. Have you found any techniques that help?

@Anonymous Honestly, I’m still noticing these things about myself. Like, I can’t tell if it’s because my mind feels like it has millions of thoughts at the same time or if it’s the need to have a certain amount of tabs open just to make me comfortable. Might still be a little of both but what I’ve been trying to do is limit how much I look up in a day. Also, if I search something new, I’ll delete a tab or two to keep it from getting larger. I don’t know if it’s helping, but I haven’t felt uncomfortable with it yet.

@Milky_Way Those are great tips. I started something recently where I keep a mason jar on my desk or nearby throughout the day. I allow myself 3 terms per day, 1 source each. When I research an arbitrary term, I limit it to one source, write the term on a small piece of paper and put it in the jar. Once 3 pieces of paper (3 terms) are in the jar, I close it up and I’m done for the day. No more researching. This method has been working a bit for me, but I just relapsed pretty bad today.

@Anonymous That’s a good goal to get to! Thinking about only 1 source right now kind of worries me but I hope I can get to the point where I am able do that.

Yes! I feel the same way and then a following thought will be “if I don’t do this now it will never get done” and then 30 minutes has passed and I’ve moved on to a different topic that I must look into

@Milky_Way Right!!! It gives me so much anxiety not knowing the stupidest things. Some nights i’ll get on tangent worked up about some 2009 study on beaver or whatever thing that has NO bearing on my life but feels so important like i think my life is DOOMED if i don’t know this stuff. So strange, brain

@obsessing&stressing I feel you on that! I think that’s why I love your username because I constantly have moments of literally obsessing over a small topic and stressing if I can’t find the right thing that makes sense to me. I’ve gotten to a point where I can’t trust all that I read so I need to read more than one thing to make sure they all say the same thing.

@Milky_Way Me too!!!