Just Right OCD

Just Right OCD is when we feel we must do something until it feels “just right”. Oftentimes there is no suspected negative outcome if we don’t, it just feels ~wrong~. As a kid this looked like avoiding stepping on the cracks in the sidewalk unless I did it just right. I heard the superstitious rhyme “step on a crack, you break your mothers back” and had ruled it out as fake- but the lingering warning feeling remained. I didn’t know what would happen if I stepped on one- just that it felt bad. Have you experienced Just Right OCD?

meghandot

Date posted: 1y ago

This was one of the first things I noticed that I did!!! I had to step on the crack perfectly in the center of my left foot. If I did it with the right foot, I had to do it so many times to make sure the left felt it more. I could literally "feel" the pressure on my foot from it after walking away from the cracks. A friend of mine said they do it EXACTLY the same way as I did and it blew my mind. I didn't know this was a shared experience.

MNSW1992

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

This was the second thing I ever did at 8 years old that let me know something was different about my brain. Except I stepped on them even when I felt I didn’t want to. And then would cry and call my mom asking if she died. 22 years later I’m doing the same thing in different ways. It can be debilitating. But I’m holding out hope

Mreow

Date posted: 1y ago

I can relate. This sounds like the subtype of "magical thinking OCD" even more than "Just Right", with worrying something bad will happen like a loved one dying by not doing the compulsion.

Mreow

Date posted: 1y ago

Many times I do fear a consequence for not doing a Just Right compulsion. Being vulnerable, being found out as not being "good enough" at something, shame, messiness. And it goes way beyond things like stepping on cracks (which is relevant but can also be seens as a cliche, even if I do it as well.). Just Right impacts almost everything I do including ERP. Sadly, I don't think enough is truly understood about it, even by many therapists, and while there used to be a Just Right OCD group under thename of "perfectionism", that was removed by NOCD which made me feel even worse, and more isolated, despite other very "niche" groups being held by NOCD. It's upsetting.

Anonymous

Date posted: 1y ago

I really wish they would bring that group back!!!

Mreow

Date posted: 1y ago

@Anonymous - Same!

Mreow

Date posted: 1y ago

https://iocdf.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Just-right-OCD-Fact-Sheet.pdf From the IOCDF which seems to get Just Right OCD very well.

thesa52@gmai...

Date posted: 1y ago

oh my word. heck yes I remember this and I probably still do avoid stepping on the cracks.

Anonymous

Date posted: 1y ago

Mine wasn't stepping on cracks. I wouldn't try not to step on them because of the saying. I also wouldn't go under a ladder. I feared broken windows because I heard 7 yrs. bad luck. My fear was : stepping forward and backward 10 times, then continued to be in fear and do it again. I did these steps because if I didn't, my dad would come home drunk. I started doing this at age 10.

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