Messy Behavior with OCD

I never heard about people with OCD who have messy living conditions. Maybe this is why it took so long to accept my diagnosis. Although I really dont like how OCD is percieved at by the majority of people, I feel like Im weird or something because I dont fit into that stereotype. I understand that a lot of people with OCD have this issue, but why do I feel so different? If anybody else has/had this belief, what helps with feeling more comfortable? Everytime my mom points out my room, and how its messy- Its like I feel so lazy and useless. So then I often plan out everything I was going to do, step by step, always having a reasoning behind everything, because logic always comforts me. When I start tidying up my room, I go full out (Sheets, Laundry, Clorox, Candles, Vaccuming, Then I start going through the guinea pigs cage to rearranging all of their stuff) Yet always somewhere after doing a few things, I start feeling disgusting and almost shameful of myself. 99% of the time I end up laying on my floor sobbing, noting every little thing about my room. How my furiniture doesnt match, how i would rather have solid floor like hardwood or vinyl instead of the carpet, usually things i cant change… and then barely anything gets done in my room. I start to have a meltdown and often dont take care of myself even more afterwards. A piece of me feels like my thoughts are just me being a spoiled brat and wanting everything i dont have- meanwhile others dont even have a roof over their head. The other piece of me is just tired, just emotionally exaughsted. Please comment any thoughts or recomendations to maybe improve motovation and attitude towards doing long tasks.

iamc

Date posted: 19d ago

I was a total mess gremlin for most of my life, this story is very relatable. During the pandemic lockdown, I worked super hard to break this cycle. It took a lot of consistency and learning (Unf*ck Your Habitat and KonMari were two helpful resources). The 20/10 or 45/15 (minutes working/minutes taking a break) methods were the most helpful, because I had to enforce breaks! Turns out, breaks are just as important to the process as the work itself, you have to budget for them! After a while, my paradigm shifted. I realized that I was never going to be one of those nice, neat people by default. I’m an artist, and I love making a mess; I had to embrace that! Now I treat tidying as making room for my next mess. That changed everything for me, honestly.

iamc

Date posted: 19d ago

Granted, I’m now working with my therapist on my cleaning rituals, I’m a little too obsessive. But at least I’m not tripping over my stuff so often!

mhassan0117

Date posted: 19d ago

For me it depends I have bipolar though When I lived alone with my bf and son my place was absolutely clean When I moved back in with my mom messy Back to living alone but I’m a bit down and funky right now I’m struggling with cleaning

Anonymous

Date posted: 19d ago

I want order so bad I end up overwhelmed to the point of not cleaning. I'll have weird moments I could clean the whole house or only other people's houses. I was called lazy and inconvenient by others despite accomplishing more than they ever did in cleaning as well as finished the chore in record time. OCD is like these people who aren't a good representative to your character and is an unreliable guidance boss. Give yourself a promotion that you are your own boss despite the feelings trying to push and pull you in different directions. In some weird human mind trick, forgiveness allows more space and freedom to clean at a more balance pace. Things that was bothering you doesn't matter or a creative idea can grow to change it to your liking. You got this.

splootpig

Date posted: 18d ago

@Anonymous I totally relate to the random moments of cleaning other peoples houses, or the rest of my house besides my room. Its like I love cleaning, but organizing is different and I probably could enjoy it, if i knew it would be less important, but my room is where i go to listen to the sound of nothing, and peacefully sleep. Thank you for mentioning this! it definetly helped connect a few of my thoughts, as well as the support!

Kellymerellie

Date posted: 25w ago

Dog Urine

I have contamination OCD and sometimes I don't feel like cleaning. I have a huge pile of blankets on my floor that feel contaminated and I have two dogs and seven cats. I don't really touch them anymore like I used to since my OCD got worse. One of my dogs like to pee on my floor a lot and sometimes I'm too lazy to clean it, because I'd have to get the carpet shampooer out and actually clean. Sometimes I do it because I don't want to wash my hands over and over, so I just avoid it. Now I'm scared that the dry urine is on my feet and are now in my bed. I know that I should just say well maybe it did or maybe it didn't and just go about my day, but it's hard. For the people who conquered contamination OCD how did you get through stuff like this? Thank you in advance to anyone who answers my post.

Andrea Wells

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 10w ago

Misdiagnosis & OCD

OCD is so much more than just being 'neat' or 'organized'—it’s relentless, exhausting, and often deeply misunderstood. The intrusive thoughts, the compulsions, the anxiety—it can feel like a never-ending cycle that others just don’t seem to get. Many of us have had experiences where even therapists didn’t fully grasp the depth of our struggles. I myself faced difficulty being misdiagnosed and my talk therapist not understanding the full extent of what I was going through until I found NOCD. So many prior therapists wrote off my symptoms as general anxiety, not realizing it was actually OCD all along. If you could sit down with a therapist who truly wanted to understand, what do you wish they knew about OCD?

clair_m88

Date posted: 8w ago

ROCD and house chores

Hi everyone. I’m having a really hard time today in my relationship. I am just feeling so frustrated by my back-and-forth feelings about my relationship. One day I’ll feel so good, and then the next I don’t at all. I think my biggest trigger in the house is the chores that the two of us have to do in the house. I’m much more of a clean person than my boyfriend is. I’m also thinking that he has ADHD and struggles to remember when to do specific chores and I have to remind him pretty often, but he will usually do it when I ask. Today, I’m on a huge spiral of telling myself that he is never gonna be able to learn to do things on his own, he’s not gonna be able to take care of our kids in the future If we do get married, he’s not gonna be able to help take care of our house when we do have one one day, And I am just exhausted. It’s so hard fighting these thoughts all day and then I feel like I have to sit down and talk to him about chores and obviously that doesn’t go well when I’m not feeling good. Definitely a compulsion… It feels so much better when I can just relax and just let him figure things out on his own, and I can just take care of myself. I also come from a household where I was constantly criticized and controlled in certain ways, so I have that to carry too…I’ve gotten much better at doing that most of the time but today is pretty bad. It always feels a little bit worse as well when I’m on my period and feeling very hormonal as well… Can anyone please shed some light on if they’ve experienced this before and any support they might be able to offer in relation to this? Anything would be helpful and please be kind!

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Messy Behavior with OCD

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