Is this perfection OCD?

I found this really beautiful coat at the store just now and I’m in line waiting to purchase. This lady behind me starts having conversation with me and asked about my coat. She then proceeds to touch my coat and I pull it away to kinda let her know… Don’t touch, and she continues to touch my coat. It pissed me off so bad because I want it perfect and now I think what if her hands were super dirty or had stuff on it My OCD is raging and I’m gonna go home and check if there are any spots. It made me so mad.

NW100

Date posted: Yesterday

I think it is very reasonable for you to not want people to touch your stuff. You picked it out, you are about to pay for it and it doesn’t sound like you gave that lady permission to touch it. You ran into a person with poor physical boundaries who decided her being able to touch that coat was more important than your obvious discomfort. Or maybe she was oblivious. Or maybe she has OCD and had to touch it a certain amount of times, who knows. But no, I don’t think it is bad to have boundaries. Where it sounds like OCD is showing up is in you focusing on this woman’s possibly grubby hands. It’s a coat and it’s winter. It’s going to get rained on, muddied, hung on chairs, thrown on a bed with ten other coats at a friend’s Christmas party and other things that happen to coats. The coat was never going to be or stay perfect. OCD always wants you attention, so it will take an inconvenience or annoyance and blow it up so you are in a rumination state. Just recognize what is happening, push through it and after wearing the coat around a few times, it will feel normal. Also, I’m going to make an argument that the lady made your coat better, because now the coat comes with a story about this bizarre lady who could not keep her hands off your coat. You bought a coat and also got a story tossed in for free.

Mooooni

Date posted: 17h

@NW100 Correct. Number one she had poor boundaries and I think it’s kind of rude to touch someone’s belongings, so there is that boundary that was crossed. You said it’s so perfectly. It’s the unknown of who knows if she had stuff on her hands and and she’s going to ruin my coat. The thing is, I catastrophize and then I ruminate on it. That’s why I put it in the category of OCD and if it’s that. I try to take this as a practice like hey everything‘s good not everything is what you are making. It seem to be you know. I went home and I checked a bunch of times to see if like the coat is OK lol. It’s so silly, but I feel like in experiences And moments of distress and OCD. It’s a good practice to kinda get over it. You know it’s like exposure therapy, even though I disliked my stuff being touched, lol

Anonymous

Date posted: Yesterday

Hi. I used to have a similar issue. Back then, if someone touched an object of mine that I really liked, and I didn’t want them to touch it, I would be so upset, and anxious. I understand if you are worried about possible germs or something dirty. I don’t know for sure because I’m not a professional, but if it’s just the fear or anger about the coat not being perfect, it sounds like it could be ocd to me.

Mooooni

Date posted: 17h

@Anonymous Yeah, that’s what I was curious about. Because I tend to ruminate on it. I catastrophize the reaction you know like oh man she probably had germs or grease down my coats all messed up and when I buy something new, I have to have it like perfect even though throughout time it’s gonna be used

gabby1356

Date posted: 19w

Sorry it’s long please respond !!!

So today I’m getting my car back from my grandparents bc it had no ac and they fixed it for me the day I gave them the car I was having ocd bc I touched a little tree air freshener no the air freshener itself but the outside of the wrapper and then I touched my steering wheel and I didn’t clean it before I gave it to them and I was having really bad ocd that day about it and now it’s coming back because I’m getting my car back today and I have a cat so I’m just always overthinking bc of her with the things that have chemicals on it common sense makes me feel stupid for feeling this when but I genuinely get overheated having to pick up this car today because I don’t wanna deal with it and it’s hair wash day and laundry day and I feel I should clean my steering wheel and ik I’m gonna have to wash my hands a million times and everything I touched after touching the steering wheel like my phone and the car handles and my front door handles. Should I just try and not do these things bc it’s common sense that doing all the this is necessary but I feel I need to I know I’m just needing reassurance I know I need to do nothing but I always stress about my cat and I go to the laundry mat to do my laundry so I don’t wanna be sitting there overthinking about my steering wheel bc I could of just simply wiped it down but I don’t wanna repeat the cycle of giving in to my ocd

nonimparamai

Date posted: 10w

Physical sensations with OCD

Okay, I am going insane at this point. I've been in and out of hospital with my contamination stuff and made huge progress in ERP, so I decided to tackle a bag of "contaminated clothes" from months ago when I went to my endocrinologist and something made my eyes and skin and inside of my mouth etc. itch and BURN, I mean to the point of coughing up blood and bloodclots coming out of my nose, and everything felt very dried up (at the time I thought it was residual acid from medical test I was supposed to undergo and couldn't because of the OCD). When I washed myself and rinsed my mouth, it would stop, but whenever I'd come close to the clothes I was wearing that day, it'd start again. I have since washed them in a washing machine, but not separately, I did a whole load trying to convince myself it would be fine. It wasn't though, the whole batch of clothes now does this to me, even a towel I put near it. But it doesn't make any SENSE, it was washed?? Twice now and it still won't go? Can OCD do stuff like this? I used the towel to dry myself and my hair after shower and have been waking up the whole night unable to breathe with dried up sinuses and inside of my mouth. Can it do this?? I've never had this happen to me before and I feel crazy beyond recognition from it.

Anony1314

Date posted: 10w

Impulse? Compulsion?

I just had an episode. My daughter was coming through the door and I didn't know it. It made me panic. I had a piece of material in my hand and I was panicking trying not to touch her and I believe I may have grazed her automatically across her chest with the material out of the panic of her being right there. Like it was almost like an impulse that felt wanted and automatic when the feelings came about and happened. Is that OCD?

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Is this perfection OCD?

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