discovery?

I totally understand this and can relate. I also get overwhelmed or annoyed by notifications when they come too fast and too many at one time. And I feel obligated to clear my notifications or the badge icon that reminds me. I have unread messages. To address it I’ve worked on noticing when it’s starting to get to me, acknowledging the feeling and taking alternate action. Another thing I do just to prevent the upset when I’m having a particularly heavier day mentally, I use the focus feature on my phone to either clear notifications automatically or suspend them until I’m ready to look at the phone.

Thank you for sharing! I definitely relate to the anxiety caused by phone notifications. In my case, both from past experiences with a toxic relationship who would reprimand me for missing texts/calls and a similar idea as you as texting feeling like a weak substitute for genuine connection. Reaction for me differs, I definitely hate having notification counts in games (if youve ever played a gacha game youd know its absurd i clear every single alert before i do my dailies 😅). However, with texting the count still bothers me but its become so routine and the idea of apologizing so repeatedly for late responses is far worse than the feelings associated with notifications. The pair makes a bad combo and I end up leaving my phone in other rooms or not even reading what is sent to me at all. Admittedly, i also have adhd so i do tend to forget rather quickly after the initial avoidance. Still pretty new to the whole OCD thing, so sadly no confident advice. That said, my first homework assignment was simply to respond to texts without overanalyzing them or their broader meaning. Been faltering lately on that but i think it does help to foster that genuine connection beyond texts; sort of a meeting people in the middle sort of thing. In any case, i really do appreciate you sharing - its a mundane example of ocd but so pervasive to day to day life and relationships. Good luck on your journey!!!