I feel that I have lost connection to my life and myself. My life seems to be lived through compulsions and senseless thought & my emotions are not in line. Has anyone experienced a feeling of emotional detachment where your emotions are out of wack? Is there anything you have done to combat that?

Compulsions and senseless action consists of checking emails, checking LinkedIn, sending emails, organizing calendar, deleting events from calendar when done, checking past days on calendar if anything is missed to add to the present day... all in all days and actions are driven by compulsive action

This then leads to feeling senseless I believe and detached from myself... then when socializing I am just stepping into the world in a similar state where I didn’t have clear attached to myself in a personal setting

And there is little to no emotional reaction to things in life as it all seems to be apart of a compulsive to do list

@dcd10 Do you do this because of some underlying fear of something catastrophic happening otherwise or because you are a highly organized individual generally and this is important to you in order to remain organized?

@Fear Strikes Out There is no fear or distinct thought that sets it off. I am more just Type A and highly organized but it has gotten to a senseless point and the actions don’t serve me

@Fear Strikes Out There is definitely a desire for a sense of control and there could be a deep rooted fear of the unknown and not being in control that led me to get to this point

@dcd10 Just curious, do one or a few of these apply to you? 1. Is preoccupied with details, rules, lists, order, organization, or schedules to the extent that the major point of the activity is lost 2. Shows perfectionism that interferes with task completion (e.g., has difficulty completing a project because his or her own overly strict standards are not met) 3. Is excessively devoted to work and productivity to the exclusion of leisure activities and friendships (not accounted for by obvious economic necessity) 4. Is overconscientious, scrupulous, and inflexible about matters of morality, ethics, or values (not accounted for by cultural or religious identification) 5. Is unable to discard worn-out or worthless objects even when they have no sentimental value 6. Is reluctant to delegate tasks or to work with others unless they submit to exactly his or her way of doing things 7. Adopts a thrifty spending style toward both self and others; money is viewed as something to be kept for future catastrophes 8. Shows significant rigidity and stubbornness

@Fear Strikes Out Number 1, 2 hit the nail on the head

@Fear Strikes Out 1 more so than 2

@dcd10 Honestly, I probably could have said 1, 2, 4, 6, and maybe 7 at one time in my life. By the way, this is the criteria for an OCPD diagnosis if you meet at least four of them. One of its distinguishing features from OCD is that the individual does not see any of this as a problem or impairing. Conversely, the OCD sufferer does some of these things strictly out of fear of some catastrophic event happening in their life. Some of the compulsions might be re-checking work or lists, re-reading, re-writing, intensely focused on mistakes (in emails, text messages, school or work reports), etc., none of which the individual wants to do but feels compelled to do it in order to prevent something bad happening. I fell in the latter category.

@Fear Strikes Out 1 and 2 are my main problems but the actions that turn to excess are apart of daily life.

@Fear Strikes Out I repeat actions or create lists to the point where the repetition and list itself override the meaning of the action

@Fear Strikes Out In turn leaving me feeling rather emotionless, unfulfilled, directionless, etc

@dcd10 Sounds more like OCD to me, as it does not seem that you really want to repeat these actions.

@Fear Strikes Out Did you do anything specific to overcome your experiences?

@dcd10 I attended an OCD treatment program.

@Fear Strikes Out Learned Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP).