My only task at the moment is to write an essay for my university course. A never ending cycle of rewriting, rethinking, restarting. I desperately want to work through the noise and finish. Any tips from fellow students would be most appreciated.

Set up a really calm environment. When I was finishing school I was really overworked with A levels and EPQ, and my perfectionism OCD was out of control. I would never hit my deadlines because I was working so hard to write and rewrite my essays and even if I got say 96% it didn’t matter. The thing I found useful was setting up a calm environment, for me that was a clean space, with low light and quiet. I’d play classical or ambience music without any lyrics because it made me focus. Then the task I set myself was just write the whole thing in one go, pushing through the OCD and taking deep breaths when I felt really anxious. Then once I had the general essay I would go back and work through my essay paragraph by paragraph correcting or improving what I had written. Then I would take half an hour to an hour to just breathe and relax, to try and bring down my anxiety. Not sure if this helps, but hope it does! x

As a former college student (quite a few years ago) who experienced the same thing, I recommend placing a limit to the number of times you permit yourself to rewrite/revise the paper. You will never break this compulsion unless you take the risk that there might be a few spelling errors, "better" word choices than what was used, perfect formatting, etc. Then, accept the uncertainty of not knowing what the overall impact will be on your paper's grade. That is how I learned to manage it. All the best!

Hey! I have a similar problem with my schoolwork. I want everything to be perfect and so I check and check and check, and I never end up changing anything. Try setting a timer and stopping when it hits 0. You trick your brain into thinking you don't have time to rewrite, rethink, and restart.

I get so worked up that now the hardest thing is even just starting. What sometimes helps is knowing my/my OCD’s level of “perfection” is no where near other people’s. So we don’t have to do as much as we think we do a lot of the time. It is so much better to hand something that’s not perfect in than nothing at all. (I have to use that as a mantra after having so many incompletes that turned into Fs.). Another trick I’ve learned from my artwork. Sometimes it will never feel “done”, but at a point, reworking it makes it worse. Then I stop and call it “finished (for now)”. (The “for now” is just when you need that. It’s so much better to just feel “finished” even if it doesn’t “feel done”, but sometimes I have to pretend in order to trick my ocd.) Hope that makes some sense. Best wishes your way. And when you do turn it in, then my pup sends you puppy magic. (Once I handed something in and had no more control over it, my partner, my mother, and I would joke about it being left up to the universe and the magic of all doggos. 😉😁). Puppy snuggles if you like them. We’re rooting for you!