- Date posted
- 4y
- Date posted
- 4y
Perfectionism can be related to OCD or OCPD. With OCD, the anxiety that comes with the possibility of having less than perfect outcomes is what leads to the compulsions. There's a lot shame underlying this form of perfectionism. With OCPD, the person rarely experiences anxiety and does not perform compulsions to reduce anxiety since anxiety rarely exists from their perfectionistic behaviors. The reason is because the OCPD person does not think their perfectionism is an impairment in any way but, in fact, the right way of doing a task. Moreover, they strongly believe that everyone around them should do a task similarly because it the "right way." Which category do you think you might fall in, OCD perfectionism or OCPD perfectionism?
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- 4y
Fantastic distinction between the two!
- Date posted
- 2y
@Fear Strikes Out Both lol
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- 4y
personally, I just feel like I have to perfect everything. like, if I write someone a letter I make several drafts and will rewrite cards until my handwriting looks perfect and neat and the words are right. and I have the bad habit of thinking "if I can't make it perfect I have to give up entirely" for some things. like, if something isn't perfect it just isn't good enough and everyone will hate me or something. unrealistic, but that's how it feels
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- 4y
In other words it’s “my way or the highway” and if you’re not being perfect you are inferior to me....lol
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- 4y
Are you married? 😉
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- 4y
@Fear Strikes Out Divorced for 27 years. Married for only 5 years.
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- 4y
@Mike1234 Was your rigidity and perfectionism a contributing factor in your divorce?
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- 4y
@Fear Strikes Out Yes. She used to say “You think your better than everyone else”. It was just my ocd trying to make things perfect and not making waves.
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- 4y
@Mike1234 Now I’m terrified of getting into a relationship because of past failures, doubt and uncertainty. I’ve been frozen in time with previous relationships only last around 2 years at a time. The stress and anxiety makes it difficult to maintain them and I’m resigned to singleness. I feel I operate better on my own because of fearfulness and avoidance.
- Date posted
- 4y
@Mike1234 It’s very painful to me. I feel like ocd has ruined my life. Like a boat anchor, it’s holding me down.
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- 4y
@Mike1234 Ever heard of Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO DBT)? https://www.psychologytools.com/articles/using-radically-open-dialectical-behavior-therapy-ro-dbt-to-treat-problems-of-overcontrol/
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- 4y
Wow. Very enlightening. I’m going to discus with my PhD therapist next Wednesday. Thanks 😊
- Date posted
- 4y
Symmetrical & precision or perfectionist ocd causes me to see everything out of place. Not lined up or not perfect from documentation to items in fridge to labels on bottles to items on walls to everyday tasks that must be completed perfectly. Things take forever to complete if done at all because they must be perfect. To relationships people not being just right to rigid standards etc... it’s an endless need to have control over everything in life. To perfect size the world. It’s time consuming and exhausting.
- Date posted
- 4y
Alignment of throw carpets, pictures on the wall, coasters aligned with table corners, carpets with specks or crumbs it’s not in perfect order. Books cannot have creased covers, desktop icons must be aligned, lists and instructions laminated and typed perfectly, researching everything to perfection, items stacked just right, stamps on envelopes aligned perfectly in the corner of envelopes, projects must be done with extreme detail, can’t exercise unless everything is perfect. Binge eating, buying, gambling, hoarding everything to feel “just right”.
- Date posted
- 4y
My dopamine receptors are thirsty.
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- 4y
If things are out of place around me like pictures on walls or ornaments etc I cannot concentrate properly, when I make things on my laptop for work I spend forever getting it just right, and when I put my hair up in a ponytail it takes me endless attempts and up to 80 minutes until it’s perfect, causes me a lot of stress and anxiety 😞
- Date posted
- 4y
Ever done an imaginal script for the ponytail? That is, write down your worst fears if you do not have the perfect ponytail. Then, the next time you wear a ponytail, you are only allowed 5 attempts to make it "perfect." At the end of the day, check your list from your imaginal script and see how many of the catastrophic things that you have written down in your imaginal script actually happened. This is a great opportunity to test whether your worst fears are rational or not.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 17w
Hi, I’m new to the app as of today. I’m 20 years old, and wanted to get some stuff off my chest about the types of OCD I’ve been experiencing over the years. I’m not entirely sure how or when my OCD was brought up, but I’ve been a perfectionist for as long as I can remember. Anywhere and everywhere I go, if I see things placed in an order/angle that my brain doesn’t approve of, next thing I know I’m “fixing” it to be in the placement I feel looks better. I’m not aware of why I feel the need to do that, but until an object is in the “right” placement, I won’t take my eyes off of it. My eye will even twitch. Another form of OCD I have is in relationships. I spend each day overthinking and over-analyzing every one of the relationships that are important to me. Friends, family, significant other. Another one is what’s considered “Pure OCD” . When I get an intrusive thought of something devilish, whether it’s randomly seeing my great aunt naked bc my grandma considers her “fat” even though she’s not, or it’s seeing something demonic and traumatizing, I immediately tell myself, “I don’t wanna see/think about that” over and over and over until the thought is gone. Or I’ll try to replace one mental image with another. One other form of OCD I face every day, is religion. I got baptized for the first time in my life earlier this year in January. I had finally started to repent for my sins, and now I’m constantly feeling afraid that I’m letting God down due to my depression/lack of motivation and vaping/smoking. I also fear excessively that He’ll banish me from His kingdom, or just turn a cold shoulder. I know that what I’ve just typed up is probably all over the place. That is my brain unfortunately. How do you go from being a mentally disorderly and seemingly erratic young woman, to a more well-established, successful woman? I’m all ears!
- Date posted
- 13w
I haven't been able to read about experiences similar to mine when it comes to my perfectionism OCD so I was wondering if anyone had any "uncommon" experiences.
- Date posted
- 13w
I'm sry if this may make people worry or feel uncomfortable in advance! Hello everyone as u can see I struggle with ocd and I HATE IT WITH MY LIFE , it started in 2020 covid obv contamination ocd started here , I used to carry alcohol everywhere and used to wash my hands so much that it bled ( had to wear gloves to cover it so friends or family won't see it ) and everything else started since then , harm ocd with myself or friends I couldn't hold a knife..it was really hard..and I have unwanted sexual thoughts ocd , I have panic attacks bc of this..I sometimes cannot look people into their eyes and its so random and so scary..thoughts about.. 🍇..whether it's me or I'm gonna harm someone else uk..I sometimes cannot function properly.. unfortunately friends don't understand it rather think it's about " perfectionism "..I wrote those thoughts and stuff in a journal in more details ofc and doodle ( I'm scared someone will find it ) I hate myself tbh and I don't think someone will read this... I suspect I have ADHD with all this but ocd is " ur faking it " even though lots of people have hinted about it , I thought I actually killed someone for 2 years a girl..until I realized what HOCD is , I thought I faked my ocd too in fact , I have perfectionism ocd too it's bad and I HATE PURE O it's so DRAINING uk.. also idk if this has caused a problem for anyone but if y'all know the Truman show ( basically if u don't know the main character is being filmed and his life is fake and he doesn't know it ) THAT MOVIE HAS HARMED ME SO BADLY FOR YEARS that until today I have to check in the bathroom if there are cameras cuz like ocd makes me think I'm living in a fake world , I used to think people around me , everyone was like a Ai model or smth.. everytime until today I have to clean the toilet seat bc it may be dirty..I have been taking up to 5 showers a day cuz maybe I'm dirty..that's it for today tysm if u read this till the end I'd like to know ur thoughts if u got tips or have similar experiences ! 🤗 U get a chocolate bar 🍫 bc u earned it bc ik how ocd is so frustrating ( I also noticed everyone who has ocd is so nice right 😆! )
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