Does anyone else have trouble simply standing up to walk somewhere in the house? I’ll stand up, start walking, and get caught in a thought-loop that will prevent me from continuing on with whatever I was going to do unless I go sit back down and stand up again. That’s probably my biggest problem in general — doing something only one time is excruciating and will eat away at me until I do it again. If anyone has any tips on how to prevent this from happening so often, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I'm doing it too ! I observe that I'm doing it when I'm in my own bubble period, like I have stress/anxiety or something like that but I don't know how to talk about it to someone? Even when I'm in a good period, but it's more for evacuate the energy/passion

What about you

It seems to happen out of nowhere, as does most of my OCD moments. The only piece of advice I’ve received is to stop and pause when you start getting into a thought-loop, sit with it until the anxiety goes away, and move on. I just don’t know how long I’m supposed to pause before moving on. I’ve stood in a particular spot for a minute or two, but the anxiety doesn’t go away.

You were saying that you're in a thought loop when while doing it. You have serious thoughts going on or it can be more light subjects? I got exactly the same advice, doesn't really work too ... But for now, I do a little tour around the house, because I think it's kind of a healthy thing (sometimes) it means also that you need to evacuate something before doing something else and putting your concentration on it (half the problem is concentration) It's a vicious circle. You should allowed yourself do it but giving you a "time". You can walk around but at one point, tell/show your brain the thing you should finish and force it. At first it's annoying but when you finish what you have to do, you get more satisfaction and the vicious circle is going to break a little bit.

I get harmful thoughts, so they’re pretty serious. I know I would never act on them, but for some reason I can’t convince myself enough unless I do it again. So you’re saying I should push through and do whatever it is I need to do without turning back? I do need to follow through the first time because the more times I repeat myself, the more anxious I get.

Can I ask you if you are someone emotionally reserved in real life? With your entourage Kind of ... You should cut in the middle of it. Imagine if you're walking since 5min around, and before it, you were cleaning? ?? You have to put the image that you were and you are doing it. "Ok I was cleaning, I should force myself to take the broom and do the action" it's a first step to have the broom in your hands. You can still walk and be in your thoughts but it give to your brain that you have a thing to do with it. A focus. Even if it's super hard to battle with this kind of thoughts, it's a really deep and confusing moment. we cannot change it in a day but I'm 100% sure, step by step, a little change can change a lot on the long term. It's been 6 months now, I can stop myself in the middle of it. Because of it now, I have satisfaction compared to when I didn't do it. I think I gave to my brain the "thing" for showing him that be in your own world with anxiety and just stay like this opposite to "do" something has a better feeling after the storm. (I'm super sorry if my sentences don't make sense haha I'm not use to express myself in English)

I’ve been pretty emotionally reserved, but have recently been opening up to friends about my OCD because it was the reason my relationship with my now-ex-girlfriend ended. Thank you so much for the advice! This is extremely helpful. I know I have to start small, so I’ll certainly be working hard on fixing this compulsion!

Really cool you can talk about it, it's something I'm working on (a little bit ...) hope your friends were receptive With pleasure ! Yep you know, the fact that you're conscious about this compulsion, and you're searching to solve it, is a good start already so you can't be on a wrong path (Have a nice week :))