“Sitting with it” does not help. Our space at home in flux because of my boyfriend moving in last April. I constantly hear that the treatment for OCD is to not engage in the compulsions, but it doesn’t work AT ALL for me. I have “sat with” the disorganization in our space for months and it continually makes me feel very stressed and, in turn, depressed. There are times when I finally can make an improvement in our space to make it more comfortable and there’s a noticeable uptick in my mood and my stress goes down considerably. Isn’t there anything else I can do? This “sit with the anxiety” it bullshit for me.

I don't have any solutions but I want you to know that your not alone. I'm struggling with this as well ?

Perhaps it’s more ocpd than ocd? Ocpd is when you are compulsive about something say cleaning but you clean because you like it spotless. In ocd the cleaning is not necessary and you don’t want to do it but need to do it anyway.

Thank you for mentioning that - I just looked into it a little and some of it fits me very well. “Unwillingness to assign tasks unless others perform exactly as asked” “an overwhelming need for order” I definitely don’t have a rigid adherence to moral codes, but I suppose in some aspects I do. There are certain ways things should be done and it bothers me when people don’t do them that way. This almost always manifests in the workplace. Which aligns with the next trait “a sense of righteousness about the way things “should be done”” “Fixation with lists” I have too many lists haha. But they keep my brain organized so I don’t forget things! Sounds like it’s very common to have some but not all traits. Thank you for bringing this up, now I can look into the right kind of treatment avenues to help

„Sitting with my thoughts and fears“ doesn‘t help me either

But if your place really is disorganised, I don‘t see anything obsessive in organising it. Or am I getting something wrong here?

I think you can still organize and clean if you do it in a way someone without OCD would. Our environment definitely effects our mood, I know when my room is messy I just feel stressed and stress can cause ocd symptoms to worsen. If you feel like it will lift your mood, organize it and make it comfortable for you. Then, do more structured exposures like putting something out of place or whatever causes your anxiety to spike.

The problem is that I can only organize it so much. Or I can only get things so clean. I know so many people whose houses look like they’ve exploded with their stuff all over the place. Clothes not put away, mail or packages not recycled. I don’t know how they can stand it. And I wish I could.

These houses with things all over the place seems like the other extreme. There are many people without ocd who cannot stand such chaos. Maybe try to find a balance. You don‘t need to be okay with a total mess. Hope that might be helpful.

I get that, but any amount of mess will stress me out. The bigger the mess, the worse the stress. My boyfriend has five million books and the differing colors of all of the books stresses me out because it’s too chaotic.