Posted by torchgrl on January 31, 2000, at 13:52:54
In reply to DP's Lair--The Tedious Play By Play, posted by Noa on January 31, 2000, at 12:09:10
I can totally relate to the perfectionist stuff--that's my whole theory on my cleaning issues, amongst other things. Once I start, I can't just sweep the floor, I get down and scrub at every little black mark on the linoleum. I have a very hard time letting things slide once I start, but once I start thinking about the immensity of the situation, and the likelihood of my getting things *perfectly* clean, I just can't even begin to approach it at all. I can't just throw away all the newspapers, I have to go through them, regardless of their age, and weed out the things I'd be interested in, and set them aside to read--like I'm ever going to get around to doing that!--so I just leave them where they are. I know this affects all areas of my life ("if I can't do _____ perfectly, why bother doing it at all"), and it's more of a therapy thing than a med thing, but it's something I've never been able to change about my thought process, and which probably keeps me from doing anything useful with my life at all. I must be perfect, but I know I can't be perfect, so I avoid any active demonstration of my lack of perfection, that kind of thing... It's not an OCD thing, though, I think it's an entirely different issue, part of that "black & white thinking" often characteristic of depression.
poster:torchgrl
thread:19971
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000128/msgs/20205.html