Perfectionist/Obsessor?

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Usually I avoid phoning people. But I had to this time, because I had to order my anxiety medication. It's been such a long time since I've picked up a phone and dialed the number. 99% of the time I'll only speak after someone has already phoned the person in question. Social phobia I guess. But after the phone call I noticed something about my behaviour. I started obsessing over whether or not I spoke well on the phone, or in the right way. I retraced my steps almost reliving the moment tried to find any weaknesses or mistakes I made. Then I realised that I have always been this way.

Sometimes I would think about how I behaved in social situations hours after it had ended. I had to find out if my behaviour was awkward or not. Again I would relive the moments in question trying to figure out how the other person responded to my behaviour. Usually I would be very critical of myself. I would be convinced that I made a fool of myself, when most likely I didn't. So anyone else like this?

Yes, much like that, and then I can get caught in a cirle of thought about your having to make a phone call to get what you need to help make it possible for you to make a phone call to get what you need ...

Even at work I sometimes try to get one of my bosses to make phone calls for me when they are business-related. And, sometimes I even let them know I might say or do something goofy and end up making them look bad.

But hey, you got the call made and it turned out successfully ... and now you can add that fact into the mix the next time you ponder your ability to do again what you have already done.

Congrats!

Thanks. Yes, making a phone call is just another mundane thing for most people but a huge milestone for me.

Heh, yeah.. D: That's pretty annoying.
I think a lot of people do that though. (Cuz, like, you always see people in movies repeat something stupid they said after the other person leaves..)

I habitually nit-pick everything I do....the flaws are much more noticeable to me than any good that I've done, and most of the flaws I spot are the kind of thing that most people would just ignore. It's no doubt depressing to be that way, but if I try to adjust then I feel like I'm fudging and falling into sloppy practices. The ability to meticulously attend to detail is a part of myself that gives me a lot of self-confidence. Good comes of it, because I tend to use the self-criticism to do better next time - how can anybody improve their performance if they're blind to their mistakes?

Phone calls I can do, but I often need to prepare for them, especially if I haven't used the phone for a long time. I tend to forget that I can usually correct any important mistakes or omissions by just calling them again later. It's important to accept that there will be errors, and that they aren't usually all that terrrible, though I have to fight my own nature to keep that in mind at the time.

Yeh I constantly obsess over social situations, how I acted and how other people responded, what I should/could have done how they would of reacted if I did that etc. I usually think about all these things at night when I'm trying to sleep and I think this is one of the main problems I have when trying to get to sleep.

I think i'm a perfectionist in almost every aspect of my life, I always try to better myself and I end up obsessing over every detail.

Not only replay things endlessly afterward, but rehearse upcoming or even potentially upcoming conversations in advance.

I can't make a phone call to a stranger without preparing several possible scripts in my head, until I'm fairly sure I have all the potential conversational bases covered. Can still be totally thrown by the most innocuous question and end up sounding like an idiot - and I used to do this sort of thing for a living! Its different though, doing it as myself, than it was playing a confident professional character.

I can be like this, when it comes to my hair. It has to be perfect at all times. Perfectly straight, just like a Mod.

Glad to see that I'm not alone in this regard.