Is this OCD?
I'm not sure if it's anxiety mixed with superstition, or if it's some sort of supernatural belief, or distrusting to fate, or (as the title of this thread goes) obsessive compulsary disorders. But here goes:
Lately I've been trying to look on the positive side to things that may happen in my near future. For example I've got a crush on someone and he knows it and seems to like it (and I know he's single), and although he might not necessarily fancy me, I keep telling myself that you never know what's round the corner, and he might ask me out for a drink. But here's the OCD part - when I do something, (for example) like cleaning my teeth and I finish before the 2 minutes are up, a voice in my head says, ''I would finish after the 2 minutes are up if I were you, otherwise he might not ask you out'', and when I do finish after the 2 minutes are up, I suddenly feel all relaxed, as though something has said, ''good girl.'' Cleaning my teeth has got nothing to do with whether he will ask me out or not, but I just feel voices in my head when I do little things, telling me to do them a different way. This doesn't affect me when I'm out, nor does it affect my day-to-day living, and it doesn't make me look stupid in front of anyone. It's just a few little things that I do when I'm on my own.
And last week, I was going to meet a friend, but I wanted one day at home to myself (and to do things), and I had seen my friend the day before, so I thought I'd just make an excuse today, and arrange to meet her tomorrow. But I didn't want to say I was ill, because I was frightened that I will get ill if I say this. Then I thought I could say that I'm waiting for the repairman to fix the washing-machine, but then I thought supposing the washing-machine did go wrong if I said this? Although I'm not the type of Aspie to be honest about everything, I still try my hardest to think of lies that won't attempt fate. It's tricky really. In the end I said I had an earache, because having an earache isn't too bad. It's better than getting a bad cold or being sick.
The trouble is, I've made myself really believe all this, and I'm trying to tell myself that it's only intense thinking. But you never know. I'm not very lucky (having AS explains it), so I know that I attempt fate quite easily. Does this sound like OCD, or just anxiety? Or am I supersticious in some way?
_________________
Female
Sounds to me like OCD.
The 2-minute teeth-brushing session sounds like it must go back to either when someone, your parent maybe, told you that's how long you need to do it for, or you heard somewhere that's how long you need to do it for for them to be clean. So in your brain that was filed under: things I need to do or things will go badly.
Now when you're anxious that something may go badly, no matter how distantly related it is to your teeth, your brain thinks "now what could prevent this from going well, so I can anticipate it and stop it?" And it accesses the "things I need to do or things will go badly file." And for whatever reason, maybe because it's something you do every day, teeth-brushing is the first thing it came to in that file when you thought your crush, and I think that's where the OCD comes in, it's unable to get off that first thought it came to even though it's irrelevant to your crush.
I'll have to think more about your lying about the washing machine example but I feel like it's similar to the process above.
This is of course my uneducated opinion on the topic.