Order within chaos - supermarket hell.

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I need help. After CBT, pushing myself as hard as possible and even having friends accompany me when I go out, I have decided that I am doomed. Doomed within my hell to spend my entire life doing a job I'm not even paid for, but which I can't do without.

When I go shopping in my local supermarkets (whichever one I pick, and there's 3 to choose from), even though I live on my own, it takes me around 3 hours.

I cannot stand disorder. I hate chaos. I have to reorganise things, regardless of what or where I am.

Everytime I walk round, if I find something that someone has put in the wrong place or discarded, I HAVE to pick it up and take it back where it came from. It doesn't matter what, clothes, cleaning gear, food... it WILL go back where it came from.

Are there others out there who cope with anything like this? If so, how the hell do you do it? I'm at my wit's end. I just want to shop, not tidy it up along the way .

What did they diagnose you with?

I do hate it when people change their mind about an item they have in their hands and just dump it on the shelf nearest to them. I have an urge to take it back to where it came from, because I feel sorry for it otherwise.

Aren't there any supermarkets near you that would deliver goods to your home? Here it's definitely possible, you can simply order everything you need on the internet.

There is therapy available for your OCD

They take you somewhere and put you in uncomfortable situations until you get used to it.

You could try to do it for yourself if you dont want to spend the money.

Put one item out of it's place and leave the store! Then your brain will realise that nothing bad will happen.

I also don't like it when things aren't in their place, sometimes if their original place was near I'd put them back to it.

I have severe OCD and I cannot go past a stack of leaflets without grabbing the whole lot, lining them up, and carefully placing them at a 90 degree angle to the edge of the surface its on. If I were able to go to supermarkets (I cannot due to sensory overload and meltdowns), I would forever be lining up the products on the shelves.

It takes me ages to do simple things like wash the dishes or clean something.

Things need to be lined up. Perfectly clean. Decontaminated.

I understand what you mean.

My OCD is forever rearing it's ugly head as well. While I don't like supermarkets for the noise and all the people, when they aren't as busy I do like them for the wild array of colours and colours I can check out.

Mostly though, I go in and get what I need and head for the check-out. I rarely browse.

I hate supermarkets that are brightly lit - ones with more subdued lighting are much more appealing to me.

If I get a support worker to come with me, I can go to small supermarkets (although I still freak out to some degree), but I need sunglasses on. Bright lights are evil.

Did anyone catch this TV show?
http://www.vh1.com/shows/the_ocd_project/series.jhtml
It shows that OCD can be conquered by anyone

Annoying, because I live in the UK I cannot view that legally.

OP, this is a nasty case of OCD. It has nothing to do with the order of the store - that is taken care of by the staff. They have people come in at night to put everything back in it's place. So Joe, don't worry, the item will find it's friends.
Also, consider that there is sometimes order in chaos. For example, let's say someone decides against an item and drops it in on the wrong shelf. Well, what's not to say that an hour later someone is browsing that shelf and sees the discarded item, maybe it is exactly what they were looking for and they buy it. The order of the store is within a larger order that we can't always understand.
But with regard to the OCD, you have to force yourself not to do it - the behaviour is interfering with your life. As painful as it is, fight the fight - every time you refuse a compulsion you get stronger.