Has anybody ever tried installing a little camera above a stove with a live feed (checkable by cell phone) to see if that helped people panicking about having left it on?
I sometimes control my OCD by crossing my fingers in a certain very odd pattern whenever I do something (like locking a door). Then, as soon as I come to a notebook or a computer with my fingers still crossed, I write down “I locked the door at 5:27 PM, August 10, 2009”. When I’ve done this, I can just look at the paper and my compulsion to check whether or not the door is really locked mostly goes away.
I used to try the same thing without the finger crossing, and I found that I was always able to believe there was just the tiniest chance that I might have formed the false memory of having locked the door between locking it and reaching the notepad. Because I don’t cross my fingers except while in the act of locking the door and I don’t write a note unless my fingers are crossed, I can dispel that last nagging doubt. From a rational point of view it’s not very sensible, but it seems to work okay.
Yes—it’s definitely good to have a reliable source of information about these things. Like having the days-of-the-week written on certain everyday medications. You can just go look and know whether or not you’ve taken today’s dose. On the occasions where I’ve had to take medicine that doesn’t have these (eg a course of antibiotics) I’ve had that “nagging sense” too → not knowing means you could either skip a dose, or double-dose. So writing the days of the week on the plastic next to each pill helps with that. Having something that you can check easily and that you trust helps reduce the anxiety a lot.
This was particularly a problem for me after my stroke, because the brain damage made my memory unusually unreliable. Eventually I put a sheet of paper up by my pills and checked off each day after I took them. (Actually, on bad days, I would sometimes lose track between the first bottle and the third of which pills I’d already taken, so I established the habit of moving each one from left to right after I took it.)
...I was always able to believe there was just the tiniest chance that I might have formed the false memory…
…
From a rational point of view it’s not very sensible, but it seems to work okay.
A healthy skepticism about the reliability of memory is actually very rational (the subject of the worry is a different story). I’m rather good at remembering facts, but I’m positively terrible at remembering things like “when I leave I must take this item that I usually don’t”. I’ve tried constantly reminding myself, worrying that I’ll forget, and then I occasionally forget anyways. But this sort of memory is very easy to outsource, eg I can misplace my keys, shoes, or glasses on something and then there’s no way I’m forgetting it when I leave, nor do I have to worry. I’ve occasionally forgotten the basement lights on (kick door closed while carrying a basket of laundry, wouldn’t be noticed until next visit to basement or outside at night), now I never close the basement door until I turn off the lights. My street has alternate parking, and I set an alarm so I won’t forget.
If I worried excessively about the state of my door, I’d keep a binary toggle on my keychain, and toggle it when I locked/unlocked the door. Dunno if that would work for OCD, I’m only absent-minded. But locking the door would be a habit with a reliable trigger. I can fight any specific case of absentmindedness easily with a habit and reliable trigger.
Has anybody ever tried installing a little camera above a stove with a live feed (checkable by cell phone) to see if that helped people panicking about having left it on?
I sometimes control my OCD by crossing my fingers in a certain very odd pattern whenever I do something (like locking a door). Then, as soon as I come to a notebook or a computer with my fingers still crossed, I write down “I locked the door at 5:27 PM, August 10, 2009”. When I’ve done this, I can just look at the paper and my compulsion to check whether or not the door is really locked mostly goes away.
I used to try the same thing without the finger crossing, and I found that I was always able to believe there was just the tiniest chance that I might have formed the false memory of having locked the door between locking it and reaching the notepad. Because I don’t cross my fingers except while in the act of locking the door and I don’t write a note unless my fingers are crossed, I can dispel that last nagging doubt. From a rational point of view it’s not very sensible, but it seems to work okay.
Yes—it’s definitely good to have a reliable source of information about these things. Like having the days-of-the-week written on certain everyday medications. You can just go look and know whether or not you’ve taken today’s dose. On the occasions where I’ve had to take medicine that doesn’t have these (eg a course of antibiotics) I’ve had that “nagging sense” too → not knowing means you could either skip a dose, or double-dose. So writing the days of the week on the plastic next to each pill helps with that. Having something that you can check easily and that you trust helps reduce the anxiety a lot.
(nods) Absolutely.
This was particularly a problem for me after my stroke, because the brain damage made my memory unusually unreliable. Eventually I put a sheet of paper up by my pills and checked off each day after I took them. (Actually, on bad days, I would sometimes lose track between the first bottle and the third of which pills I’d already taken, so I established the habit of moving each one from left to right after I took it.)
Repeated checking CAUSES memory distrust.
In obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) checkers distrust in memory persists despite extensive checking.
Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12600401
A healthy skepticism about the reliability of memory is actually very rational (the subject of the worry is a different story). I’m rather good at remembering facts, but I’m positively terrible at remembering things like “when I leave I must take this item that I usually don’t”. I’ve tried constantly reminding myself, worrying that I’ll forget, and then I occasionally forget anyways. But this sort of memory is very easy to outsource, eg I can misplace my keys, shoes, or glasses on something and then there’s no way I’m forgetting it when I leave, nor do I have to worry. I’ve occasionally forgotten the basement lights on (kick door closed while carrying a basket of laundry, wouldn’t be noticed until next visit to basement or outside at night), now I never close the basement door until I turn off the lights. My street has alternate parking, and I set an alarm so I won’t forget.
If I worried excessively about the state of my door, I’d keep a binary toggle on my keychain, and toggle it when I locked/unlocked the door. Dunno if that would work for OCD, I’m only absent-minded. But locking the door would be a habit with a reliable trigger. I can fight any specific case of absentmindedness easily with a habit and reliable trigger.