Ok, this just looking for help. I recently was diagnosed with OCPD, ADHD, depression and social anxiety at 42. The diagnosis caught me off guard but after talking more with the doctor and thinking back at things in the past it started to make more sense to me. I was just wondering what helped everyone else get over items that you can’t change, things that now you feel bad about on a daily basis since learning about what the diagnosis. Also I was asked to talk to another therapist about possible medication, has this helped anyone? Just confused at the moment.

In fact, I can never get myself to do anything when it probably would have truly mattered in the first place.

The process of me even thinking of writing this post was absurdly lengthy. Before I was able to write a title, I searched up the posts here with what I think would be similar to what I would want to say, and see if I can say it in a good, compact, and nuanced way. And even before I could think of ideass to write the body, I looked up each flairs to read and see if I am doing it right by selecting rant and if it is appropriate and correct for the category. And even before any of this, I was formulating the idea of this post in my head for some good of 2 days.

And this is only one small part of my day that it could’ve taken up the time of. I could’ve been done with this, I could’ve said my piece 2 days ago, and I would’ve had time to do other things in the span that this took me.

Even now, I’ve been reading, rereading, rewording, reworking, the flow of my sentences. What goes where, who goes here, where I put my commas, what makes sense, am I covering all bases.

Especially with the fact that I’m a non-native English speaker. I’m thinking in two languages. I’m wanting to make myself be understood as much as possible, to reduce the possibility of my points being misconstrued, or misrepresent someone who would have the same circumstances as I do, as to not offend anyone who may read this, to narrow down who I may slight, because I can’t control how others feel about me.

I am exhausted.

I don’t think I’ve even said what I wanted to say. I can’t even write something to end this post that would be satisfying. This is just how life is for me.

Hello all! My wife are I are suspecting I have OCPD. Honestly at first it was a relief because years ago a therapist and I kept circling around an OCD diagnosis but it just never matched up correctly to my therapist or myself. Whereas OCPD is making a lot of sense. It explains a lot of my anxiety and behavior why some coping strategies for things weren’t clicking either.

But is anyone else in this lovely hellscape that is AuDHD and OCPD?

How did you go about untangling the autistic behaviors from the OCPD ones?

And how?? How do you deal with the two conflicting demons in your brain that are ADHD and OCPD. I saw another user here sum it up perfectly. “ADHD me leaves the house and OCPD has to come back and clean up the mess” yes!!! That’s what it feels like.

Mostly just saying hi and looking for community but also, any advice is welcome!

My therapist recently (sometime in the last 6 months) asked what I wanted to work on and I said the classic OCPD list of all the thing I want to improve - productivity, anxiety, etc. He pointed out that I didn't say "better husband" or "more present dad".

"Of course", I responded. "I want to be more productive and stop doomscrolling social media (which is only Reddit for me) so I can be a better husband and better dad". He pointed out that my issue was that while that may the real motivator for wanting to be better, the best way to actually be better is to get my obsessive personality to obsess about how to be the best husband/dad I can be, instead of finding all the ways my wife/kids are doing things "wrong".

Similarly, Gary Trosclair points out in his podcast (I'm only on episode 19) that one of the best ways to deal with OCPD is by turning the obsessive-compulsive on it's head, which I think means asking oneself why they are obsessing about a particular thing, and perhaps even obsessing about why they are so obsessive about that thing. This sort of gets one's brain to move out of status-quo and into more critical thinking about why they are acting that way, and if there is perhaps a better way to achieve those goals. Of course, we should then make sure we stay open to new ideas and not fall into old habits of "this is the way, the only way, and all others are wrong!!!".

With that said - I'm finding it sort of difficult to get myself obsessed with being the best husband/dad I can be instead of criticizing my family members. I can easily get obsessed by ideas, often leading me to read tons on the subject, build Excel models and lists, and do all the regular obsessive things we do best when we are in "full OCPD" mode. Yet, I cannot get myself to be more interested in being a better dad or husband. And this is bothering me....but not enough that I'm doing anything about it, other than listen to Gary's podcast, and type this post.

So my fellow OCPDers - how do you get yourself fully obsessed about a topic you aren't really obsessed with?

I was told by one of my more recent therapists that I have OCPD traits and I think the title seems to be one of my most problematic OCPD issues. I am a major planner for the future and I will invest so much time and energy into making sure that certain significant milestones or big events in my life go to plan with as little risk as possible, be they in my relationship, job, etc. Especially in the relationship realm since there are other people and personalities in play, sometimes things do not go to plan and whatever milestone or event I’ve meticulously planned and safeguarded against harm still gets fucked up by someone else’s actions outside of my control.

I find this immensely difficult to cope with to the point of getting suicidal over it—I know it sounds dramatic, but I get completely freaked out that this imperfect (and often negative) situation is now part of my life forever and cannot be undone. Some main examples from my relationships include trying to choose safe partners to explore sexually with, but them treating me poorly or blowing up the relationship or something, which makes me subsequently get totally suicidal because I can’t accept that for all my planning and meticulously choosing a “safe” partner, the situation still bit me in the ass and now this important sexual exploration that should have been a positive experience is ruined in hindsight and I don’t want to accept the truth of what happened or what negative things were done to me. I get so upset at the idea that I have to accept that others have treated me poorly with no explanation, or that my plans cannot be perfected so as to avoid all pain—so upset that I would rather opt out of life than integrate some nuance and acceptance of pain into my worldview.

I don’t know if I’m explaining it well but does anyone else get the urge to basically rage (or despair)-quit life because they don’t feel able to accept situations that happened to them that went negatively for reasons out of their control despite all their planning!? How did you deal with this mindset where you’d rather die than dismantle the rigidity of your plans and desires and accept that bad things happened that were out of your control?? I just truly don’t know how to accept that these things happened to me when I did everything in my power and then some to plan for positive outcomes and still someone’s behavior outside my control feels like it ruined my whole experience

ike i imagine unfinished tasks as a bunch of unclosed circles in my brain. and I cannot calm down until those circles close (the task gets done or I’m certain about the direction or the task/ my ability to compete it). Big projects with lots of grey area are the worst for this.

I make a list of tasks I want to get done. It’s often unrealistic for the day. but I don’t feel safe until everything is checked of. I’ve had insomnia for the last 4 year due to this, as I cannot sleep due to feeling I have so many tasks to do, some of which are unnessesary (like checking things over at work).

This can manifest in different ways . Unfinished tasks, or obsessing over the number of hours I worked (reworking hours where I wasn’t completely focused, as I feel uncomfortable working less than 40 focused hrs). Or when I was in school, I couldn’t feel safe until I applied to over 100 internships. But that’s so many to apply to, I never applied to that many. It’s like I cannot meet my standards of safety around tasks….

like I say if i can meet/do x, then I am safe. If not, I must keep trying to meet/do x, or else something bad will happen. This is all due to fear. the more I’m exposed to how other work, the more I understand that my way of going about tasks isn’t normal. I still feel a need to do this though, In order to feel in control and safe. This is all mainly for work tasks. But if my work tasks are really stressful, it’ll flow into home tasks too

I’ve been struggling with something for a long time and I’m trying to understand if it’s related to OCPD or something else.

I have this strong tendency to take responsibility for solving other people’s problems — family, siblings, friends, anyone who casually shares something with me. It can be anything: relationship issues, financial stress, life decisions… I feel like it becomes my responsibility to fix it.

If I don’t help, I feel guilty — almost like I’m being cruel or abandoning them. I keep thinking “what if something goes wrong and I could have helped?” or “I’ll regret this later.” Because of that, I end up taking on way too much, emotionally and sometimes even financially.

The problem is, it’s exhausting. I get overwhelmed, stressed, and burned out trying to “fix” everything. And when I can’t help, it affects my mental health badly.

What confuses me is that I see other people just listen and move on. They don’t feel responsible for fixing everything, and they seem much more peaceful. I genuinely don’t understand how they do that — it feels almost impossible for me.

Somehow I also feel like people expect me to help, even if they haven’t explicitly said it. I end up sacrificing my time, money, and peace, and still feel like it’s not enough.
I’ve tried to ignore it or step back, but I can’t seem to change this pattern.

Does anyone else experience this? Is this related to OCPD traits, or something else? And if you’ve dealt with this, how did you start setting boundaries or changing this behavior?

I really want to stop feeling this constant responsibility and protect my mental health.

Excellent video from Emma McAdams' Therapy in a Nutshell channel: How to make yourself do stuff when you're paralyzed with overwhelm.

She mentions body doubling/accountability partners. I've done this. I met with an acquaintance on Zoom three times, and we did tasks that we had been avoiding. I had been procrastinating on going through several hundred pages of Word Documents--notes for my first career, many years ago. Having an accountability partner was very helpful.

She recommends The Anti-Planner. It's very expensive. My local library has a copy. Another popular planner that's affordable: Freedom Mastery Daily Journal of Gratitude, Productivity & Habit Tracker | ADHD Planner.

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I have a lot of old textbooks that I will probably never use again because I switched careers. It feels absolutely awful to throw them away. They are out of date and have no value. I just can't throw them away. I also don't have space for them.

It's not just textbooks. It's everything. My mom passed away and I'm having to downsize my belongings to fit them in my apartment. Old t shirts, old art projects, and important things.

Going through my old assignments and recycling the paper got to be too much and I started crying and had to stop. I've been graduated for 20 years. There's logically no reason to be this upset about it.

It is making it extremely hard to clean out my mom's house. Before my mom passed one thing she was doing was going through old notebooks and tearing out the used pages and keeping the half used notebooks. I recognized this was a poor use of her time. Then as I was going through my old school supplies I noticed I was doing the same exact thing.

My brother thinks we can just sit down and talk about it and figure it out. That hasn't went well in the past.

I'm meeting with my counselor on Tuesday to talk about it. It is stuff that has significant value, stuff that has no significant value. My apartment is completely full right now so I don't have space to move stuff too. So I need to go through that too.

Any advice is appreciated.

When I had undiagnosed OCPD, my coping strategies were repressing my feelings, compulsive organizing and researching, over preoccupation with work, binge eating, maladaptive daydreaming, and overuse of screens.

Therapy And Coping Strategies For Perfectionism has the healthy coping strategies that I developed over 18 months after being diagnosed with OCPD.

When I’m alone, I talk to myself out loud. For six months or so, I said phrases in responses to my OCPDish cognitive distortions. This strategy led to me doing an audio journal, recording myself on my phone.

Hearing my voice makes it much easier to identify and manage my feelings. I can hear myself using humor to deflect distressing emotions and using anger to escape fear and sadness. I've made a few recordings of myself when I finally cried about distressing events.

I listen to the recordings several times, and am mindful of not making too many recordings (that would lead to overthinking). It’s interesting to hear my voice on a recording; it helps me be more aware of my communication style.

One helpful audio journal entry was about my realization that I'd been having the unconscious thought that I should feel proud of myself for being in remission from OCPD. I stated a fact, “I’m not proud of myself for recovering,” and talked about the likely reason—my family of origin didn’t really celebrate anything (not even my sister’s graduation from Yale Law School). Shortly after listening to the recording, I began to feel pride about my recovery.

I make recordings about positive events too. I wished I had discovered this strategy sooner; it's extremely helpful in maintaining my progress of 'feeling my feelings.'

I’ve started a written journal, using the mini habit approach that helped a lot with OCPD symptoms. My goal is to write one sentence a day. Eventually, I’ll increase the goal.

Research indicates that keeping a journal has a significant positive impact on mental health. In Be Happy Without Being Perfect (2008), Alice Domar reports, “James Pennebaker, Ph.D., a researcher at the University of Texas, Austin, has conducted extensive research on the benefits of writing about emotional upheavels. He and other scientists have found that journaling about disturbing topics can boost immune function, cause people to develop fewer illnesses, relieve pain, improve mood, and decrease depression and anxiety.” (77)

Does anyone else find journaling helpful?

When I had undiagnosed OCPD, my coping strategies were repressing my feelings, compulsive organizing and researching, overpreoccupation with work, binge eating, maladaptive daydreaming, and overuse of screens.

Therapy And Coping Strategies For Perfectionism has the healthy coping strategies that I developed over 18 months after being diagnosed with OCPD. A strategy that I developed recently:

I watched a video of a CBT presentation for mental health providers. The presenter used this strategy with a psychiatrist who was feeling shame about needing mental health services. With her permission, he voiced the critical thoughts she had been having, and she naturally defended herself in response. Overcoming Perfectionism: CBT Tools for Mastering the Art of Self-Acceptance (1 hour, 20 minutes in).

I made a recording on my phone criticizing myself for having a very unhealthy friendship. After 18 months, I spoke to the friend about his hurtful behaviors. A week later, he made a dismissive comment about my history of suicidality. I asked him not to speak about the incident that ended our friendship with our mutual friends, saying it would be triggering. Knowing that I had a 25 year history of suicidality, he spoke about me to them anyway.

I slept poorly for many months, and was overwhelmed with trauma symptoms (due to my history of family members dismissing my suicidality). I felt furious at him, and even angrier at myself for ignoring my intuition countless times about the unhealthy friendship.

After listening to my critical recording—imagining that it was someone else criticizing me—I made another recording defending myself. I said that I had been very vulnerable when I met him for 19 reasons (yes, I made a list lol), for example, being terrified about possibly needing two surgeries. I said that some of his behaviors reflected his mental illness (covert narcissism tendencies) and had nothing to do with me.

Using the devil’s advocate strategy helped me process the biggest trigger I’ve experienced in many years, and let go of resentment that had lasted a year. I let go of my mutual friends of the former friend. It was too painful knowing they idolized him. It was a bizarre situation, and I know there is virtually no chance of it happening again. The last year was painful, but I survived the flood of emotions and trauma triggers.

Comments are locked due to an insensitive comment to my prior post about my suicide history.

Before my diagnosis I was going through the most horrible time of my life the only reason I kept going was to take care of my dog since I knew no one else would.

fast forward I have been diagnosed like 3 months ago and ever since I have been getting better dealing with my black and white thinking and all that.

Yesterday my dog passed away all of a sudden. She was all vibrant and happy on our morning walk. Mid day I noticed she wasn't well so I took her to the vet and they gave her some stuff. Late at night she wasn't getting better so I took her and drove an hour to the nearest animal hospital and when we arrived I opened the back door and well she was gone she passed away on the way there.

I don't want to get into details but the thing is she was my anchor and the reason I kept going and I feel like I am going to slip back and without her I fear there js no safety net to stop me from doing something stupid

I have been snooping around here for a few months now, and it has been very validating to hear people's similar experiences. I am 90% sure I "have" OCPD, and have been thinking about seeking professional diagnosis through free services at my college.

But I feel that I am high-functioning. Being an engineering student is incredibly demanding for me, and the only way I can feel on track is if all my boxes get ticked and I can feel that I am firing on all cylinders.

I am lucky enough to have a great partner and, while there have been tears (due to my suspected OCPD), we have a very healthy relationship. Outside light clashes with my parents, my social life is unaffected.

I am definitely rambling now, but I just don't see how a diagnose could help me. If I am honest, it feels like a possible threat to my current balance. I have never been to any kind of therapy.

Does anyone have any guidance or even a question that might help things be clearer?

my background: Great childhood and loving parents, definitely rule out any other mental health issues, no ADHD no OCD. I likely developed this from my dad's similar tendencies compounded with my own standards for myself.

I’m super obsessed with finding out the correct disorders I have. I know I have them (as something has felt wrong with me from the very beginning), and I spend a lot of my time ruminating and researching and asking questions to try and figure out the right diagnosis(s). I question every behavior I have. But I find I’m so focused on figuring out what it is that I don’t really focus on the “getting better” part. Whenever I’m in therapy, my therapists say I’m too hung up on the diagnosis and that I’m not looking at the bigger picture. That I’m distracting myself from working towards getting better. Kinda like how when I was in ED treatment, I felt like I couldn’t work in my ED until I worked on my trauma. My therapist said I was too focused on details.

But also there is a part of me that feels like nothing is wrong at all and my way of doing things is just the correct way. I’m definitely very rigid and stubborn in my thinking.

In my mind, I have to find out the right diagnosis’s in order to receive the correct treatment. And also, finding out the actual diagnosis’s will just help me feel more in control of my mind. It feels chaotic (probably due to my diagnosis’s of ADHD and BPD) and I hate that feeling.

I’ve been struggling with OCPD for a while now, and honestly, I’m feeling really tired of how much it affects my daily life, thoughts, and relationships.

I’ve been trying to understand it better and work on it, but sometimes it just feels overwhelming and never-ending. I was wondering if anyone here has read any books that genuinely helped you understand OCPD and manage it better?

Did any book actually make a difference for you in terms of awareness or practical changes?

I’d really appreciate any recommendations or even personal experiences. At this point, I just want to feel a bit more in control and less drained by it.

My therapist diagnosed me with OCPD today and after doing some (extensive) research, I pretty much check every box - especially with perfectionism, frugality, the constant need to be productive, and to do everything the most effective and efficient way.

While a diagnosis is validating, it doesn’t necessarily help me.

What are some tips/tricks that have helped you?

I am sorry this might turn into a rant.

I am looking to gain a different perspective on how I view some things in life. I realised once I had written this out that it may offend some people and that is not my intention at all. I have come to realise my way of thinking is perhaps a bit distorted and judgmental, hence why I want peoples perspectives and approach to change my thought processes. I do not want to think this way about others I truly believe I can’t help it, my brain just automatically makes these judgements.

This is one of the things I realised I judge people about.

I live a very simple life and don’t like to consume outside of necessities.
When I do consume something I would say I am very thoughtful with my purchases.

I will research extensively the best product to fit my needs and once I have finally found the right product (this can be an extremely long time) I will wait sometime to figure out if I really need this product. I hardly ever impulse buy or purchase something that isn’t an essential item. (When I do make an impulse purchase or something out of alignment with these rules I have immense guilt)

Purchases I make are strongly based around its environmental impact. I do believe that paying the cost for something more ethically produced and that has a lower carbon footprint is very important to me, but I will also search every possible way to get that product at the best price (even if that means waiting a long time for a sale).

I hate capitalism and I hate that global warming is not being taken as seriously around the world as it should be. By everyone corporations, governments and consumers included.

Because I live this way I can’t understand why other people can’t be thoughtful with their own consumption habits?? Why is that so hard for people to do? I really don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to make sure you are not further contributing to destroying this beautiful world?

I realise I judge a lot of people based on these beliefs, I find myself judging my friends for overconsumption and their spending habits. I judge people by what type of car they drive - I don’t understand why everyone needs these giant over the top cars these days? I understand in some circumstances e.g rural living this might be acceptable. But people have these obnoxiously large cars as their everyday commuting car?? They might take it out camping maybe once or twice a year at most? I really don’t understand this? I feel they are completely unnecessary and should have never been put out on the market. (I am sorry if you are reading this and have one of those cars and it offends you)

This is just one area of living I judge people for. I could go into more but the rant is already too long.

How do I stop automatically judging people like this? I feel like it is such a big issue that could be helped if the world was a little more thoughtful in their actions and a little more comfortable with having less. I just don’t see how I can change that belief, I think it is morally wrong to contribute to the destruction of this planet.

​

I could really use some advice or hear from people with similar experiences.

My biggest issue is that I just can't start tasks—especially difficult ones, but sometimes even very simple ones too. It feels like task initiation paralysis, and I have chronic procrastination. This has been going on since at least college, and I think it may have been present in school as well, although I don't remember clearly.

My first psychiatrist completely ruled out ADHD and said my problems were due to anxiety and perfectionism.

Since last September, I've tried several medications:

Paroxetine – no benefit, so I stopped it.

Venlafaxine – started at 37.5 mg and increased to 75 mg, but it didn't help either.

I'm now on fluoxetine and have only been taking it for a few days, so it's too early to know if it will help.

I've also tried therapy, but it didn't make much difference.

My current psychiatrist said she doesn't want to prescribe non-stimulants like bupropion or atomoxetine because she thinks they could worsen my anxiety.

I do have anxiety, but honestly my biggest problem is not worrying—it's that I feel unable to initiate tasks, even when I want to do them.

Has anyone else experienced this? If so, what helped you? Did it turn out to be anxiety, ADHD, something else, or a combination?

almost a year ago (361 days to be exact) i came here for help about how to balance my whack work-life-study balance. at that point i was 6 months into my undergrad dissertation/honours, starting a new job with twice the amount of hours, settling into a new place to call home, mourning the loss of my childhood dog + a long-term best friend (he didn’t pass away, he was just a dick lol). i spent 6 days a week either fitting 6 days of work into 4 or studying, and spent my 1 day off cleaning. i felt trapped in a system that i had created, and it was slowly driving my insane. it hurt knowing that i was doing everything i loved and achieving everything i wanted but it still wasn’t enough because that little voice inside me wasn’t satisfied.

i took everyone’s advice and i asked for help. i got a medical extension at university that allowed me extend my dissertation deadline from october last year to early february this year. while studying i was able to drop down from working 4 days to 3. work granted me the entire month of january off (mostly annual leave, but they also included some paid days for ‘professional development’) to finish up my dissertation. because i had this extra time and space to look after myself, i ended up getting first class in my dissertation, graduating in august, and i am absolutely killing it at work. it was in no way a linear road, and i continued to/still sometimes do overwork myself. but i now have time to do things that i enjoy (i’ve started reading again without feeling guilty for the first time in 10 years, i’ve gotten back into art, i have so many hobbies!!!) and i see my friends and loved ones at least once a week.

apologies for the long winded post (or if this is against the rules), i just wanted to thank everyone. whether it was a comment under the post with advice, or a post sharing similar experiences, reading through this sub helped me realise that i didn’t have to walk on my knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. i don’t know where i’d be without that support. i also hope that if you’re going through similar struggles to PLEASE talk to someone, you have more people in your corner wanting you to succeed and flourish than you think :)

I had a bit of a life awakening recently and realised I have been taking a lot of risks due to my issues with frugality. Every time spending money comes up I block safe options. As a young adult I had very little money and lived in fear always. However, my situation today is much better but my mind seems to automatically take the higher risk route without realising so as to save $$$. I struggle with understanding how much money is fine to spend on something. Anyone else have this issue?

Okay but what in the ruddy FUCK do you mean by that.

There are very few times in my life where I did my theoretical best at anything. And honestly, most people can say the same thing. If it's, say, going for a run, that literally means running so hard you throw up and still continuing, only stopping when your body literally involuntarily collapses or has a heart attack. If it's studying for and doing a test, that means studying for 15 hours a day only breaking to sleep and eat.

And if that's not what I did, by DEFINITION I did NOT do my best. So don't tell me that.

Do you mean 'my best' is doing something proportionally based on the amount of motivation that I have? Couldn't that refer to me doing anything ever, as the amount of motivation that I have is subjective and I can define it any way I want? That makes the saying redundant and useless.

I also feel like it absolves people, which can be me, of accountability when they fuck up.

I hate this saying.

“At its most basic level, perfectionism is what a person does to gain acceptance.” Thomas Greenspoon, Freeing Our Families From Perfectionism (2002), pg. 88

People with OCPD “hold fast to the belief that they will be cared for, valued, and loved in direct proportion to their hard work and monumental accomplishments. This belief structure comes with a significant liability: They fear that failure to perform perfectly will provoke both abandonment and condemnation, which creates considerable inner sensations of tension and guilt.” Theodore Millon and colleagues, Personality Disorders in Modern Life (2004), pg. 230

From Embracing Your Inner Critic (1993), Dr. Hal Stone and Dr. Sidra Stone:

“Some aspects of your behavior make your parents pretty uncomfortable. They do not like it when you interrupt them, when you are noisy, when you are angry, or when you cannot sit still…When you do not obey them, they get annoyed…In order to protect ourselves from the pain and the shame of always being found less than we should be, a voice develops within us that echoes the concerns of our parents, our church, or of other people who were important to us in our early years.” (8-9)

We “develop a ‘self,’ a separate subpersonality, that criticizes us before our parents—or anyone else, for that matter—can. The Inner Critic is a self…that develops to protect us from being shamed or hurt. It is extremely anxious, almost desperate, for us to succeed in the world and to be accepted and liked by others.” (9)

The Inner Critic “wants you to be loved, to be successful, to be accepted…It developed in your early years to [help you]…adapt to the world around you and to meet its requirements…to make you acceptable to others by criticizing and correcting your behavior before other people could criticize or reject you…” (11)

“However, the Inner Critic often does not know when to stop. It does not know when enough is enough…Its original intent gets lost…Like a well-trained CIA agent, the Inner Critic has learned how to infiltrate every portion of your life, checking you out in minute detail for weakness and imperfections…it must know everything about you that might be open to attack from the outside.” (11-12)

“But like a renegade CIA agent, at some point the Critic…begins to operate on its own agenda. The information, which was originally supposed to be for your overall defense…is now being used against you…With your Inner Critic watching your every move, you become self-conscious…[and] fearful...” (12)

When their therapy clients address the concerns of the Inner Critic, it becomes “a positive parent who supports you, makes your risk taking safe, and allows you to be creative…It helps you to set appropriate boundaries…[I]t analyzes events and feelings coolly, without making either you or others wrong. [It helps you]…behave appropriately and with self-discipline.” (210)

RESOURCES

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Recognizing Cognitive Distortions – strategies for responding to the Inner Critic

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r/OCPD members have expressed interest in a sub with looser guidelines. If you would like to moderate OCPDCommunity, let me know. I will send you a Mod invite, and I will leave as a Mod. There are subReddits for Mods to ask questions, and I would be available to answer questions.

Some new neighbors moved in a month ago. They've got a couple kids, so by default they're pretty loud. They scream all evening long on weekdays and all day on the weekends. This would be moderately tolerable if they weren't constantly blasting music with bass turned up all the way all fucking day. I live in a trailer park so it is quite literally inescapable. My porch used to be my safe space and I can't even enjoy it anymore.

The music is JUST under 50 decibels so he's not technically violating any laws. I'm gonna document over the next few weeks and send it to management. I honestly just don't know how not to crash out on this inconsiderate motherfucker. How rude do you have to be to BLAST music for the entire neighborhood to hear? Why can't you enjoy it at a reasonable volume? I don't get it man I'm ready to blast the bagpipes as loud as I can so he'll get the message