Making rules for yourself. Is it OCD?

I need to know if this is OCD or if I'm just being a weirdo. I have to do stuff in a certain order. For instance, I exercise 5 days a week as it helps with anxiety. However, I have to do it immediately after my morning coffee or I feel that I can't do it at all and my whole day is ruined in some way.

I get have other similar rules I've made up for myself. It's just that doing certain things in a certain order just feels right and I just feel so anxious if I can't do it. I've recently talked to my pasychiatrist and he said it's OCD and possibly GAD. I have obsessions about acting in inappropriate ways and other stuff, but I doubt it's OCD as I have more than one thing that I obsess about and it changes over time. It was all about chemicals in food and cleaning stuff and giving my partner AIDS a few years back and having to change my clothes constantly until I felt I was wearing the right outfit. I have these obsessions about doing awful things and then there's the stuff about doing things a certain way and cleaning compulsions.

If I know that there's smudges or that I haven't cleaned and I have to go out and do something, I find myself worrying about it and getting really anxious. I just feel that I have to keep things a certain way or I'll lose control. To be honest, this whole thing about doing stuff in the right way is really disruptive to my life. It's fine when I can do it, but the feeling I get if I can't is unbearable and then I can't proceed with anything else when I'm really bad. Is this OCD or am I just an unreasonable weirdo?

I have a similar thing to be honest. At least I think it's similar. Like every weekend I decide I MUST do 15 minutes of juggling and I even set a timer. I like doing it but all the joy has gone out of it because I make myself do it and feel anxious if I don't. During the summer I also make myself do 15 mins skating and 15 mins unicycling every weekend. If my partner suggests I don't need to do it I get all anxious and feel like I simply must do it.

However I'm not sure in my case whether this is part of my OCD or not either. Sorry, that wasn't much help.

Yeah, it sounds pretty much the same. I feel as though I have to do stuff, but I don't think anything bad will happen if I don't. It just makes me super anxious.

Yeah that's how I feel too. I make a lot of lists to remind myself to do stuff, including shower, which is apparently an OCD thing too. I feel anxious without them. And at the weekend I'll add juggling etc to these lists and I feel I have to get everything done or I feel guilty and anxious.

I'm not so into making lists unless it's stuff that I'm worried about forgetting. I get really anxious about housework though. The more I do, the more I notice that needs doing and although it's nice to have a clean house, I feel worn out by it and I don't even enjoy cleaning. There's only me and Mr Shark and it starts to get messy and dirty if I even leave it for a day. There's no logic in it though, because my office is really untidy, yet other rooms are cleaned, dusted and wiped down with antibacterial wipes on a daily basis. It's exhausting.

I don't think I'm always into making lists but I used to at work a lot and sometimes still do. Don't think that qualifies for ocd however.

I don't think lists are always a bad thing or always OCD but I did read something that said 'you have a problem with lists if you've ever added the following to your list' and 'shower' was one of them. Plus even before I knew I had OCD my counsellor said 'we need to work on you living without your lists' and I got al anxious and said 'I can't live without them!'

Come to think of it, I was going through a very bad patch about a year ago and I did constantly write lists and yes, I'd put SHOWER on them and LUNCH and stuff like that.

Lunch is something I never put on a list! Does sound like OCD. Did it make you anxious not writing the lists?

I'm trying to remember - I was in a really bad place at the time and had really bad POCD too. I remember feeling anxious writing the list, like everything had to be on there. Not writing it wasn't an option!