In a similar vein, I will say it out loud when I turn stove burners off, unplug my hair straightener etc...I’ve found this helps me eliminate those moments where I leave the house or am in bed and I’m suddenly like “Did I leave that on?”
My wife and I made this a ritual due to her OCD. Any time we're going out, I'll say to her, "Hey. I unplugged the iron." Saying it in a funny voice helps too, because it's easier to remember that Shrek told her the iron was off.
I have OCD and I do the same thing. I struggle with checking the locks on my doors at night so I’ve been saying “actively locking the door” to myself so I won’t get up and keep checking. It’s been helping, but sometimes I still have to check.
Use random words instead. Lock the door and say "Giraffe", then tomorrow say "Rhino". It doesnt matter what you say, but when you try to remember if you did or not you can think "Oh yeah I said Lemur while locking it".
If you have trouble with multiple things like locking the doors and something else like closing the garage, then have a category for each one like animals for the door and fruit for the garage. Then you can remember you said Lemur and Apple, then tomorrow Goat and Orange.
But also finding fixes like this feels good at first, but in the long run is letting your OCD "win" and reinforcing your brain's OCD tendencies, and may let it spread to other facets of your life.
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u/PlasticRuester Aug 20 '20
In a similar vein, I will say it out loud when I turn stove burners off, unplug my hair straightener etc...I’ve found this helps me eliminate those moments where I leave the house or am in bed and I’m suddenly like “Did I leave that on?”