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taryneast comments on Would Your Real Preferences Please Stand Up? - Less Wrong
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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