Checking

Or hopefully the pills i am on will reduce the O part of my OCD which mixes with my autism

I can so relate to checking sometimes I return home having walked to the bottom of my road or I turn the car round.The silly thing is I have never not locked the door!

PIlots do this stuff all the same in order to ensure flawless execution of the main task.

Neuro typical pilots try to do it quickly and unobtrusively with style, and learn the checklists by heart.

Me, I liked to get the actual list out and make the period before departure much longer and tedious than perhaps it really needs to be. 

The one time I forgot to do a proper "walkaround", was the one time I took off carrying a preventable defect...

Instructors remarked on my "engineering inspections" and fellow pilots got exasperated real quick, but my position was always "if my well being is partially dependent on me being a bit slow because I have to do more checks than others need to" then I dont; care about being viewed unfavourably by my peers. 

IF I have to do anything important or complex, if I possibly can, I write a checklist first of everything vital to the sucess of the mission, and then work through it methodically, whilst frantically using my spare capacity to see what I've missed off my list. 

THEN the STUFF gets DONE!! 

If I try and "wing it" like a neurotypical , my complete lack of abilty to "magically see into the future and read other peoples minds" (which neurotypicals unquestionably have) causes my life to rapidly develop into something resembling an uncontrollable methane fuellled blaze at a sewerage plant.

I’d suggest making a folder on your photos app specifically for the checking photos, then you can just add them & delete them at the end of the day. I’ve also seen it where people add say, coloured hairbands to the common places they’re worried about, then you can put those on your wrist as a ‘yes I did this because I have the hairband’ reminder.

If I'm going out somewhere, I will check that my purse is in my handbag before I venture out, and also check that my debit card is in my purse. This is because my adult son often uses my debit card (with my consent) to physically go out and purchase shopping for me, and sometimes forgets to give my debit card back to me afterwards.

My front door and back door both require keys to lock them from outside. Immediately after locking my front door or back door, I always feel compelled to check that they are locked before placing my house keys in my handbag (or sometimes my coat pocket). After walking all of about 10 feet away from my house, I then feel compelled to double-check that my keys are in my handbag (or pocket).

For me, I think the need to check these things seems to date back to my childhood, when my parents felt I was mature enough to be trusted with my own key to the family home. The knowledge that if I was careless and lost the key, they would be faced with the inconvenience and expense of calling out a locksmith to change the door lock.

On rare occasions when I have spent more than a day away from my home, I never worry that I may have forgotten to lock the doors to my house, mainly because of my compulsion to check they are locked before I go anywhere. However, I will routinely check inside the zipped pocket inside my handbag to reassure myself that my house keys are still there.

my word i would have a large catalogue but yes in small measures good idea

love it good plan

Cat Loving Man said:

I sometimes end up going back ti the house if I cannot shake it.

How about having a little check list you have to tick off before leaving - you need to complete each task before ticking to be sure you have done them all - then when every box is ticked you trust the process and can go.

Sometimes you have to slow down the steps (eg checking pockets) make sure they are done systematically then just trust yourself. It takes discipline but works.

Try taking pictures of the things you check eg the cats location, the off tap and so on.