PTSD has me repeating little things that don’t make sense even to me. One example is checking the front door over and over before bed. I know I locked it, and I can usually see the bolt in place, but a few minutes later I’m back there touching the handle again. Sometimes I restart the whole routine if I get distracted halfway through.
I remember doing this more intensely after a bad incident years ago. I’d check the windows, the stove, and the locks in a certain order, because changing the order made me feel like I’d missed something. The relief only lasted a minute, then the doubt came back. It feels less like a choice and more like my brain is trying to prevent something from happening again.
Has anyone found a way to interrupt these repetitive habits without making the anxiety even worse?
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Robin, the “restart the whole routine if I get distracted” part sounds exhausting. I used to treat that interruption like proof the check didn’t count, which only made the loop stronger.
One thing that helped was taking a quick photo of the locked door and stove, then setting a firm rule that I could look at the photo once but couldn’t go back to recheck. The anxiety still showed up, especially at first, but I practiced letting it sit there instead of trying to get perfect relief. A therapist can also help tailor this, since pushing too hard can backfire.
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The photo idea makes sense, especially treating it as a limit instead of another way to check forever. I’ve used a similar rule with my phone and had to accept that feeling unsure doesn’t automatically mean I forgot something.
The hardest part was not going back for “just one more” look. Letting the anxiety fade on its own took longer than I expected, but it did eventually drop.