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I am trying to get over my need to do a certain amount of exercise and walking a week, but it's going to be a slow process. I'm working up gradually, for example starting with timing not using a stopwatch, so slightly less obsessively.

I've realised lately that I have what I think may be a linked minor compulsion. Which is adding it all up in my head. For example, with the walking, on a Monday I'll think 'I did 15 mins to the station this morning then 15 mins to work, half an hour at lunch, 15 mins back to the station after work'. Then I'll work out how much I need to do for the rest of the week. But the next day I'll start to worry I didn't work it out right and go through it all again. And the same the next day etc.

Is this a compulsion? It doesn't take up huge amounts of time. So should I be resisting it or does it not really matter?

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Hi kaheath. The UK government recommends for general health that we walk for a minimum of 150 minutes a week. I too tot up as I go, noting the total at the end of each day. If this is a compulsion, it doesn't seem an overly unhealthy one. May I ask, are you exercising far more than the guidelines suggest?

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Oh dear we seem to have so much in common, I'm told what we are doing is not 'normal'. Most people don't count.

Isn't 150 mins the exercise? I do that. For walking I do 320 minutes a week.

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I think someone else needs to get involved, someone who doesn't have this type of OCD. I've spoken about this on here before and have been told it's OCD and no one counts to meet a target unless they're trying to lose weight.

Please don't be offended!

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I think the difference is the obsessive part. Do you freak out if you don't meet the target? I do.

I'm told these are all guides, not hard and fast rules, but my brain can't see it that way.

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For you, kaheath, it's a compulsion. For others it probably wouldn't be a compulsion. But yours is linked to intrusive thoughts that you must exercise a certain amount or bad things will happen.

Edited by PolarBear
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It is definitely the freaking out aspect of this which is a problem for you. Many people count steps etc. in fact, I wear a fitbit so I can count my steps. I try and walk the recommended 10,000 steps a day but if I don't manage this for whatever reason I just think "oh well" and that's it. I imagine that is what most people do as well.

Also, where this is a compulsion is that you feel that you have to count obsessively otherwise you will feel anxious or think something bad will happen.

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Thanks both.

Its going to take me a while to get over this. I'm starting gradually by stopping using the stopwatch etc. 

Would a step in the right direction (pardon the pun!) to be only working out it all out in my head once and resisting going over it multiple times on subsequent days? Currently I do it every day because each day I worry I got it wrong the day before.

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2 hours ago, kaheath80 said:

only working out it all out in my head once and resisting going over it multiple times on subsequent days?

It sounds to me rather shaky, due to the OCD, working it out in your mind even once can be the mark and the start of the ruminating process.

It seems you have already established a routine. Whether you note it or not, you would have still walked to the station, walked at lunch and walked back to the station after work. Barring any major deviations in routine and route taken, the time or number of steps taken would be more or less rather the same.  

Rather than thinking of the time you spent walking and linking it to health, why not just look forward to it as an enjoyable activity. You may also include other physical activities you enjoy doing e.g bowling, swimming etc to spice up your exercise regimen, make it fun rather than treat it as a quota to meet. 

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Thank you for the advice.

I do do some exercise I enjoy but even with that I make a decision as to how much exercise to count it as. For example, I do an acrobatics class that I love (handstands, somersaults etc), it's an hour class but I count it as half an hour as I panic about the times I'm stood just watching the instructor and queuing behind other people and not actually exercising.

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I count but not obsessively so if I was swimming I would count lengths. I would not count daily totals or worry. I would be aware of how many hours exercise or not I got each week. I might feel a bit like a lazy sloth if I didn't do as much as I should but wouldn't stress over it. 

I would say the counting is OK, checking and worrying you are mis counting and panicking is more ocd. Exercise is great for you if not taken to extreme. A 1 hour class I would count as 1 hour though know what you mean.

Lots of people don't exercise at all and are fine so no need for the panic! 

 

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Thanks, I think I have a minor eating disorder and I've developed OCD rituals around it. If I don't do the 'right' amount I panic I'm going to get fat. If I even do 1 minute less I feel immensely guilty and get upset.

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My biggest OCD symptoms are tied up with other disorders. Eating disorder in this case and with the sex OCD it's tied up with BPD, being scared of losing my wife.

From this week I'm starting an ERP experiment of 4 weeks without planning sex and making my wife do it once a week out of panic. Discussed it with my therapist tonight. It's going to be hard. The hardest thing will be when the thought pops into my head, avoiding ruminating about when we last did it, when we can next do it, how to plan the day around it etc.

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