Being bothered by stupid stuff

[Ohgoland]

I‘ve always been a bit picky with things, in that they have to be ‘just right’. I’m absolutely a perfectionist.

But recently my pickiness is embarrassing me at work. For example, we always have our meetings in a colleague’s office. The window handles are always slightly askew. I can’t concentrate when they are like that and it really distracts me. To the point I get up and correct them. My colleagues look at me like I have three heads but I feel at ease once they are straight and can get on with the meeting.

I don’t want to look like a freak at work but I also
don’t want to sit in a room with wonky window handles. Please tell me that someone relates to this?! And how have you dealt with it?

Your habits seem perfectly normal to me. I would do the same, along with making sure plug switches are off, pens face the same way, paper is in an orderly stack etc etc. I don’t like things to be messy or askew, even a wonky coaster or wonky label on something ‘bother’ me
My colleagues have got used to me being like this and a couple of them will straighten things out before I spot it bless them.
I’m the same at home; dining chairs, cushions etc etc etc all have to just so. To me it’s about things being near and orderly

It sounds like OCD? Many years ago I had a session with a psychiatrist. He'd purposely moved a picture so it wasn't hanging straight. He asked me if it bothered me? It was to test for OCD tendnacies.

I wouldn't call that a perfectionist. It is OCD does it make you feel anxious. You don't mention about home is that the same. Do you have children.

As long as you don’t correct people a lot then it’s fine to have these habits

I’m not sure if anxious would be the right word. It just really annoys me and distracts me, to the point I can’t concentrate on anything else until it is sorted. At home I have the same issue, it’s often the curtains that bother me. They have to be just right. My house is by no means orderly and that doesn’t bother me. Yes I have 2 DC

I think you might be me! It's all I can notice and makes it's really hard to focus on other stuff. Yet my house is messy and that's fine, but a crooked picture (or window handle)? Oh dear god no!!

I can completely relate to this , i don't consider myself to have ocd and i'm certainly not a tidy/clean freak but little details like this have the same effect on me.
Last night my duvet was not 'lined' up correctly in the cover and i could feel a bit of it sort of folded over inside - i know it sounds nuts ! i had to get out of bed and sort it out otherwise it would have driven me mad .
I'm like it with furniture positions /angles too , i may only have to move something by a couple of inches but when i do i know it's immediately better and i can relax.

It’s not necessarily OCD as what you are describing is the thing directly in front of you. I would fix something directly in front of me if I was going to stare at it, if I didn’t want to fix the handles I’d pick a chair facing into the room and the handles being askew behind me wouldn’t bother me.

My entire house is a mess but if I was watching tv in the evening and there was an actual pile of washing in front of it I’d move the washing.

Noticing it and it irritating you is one thing, but not being able to concentrate until you’ve fixed it is something else. Especially when you are at work. There’s always something thats going to be “off”.Plus its a bit disrespectful to your work colleagues if you are not concentrating on the meeting because of something minor.

I’m not being unsympathetic - I have been known to get distracted by stuff like this in the past - but you need to find some coping mechanisms really.

What would happen if you sat with your back to the windows, so you didn't see their wonky handles?

It does sound like OCD, in that it's a compulsion and you can't concentrate on your work until you have 'fixed' them.