Posted by Paul Seidel on July 1, 2003, at 14:55:59
In reply to Indecisiveness., posted by Questionmark on April 7, 2003, at 17:43:45
Hi Questionmark,
If you think you have OCPD you might want to check out my support forum for those with OCPD, it's at
Indecisiveness is certainly one of the criteria for OCPD. I am very indecisive myself. I recall a trip I took to Univ. of California at Berkeley and I stopped at one of the foot trails there unable to decide which path to take and I just stood there frozen. It seemed to me that at that point in my life it made absolutely no difference which path I took and I couldn't think of any reason to pick one over the other.
Ambivalence is an integral part of OCPD. Part of it is being so out of touch with your feelings that you have no idea what you want, so you don't have the inner compass that normal people use to make everyday decisions. For example, to decide what kind of ice cream to have normal people will go by what they'd like at the time. Someone with OCPD will try to use some external standard to decide which is the "best" choice. They may consider the fat content, what they had last time, what other people are having, whether it has nuts and then consider whether nuts are healthy or not, that kind of thing. They look at it from the outside in and from the point of view of what is "right" instead of from their own point of view. Another reason someone with OCPD has trouble deciding is they don't want to shut off a possibility that might prove better in the near future. In other words, they want to do the right thing and not make a mistake. This has been called "obsessional indecision" or "paralysis of the will".
We have about 35 members so far and you are welcome to join. You are not alone.
Sincerely, Paul
poster:Paul Seidel
thread:217112
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030701/msgs/238505.html