Originally Posted by
Rumpo
I'd say intrusive thoughts are a hallmark feature of OCD, actually. I believe intrusive thoughts like you're describing are mostly associated with OCD. They're often the root/cause of an obsession (you get an intrusive thought about something and engage with it, it becomes an obsession, and you often start performing compulsions as a means to temporarily gain relief from the anxiety that the obsession causes). Your checking of the boiler sounds like a pretty good example of a compulsion. It might help to ask yourself why you did that, if you can remember. A good way for me personally to identify when I'm doing a compulsion as a means of coping with OCD is how urgent it feels. For example, if you feel like you HAVE to check the boiler right now and you can't get any relief UNTIL you do so, this reminds me a lot of OCD.
Something else that really resonates with me as someone who's been diagnosed with OCD is that you mention that it feels like you MUST know all you can about the extractor fan. I believe much of OCD anxiety stems from some degree of uncertainty and not being able to tolerate this. I would definitely encourage you to look into OCD - contamination and false memory OCD might feel especially relevant to you. You might be amazed by how deeply it can affect you. Some people with false memory OCD 'feel' that they might have hit someone with their car, even though they don't remember an accident, so they go and check the car to look for evidence... then they ruminate about it further and come up with more reasons why they might have hit someone, check again...
Also, you definitely don't need to be highly organised to have OCD. There's Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder, and OCD, and the latter is an anxiety disorder, the former is often what people think of when they associate OCD with being obsessive about tiny details, extremely organised/clean, etc. As far as you not having a ritual, I'm not sure what your therapist meant exactly, but some of what you've described sounds very similar to OCD compulsions based on my own experiences and the experiences of many others. Even thinking obsessively about something can be a compulsion in and of itself, which not all mental health professionals appreciate, unfortunately.
I hope that helped a bit! Please feel free to send me a PM or reply here if you have any more questions or would like to discuss. In any case, I would strongly encourage you to check out the International OCD Foundation's website to read a bit more about OCD and what it's like to live with it. I personally had pretty mild OCD-ish features up until last year, when it got quite bad (aged 23). It is definitely possible that it's gotten worse or changed over time and it's only now that you could meet the diagnostic criteria.