Please help me, Struggling with my OCD

My therapist is making me for ocd work color outside the lines of a coloring book picture bc I am a perfectionist and he wants me to be ok with imperfection. Because of my ocd, coloring outside the lines, with flat crayons, broken crayons, etc.. are torture for me. I know this may sound silly. I am struggling right now so much. My anxiety is really high. Can anyone relate in any way? Does anyone have any suggestions to help me?

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

(((lori5780))) - I don't have OCD but I wanted you to know someone cares. Sorry your anxiety is high and you're struggling. Are you on medication and is your therapist knowledgeable with OCD? There's a good book called 'My Life In Rewind'. How about you try to be perfect at being sloppy. Close your eyes and let the crayon go wild. Arts in the eye of the beholder, so it doesn't have to be perfect.

Ive no advice really other than to just try and work with it. Im a perfectionist too so i understand it must be so difficult for you. Perhaps try using a favourite colour so you don't mind it going everywhere or perhaps you could work on the pictures you don't really like so much first of all so you get used to the exercise. Good luck sweetie - we're all here for you

My T suggested this same thing once. She actually suggested just scribbling on paper, and I just cringed. Nope, I really can not do it. My concession was just dumping the crayons in to a tin without organizing them...a small step, but I'm working on it.

Honestly, I find coloring within the lines very calming, relaxing. It's a nice mindless task that allows me to let go of some anxiety. Trying to actively color "wrong" by coloring outside the lines is stressful and difficult.

So, I understand what you're going through...no advice on how to actually do the coloring outside the lines, though. I simply told my T it wasn't an activity I thought would be useful for me.