Since retiring I've been able to review my life and recognize some aspects of myself that I did not perceive earlier. Have made some positive changes resulting from that introspection. Looking back I acknowledge often having the problem of being a person who doubts themself obsessively. Fear and uncertainty also accompanied this. It has often been difficult to make decisions because I feared I did not have enough knowledge and information. In the article from which the above tweet originates, the psychiatrist notes that doubt can often be something that characterizes a person's obsessive compulsive disorder, OCD. He gives examples of patients who continually check that the door is locked. They repeatedly check it and physically re-lock it."Doubt is not based on insufficient knowledge to make decisions; it’s a behavioral trait," says Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Gerard Neustadt, about the first investigation of the clinical significance of doubt. https://t.co/tqB2ifdilQ pic.twitter.com/UbQKfyVLfT— JohnsHopkinsMedicine (@HopkinsMedicine) November 20, 2018
About 3% of the population has OCD. Some fraction of these include this problem with doubt. Often it limits a person's functioning in life. Cognitive behaviour therapy can work and failing that, antidepressants can be effective.
It would seem the doubt issue would also relate to other personality traits like the ability to take initiative.
I am a very religious person. Every day I read something of a religious nature and ponder it. I do this even though I'm unsure and have many doubts.
