one of the little things i do that i've never talked about but i think falls into the same family as my food contamination-specific ocd (though nowhere near as severe) is compulsive toothbrush replacement. some of these things seem to flare with stress, so when i was finishing my thesis in the fall i was replacing my toothbrush about once a month if not more often than that (feels shame of wastefulness). i think i went almost two months without replacing my toothbrush this time, but i did open a new one today and i gotta say a fresh, clean, never touched toothbrush really does hit different. new toothbrushes bring me comfort in ways that i fail to be able to articulate but it's a comfort like no other. it's like changing your sheets and taking an everything shower before bed. i mean it's more than that, but that's the closest i will get to describing the feeling i think.
