"My indecision shows itself the moment I awake in the morning. I start to get up; then it occurs to me that perhaps I ought not to get up immediately. So I lie down again, wondering just what I ought to do. I am beset by doubts. Not until somebody enters my room and insists on my rising can I bring myself to do so.
"At once a terrible conflict begins within me as to the clothes I should wear. Every article of my clothing has to be carefully considered. It is as if a vital problem had to be solved. Sometimes, after I am dressed, the thought strikes me that my underwear may be too light, or too heavy, or that something else is the matter with it.
"Then I have to undress and put on fresh underwear, which I minutely inspect. Or, perhaps, it is my shirt that troubles me, or the pattern of my neck-tie, or the suit I have put on.
"Always I fear that I have made a mistake in some way. Dressing consequently becomes an endless process to me. Even with help—and I nearly always have to be helped—it is two or three hours before I am finally dressed."
Consider also the case of a morbid doubter who was successfully treated by that well-known New England medical psychologist, Doctor Boris Sidis. In this case, doubting was only one of several disease symptoms. Here, somewhat abridged, is Doctor Sidis's own account of his patient's indulgence in trivial doubts:
"The patient is troubled by a form of folie de doute. He is not sure that the addresses on his letters are correctly written; and, no matter how many times he may read them over, he cannot feel assured that the addresses are correct. Some one else must read them and assure him that they are addressed correctly.
"When he has to write many letters, sometimes a sudden fear gets possession of him that he has interchanged the letters and put them into the wrong envelopes. He has then to tear open the envelopes and look the letters over again and again, to assure himself that they have been put by him into the right envelopes.
"Similarly, in turning out the gas jet, he must needs try it over again and again, and is often forced to get up from bed to try again whether the gas is 'really' shut off. He lights the gas, then tests the gas jet with a lighted match, to see whether the gas leaks and is 'really' completely shut off.
"In closing the door of his room, he must try the lock over and over again. He locks the door, and then unlocks it again, then locks it once more. Still, he is not sure. He then must shake it violently, so as to get the full assurance that the door has been actually and 'really' locked."[11]