folie de doute

[Alan]

Hi,

No, I'm not trying to impress you with my French. It's simply that there doesn't seem to be an expression in English that describes this complaint. It refers to something you experience for example when, having left your house and are half way to work, you start to doubt whether you have left the iron on, have forgotten to lock the back door, have not turned off a heater and so on and so on. People of all ages suffer from this so called folie de doute. I know I do. Do you?

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Communicating with you?

[SkiIucK]

My mother has this 'syndrome', I don't.

[Lost_Soul]

I did. I would get dressed, put on my shoes and then I would start doubting if I had unplugged my computer. I would unlace one of my shoes, take it off and hop () to my room to check. It always turned out that I actually had unplugged it. Then I realized that it was because I was not concentrating on checking that everything was turned off, instead my mind was somewhere else, and I started to make myself be more attentive. Now I don't suffer from it.

[NinaZara]

Alan, I am pretty sure you've started the same thread on this before. But I can't remember the title.

You are not kidding about this syndrome you have, are you?