Obsessive Compulsive Behavior

What the underside of the Interthing, with its complete lack of checks and balances on normal human inhibitions, is such a magnet for...

For some reason I often check my zipper to make sure it's up[1] and check my wallet to make sure it's there. This is shaped unpleasant by experiences in which they were not where I expected them. Is this a mild form of OCD?

[1] No, I'm not Tiger Woods or Bill Clinton.

Is checking your zipper and wallet disrupting your life? Is it making you unhappy and preventing you from achieving reasonable goals?

Increasingly, mental health professionals do not define mental illness in terms of behavioural symptoms, but in terms of whether or not behaviour is controllable, disruptive, and/or causing misery. All people exhibit the characteristics of mental illness to a greater or lesser degree, at least some of the time. We all perform repetitive actions that give us comfort, such as your zipper & wallet checking. We all have times when we think others are out to "get" us, or times when our mood is unstable, or gloomy. However, for most of us, these are not disruptive and do not occur continuously. You are not regarded as having OCD, paranoid personality disorder, bipolar disorder, or depression unless these behaviours consistently interfere with achieving happiness and stability for you and those close to you.

Note! There is a big difference between ObsessiveCompulsiveBehavior, and ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder "OCD", which is quite different and often very serious.

Indeed. The latter is a recognised clinical disorder. The former is an informal, casual term having no recognised clinical or academic meaning, though it is sometimes incorrectly used as a synonym for OCD, or at least strongly associated with it. See, for example, http://www.uaf.edu/chc/MentalHealth/OCbehavior.htm