Hello Ellen :)

What you describe sounds to me like an obsessive compulsive disorder.
OCD seems to be very common and not at all unusual.
My OCD is counting...
Counting cows in a field, counting birds on telephone wires, counting words, counting the number of letters in the words and so on.
Keep up with the CBT and your compulsion will get better and the pictures you take will truly be ones just because you really want the picture. :)

Hello,

I don't know if anyone has any advice for me.
My problem isn't really that I can't get rid of items, I usually can, although it isn't easy. My obsession is with taking photo's. It had come to a point, where I would obsess about taking pictures of useless things in let's say a restaurant. A painting on the wall for example. It has no meaning to me, but it is a nice picture. If I didn't take the picture, I would feel extreme anxiety and distress, like I would never be able to let go if I didn't take the picture. Now, with CBT it has gotten better. I don't take a lot of photo's. But I still have difficulties in settings that are important to me, like the school of my children. If there's a nice drawing on the wall in the kindergarden class of my youngest, I'm doubting if I should take a picture of it. I'm wondering if this is something that people do? Taking pictures of a classroom (or something in it) because they like the setting /item or because it is meaningful for them because it's a huge part of their childrens life. I'm inclined to think that's another compulsion. I can't stop thinking about it and that's not normal right? (Excuse me for my English, it isn't my native language.