Did you add the Select() after the Where() or before?
You should add it after, because of the concurrency logic:
1 Take the entire table
2 Filter it accordingly
3 Select only the ID's
4 Make them distinct.
If you do a Select first, the Where clause can only contain the ID attribute because all other attributes have already been edited out.
Update: For clarity, this order of operators should work:
db.Items.Where(x=> x.userid == user_ID).Select(x=>x.Id).Distinct();
Probably want to add a .toList() at the end but that's optional :)